General

1. Membership is open to anyone who uses Microsoft Flight Simulator or X-Plane. Membership of Collaborative Information Xchange (CIX) itself is not a requirement.
2. To be eligible for CIX VFR Club membership, (see Rule 3 below), applicants will need to have registered with the on-line Virtual Air Traffic Control organisation, VATSIM.
3. Applicants must provide, as a minimum, their real name, a valid email address, their VATSIM ID number and their normal country of residence. Other optional information will be requested when the applicant receives their initial response from the Membership Secretary.
4. There will be two categories of membership - Full and Associate.
5. A member's Membership Category will be granted only by the Membership Secretary, and cannot be assumed by a member until confirmed by the Club.
6. New Members will be granted Associate Member status until they have taken part in a Club flight, after which they will be promoted to Full Membership. Full Membership status remains as long as they comply with Rule 7 & Rule 12 below.
7. Full Members must take part in at least one Club flight per year. At the Club's sole discretion, Full Member status may be granted to an Associate Member who is a regular contributor to club Forum discussions, or who makes a significant contribution to the facilities enjoyed by other members. This could be the provision of special scenery, aircraft repaints, etc.
8. Flights may be conducted under Visual Flight Rules (VFR) or Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) as the pilot wishes but with the following condition: - "Any flight in which any part of that flight is conducted in Class A airspace is not permitted to be recorded as a Club Flight with the exception of any Class A Airspace where Special VFR flight (SVFR) is permitted, e.g. the Jersey Control Area. The text "CIX VFR Club" must be entered in the comments section of the VATSIM flight plan, in addition to any other necessary text."
9. A recognised Club Flight for the purposes of Rule 7 & Rule 12 must be conducted in an ICAO defined Light Category aircraft, except where specific permission has been given by the Club committee for a heavier category aircraft to be flown for special reasons, and must be: -
   1. A flight on a regular Club night at one of our operating bases, lasting at least 15 minutes, including at least one take off and landing under Air Traffic Control from an on line service, or
   2. A flight conducted as part of one of the Club's published events, or
   3. A flight to one of the monthly Guest Airfields promulgated on the Forum, or
   4. A Flight which is not a Club event, nor conducted at one of the Club's operating bases, but is a flight in which they have entered the text "CIX VFR Club" in their flight plan in addition to any other necessary text.
10. Only Club Flights as defined in Rule 8 & Rule 9 above are eligible to be entered in the Club Pilot Records (PIREP) system.
11. Associate membership will be given to anyone who wishes to maintain contact with the club, but is unable to take part in Club activities for any reason.
12. Full Membership status will be reviewed each month.
    • Members who have made a Club Flight (as defined in Rule 9) and recorded it in the Club Pilot Records (PIREP) system. within the last twelve months, will be automatically renewed as full members.
    • Members who have not taken part in and recorded at least one Club flying activity in the previous twelve months, nor been active in other ways (see Rule 7 above) will revert to Associate Member status.
13. All members must comply with the rules of VATSIM and the Internet.
14. Copyright of any files made available for download from the Club web site or the Forum remains the property of the author, unless otherwise stated. Members must not make copyrighted material available for download unless they own the copyright or have the written consent from the owner of the copyrighted material.
15. Members must always use the Club's full name "CIX VFR Club" in any communication with VATSIM or other bodies, including the required comment in flight plans (see Rule 8 above). Abbreviations to "CIX" or CIX VFR" are not approved by the Club.

Version 5.0 07/05/2010

Club Forum

All members will be permitted to use the Club's Discussion Forum subject to the following rules:

1. Members must register with their full name.
2. The Forum is moderated, and posts may be withdrawn or moved to more relevant topics at the moderators' sole discretion.
3. Members agree, through their use of the forum, that they will not post any material which is false, defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, adult material, or otherwise in violation of any International or United States Federal law.
4. Members agree, through their use of the forum, not to post any copyrighted material unless they own the copyright or have written consent from the owner of the copyrighted material.
5. Spam, flooding, advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, and solicitations are forbidden on the forum.
6. Posted messages are not actively monitored. The administrators and moderators of the forum are therefore unable to confirm the validity of posts and are not responsible for the content contained within and do not warrant the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information presented.
7. Posted messages express the views of the author, and not necessarily the views of the forum owner, administrators and moderators.
8. Anyone who feels that a posted message is objectionable is encouraged to notify an administrator or moderator of the forum immediately.
9. The administrators and moderators and the owner of the forum reserve the right to remove objectionable content, within a reasonable time frame, if they determine that removal is necessary. This is a manual process, however, so they may not be able to remove or edit particular messages immediately. This policy applies to member profile information as well.
10. Members remain solely responsible for the content of their posted messages. Furthermore, they agree to indemnify and hold harmless the owners of the forum, any related websites to the forum, administrators and moderators, and its subsidiaries.
11. The owners of the forum reserve the right to reveal a member's identity (or any other related information collected on this service) in the event of a formal complaint or legal action arising from any situation caused by a member's use of the forum.
12. At registration, members may choose their own username. We advise that you keep the name appropriate.
13. By registering with the Forum, members agree to never give out their password to another person except an administrator, for their protection and for validity reasons. It is HIGHLY recommended that members use a complex and unique password for their account, to prevent account theft.
14. Members must NEVER use another person's account for any reason.
15. After registration and first login to the forum, members may complete a detailed profile. It is the member's responsibility to present clean and accurate information. Any information the forum owner, administrators or moderators or staff determines to be inaccurate or vulgar in nature will be removed, with or without prior notice.
16. The Club Management Team reserves the right to terminate the Forum membership of any member who is in breach of these rules, at their sole discretion.

TeamSpeak VOIP Server

1. All members will be permitted to use the Club's Teampeak Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) server.
2. Members will be given a user name and password by the TeamSpeak server administrator.
3. Members must use their full name as their Nickname. Their normal aircraft registration may be added if desired,
     e.g. Peter Dodds G-GYAV.
4. The Club ATC Rooms are to be used as described in the table below.
5. Inappropriate, abusive or disruptive use of the facility including false, defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, adult material, canvassing, promotion, commercial advertising, or otherwise in violation of any International or United States Federal law or any content deemed to be irrelevant or detrimental to the Club; or personal attacks on other members, will result in immediate cancellation of Club membership and removal from the Club's TeamSpeak server at the administrators' sole discretion.

Airfield Room - departure and arrival

If there is a VATSIM ATC service available, i.e. Tower or Approach, or both, you must use those channels for your ATC communications. This is not only a Club rule, but a VATSIM rule. If there is no manned ATC station at either your departure airfield or your arrival airfield, proceed as follows: -

1. Check and look around to see if there is other traffic at or near the airfield.
2. Try to identify if any other aircraft at or near the airfield are Club members or not.
3. Monitor Unicom (tune 122.80 on your Comm radio) and watch for text messages on your FSInn or Squawkbox screen).
4. If departing, type an initial message on Unicom stating your departure and arrival airfields, your route, time of departure, ETA, altitude and including the phrase "VFR". You can do this before takeoff.
5. If arriving, try to type a brief message to draw attention to yourself, such as: "EGBJ joining from south".
6. If there are other aircraft at or near the airfield, who are unrecognised as Club members, you should try to type further brief Unicom reports, e.g. "txyng to A1 for 27 dep", "rolling", "airborne", "en route hdg 120", "inbound ETA 5 m", "dnwnd", "final 24". Each of these should start with the airfield ICAO code letters.
7. Use the Airfield TeamSpeak room to state your intentions to other Club members using voice in the form (e.g.) "Popham traffic G-ABCD taxying to hold alpha 1 for runway 26 departure, Popham". (Start and end each transmission with the airfield name as illustrated).
8. Item g) is of course not necessary if you are alone in the room, but do please stay in the room during departure and arrival in case anyone else comes in.

En Route Room - flying between airfields

If there is en route VATSIM ATC available, such as London Information or one of the area radar services, you must use those channels for your ATC communications. This is not only a Club rule, but a VATSIM rule. If there is no en route ATC available, or a controller declines to offer a service, pilots should proceed as follows:

1. Monitor Unicom at all times during the flight (tune 122.80 on your Comm radio) and watch for text messages on your FSInn or Squawkbox screen.
2. Type brief position reports on Unicom at each waypoint such as: "over sevenoaks, next tunbridge at 15", where "15" means 15 minutes past the hour. (Your callsign will be included automatically as the source of the message.)
3. Use the Enroute TeamSpeak room to state your intentions to others in the room in the form "En route <departure airfield> to <arrival airfield> position heading altitude, VFR, ETA at destination" in other words the CEPHACER call.
4. Continue to provide brief position reports in the TeamSpeak room at each waypoint, such as: "GGYAV overhead Severn Bridge estimate Kemble at 05", where "05" means five minutes past the hour.
5. Items c) and d) are of course not necessary if you are alone in the room, but do please stay in the room while en route in case anyone else comes in. Other members may spot you online and decide to fly nearby.