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Membership Rules

Club Rules & Policies

General

  1. Membership is open to anyone who uses one of the Microsoft Flight Simulator family or X-Plane. Membership of the commercial organisation
    CIX By way of explanation - CIX was, at the dawn of the Internet age called Compulink Information EXchange, and was a free to use Conferencing system, similar to forums and long before the days of Social Media. Over the years it has developed as the World Wide Web has developed, and running forums is now only a part of its current commercial existence. This Club was founded by members of the original CIX Flight Simulator Conference, and uses the name CIX with permission.
    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 one of the following on-line Virtual Air Traffic Control organisations,
    1. VATSIM
    2. IVAO
  3. Applicants must provide the following information with their application: -
    1. Their real name,
    2. A valid email address,
    3. If a member of VATSIM, their VATSIM ID number, and
    4. If a member of IVAO, their IVAO ID number
    5. 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 and Rule 16 and/or Rule 17 below.
  7. Full Members must take part in at least one Club Flight, as defined in Rule 16 below, or or file a COREP, as defined in Rule 17 below, every three calendar months.
  8. 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.
  9. Associate members who do not visit the forum at least once in any rolling 12 month period will be registered as dormant and will need to reapply for active membership. An email will be sent to their registered email address advising them that they will become dormant on a date included in the email.  If no reply is received within 14 days from that date, their membership will be made dormant.
  10. Lapsed members may apply to rejoin the Club at any time. Where possible, their earlier recorded Club activity may be restored, but this cannot be guarranteed.
  11. Flights may be conducted under Visual Flight Rules (VFR) or Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) as the pilot wishes. Flights in Controlled Airspace must take place in accordance with the ICAO regulations in force for that airspace.
  12. Full Membership status will be reviewed each month. Full members who have not complied with the requirements of Rule 7 will revert to Associate Member status until they again fulfil those requirements.
  13. All members must comply with the rules of VATSIM or IVAO, as required under the terms of their memberships of those organisations; 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, IVAO or other bodies, including the required comment in flight plans (see Rule 16 below). Abbreviations to "CIX" or CIX VFR" are not approved by the Club.

Pilots

Members who wish to fly as pilots in Club activities must adhere to the following rules.

  1. A recognised Club Flight for the purposes of Rule 7 must be conducted in  a "Light Aircraft" as defined below, except where specific permission has been given by the Club Management for a heavier category aircraft to be flown for special reasons,
    and must meet at least one of the following requirements: -
    1. Be flown on either of the online networks VATSIM or IVAO networks, or connected to the JoinFS multiplayer platform.
    2. Be a training flight, flown offline in shared cockpit mode, or connected to the JoinFS multiplayer platform, with a Club Qualified Instructor.
    3. Be a 2-4-CIX Display flight flown with other members of 2-4-CIX in a Multiplayer Session or on VATSIM or on IVAO, or connected to the JoinFS multiplayer platform.
    4. Be a 2-4-CIX Training flight flown with other members of 2-4-CIX in a Multiplayer Session or on VATSIM or on IVAO, or connected to the JoinFS multiplayer platform.
    5. Be any other flight for which express prior permission has been given by the Chief Flying Instructor that it may be recorded as a qualifying Club Flight. A brief reason for the granted permission must be included in the comments box of the submitted PIREP.
      6. In addition: -
    6. For flights connected to VATSIM or IVAO, the Flight Plan must include the precise text "CIX VFR CLUB" in the comments section of the VATSIM or IVAO flight plan, in addition to any other necessary text, and
    7. The flight must be entered in the Club Pilot Reports (PIREP) system with the appropriate "Flight Category" (See the Pilot Reports page, Rule 4).
    8.   For flights on JoinFS, or flights for which an exception permission has been given in accordance with 16e above, Pilots should include the purpose of the flight in the Comments box of the PIREP form.

 

 

Controllers

  1. Members who wish to provide Air Traffic Control (ATC) services for Club activities must adhere to the following rules.
    1. If they hold a VATSIM or IVAO Controller rating, must provide an Air Traffic Control service on those platforms in accordance with their Controller rating.
    2. If not qualified as in 17a above, shall either
      1. create a Controller position using Euroscope and JoinFS (ESJFS), or
      2. create a Controller position on the Club TeamSpeak VOIP server(see below)
      for the period during which Club pilots are active, such as during Events and Weekly meetings published on the website or in the Club Forum.
    3. The ATC session must be entered in the Club Controller Report (COREP) system for the period during which Club pilots are active as in 17b above. (See the Controller Reports page, Rule 4)
    4. If ATC was provided using ESJFS or ONLY Club Teamspeak, the purpose of the session should be noted in the COREP remarks, e.g. "Pilot training"; "Club Star Event".
    5. Controllers using ESJFS should enter the ATC position/service provided for the session, e.g. "Approach", "Tower", Ground".

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, 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.
  17. Termination of Forum membership for breaches of the above rules will also automatically terminate membership of the Club.

TeamSpeak VOIP Server

  1. All members will be permitted to use the Club's TeamSpeak 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. John Smith G-ABCD.
  4. Members must not divulge the TeamSpeak password to non-members or invite non-members onto the Club's TeamSpeak server. Members breaching this rule may be removed from the Club forthwith.
  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.

What is a Light Aircraft?

Light Aircraft are listed by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) a list can be downloaded by searching online for "EASA Product List".

For club purposes, a Light Aircraft is defined as follows: -

  1. Aeroplanes and helicopters in the normal, utility and aerobatic categories that have a seating configuration, excluding the pilot seat(s), of nine or fewer and a maximum certificated takeoff weight of 5670 kg (12 500 lb) or less; and
  2. Twin engined aeroplanes in the commuter category that have a seating configuration, excluding the pilot seat(s), of nineteen or fewer and a maximum certificated takeoff weight of 8618 kg (19 000lbs or less).

The Club's definition is very similar to the European Union Aviation Safety Authority EASA-CS23 and Federal Aviation Authority FAR23 definitions which can be found online by searching for ESA-CS23 and FAR23 respectively.