Jolly Jack.
John Reynolds was a strange sort of character, a very intense, serious man. He never smiled and was as a result was known as ‘Jolly Jack’ Reynolds. He was impossible to work with. I used to hate working on his sector. He would question every action the assistant did. There was always an unpleasant atmosphere on the sector when he was around. How he was allowed to get away with it I don’t know. His fellow Chiefs would just laugh and say, ‘Oh that’s just Jack being Jack. You’ll never change him’ I would have done if I wasn’t a lowly ATSA 3. Although he was valid on the radar, fortunately for the travelling public he rarely exercised the privileges of his radar validation. If it was quiet on a night shift he would have a go.
One night duty about two in the morning most of us were sat around reading, chatting or trying to doze. Jolly Jack was having a go at the radar. He had only two aircraft on frequency. Both low and slow freighters. One was flying from Bristol to Amsterdam the other coming down from Birmingham to Paris. They were both at Flight Level 90. Unfortunately they estimated to be overhead Woodley at the same time. We pointed out this potential problem to Jolly Jack and he said he would keep an eye on it. The easy answer was to climb or descend one of the aircraft a thousand feet. Problem solved. Now the radar displays were horizontal and were ideal for sitting your coffee cup on. Jolly Jack had bought in a flask of coffee and poured himself a cup and sat the cup on the radar right over Woodley. Suddenly a shout went up, ‘John don’t forget the two nines at Woodley !!’ we all looked at the radar and the two aircraft were just disappearing under the cup both at the same height. It was too late to do anything. Nobody dare move the cup. We all sat speechless for thirty seconds then both aircraft reappeared from under the cup having passed each other. The pilots said nothing.
On another occasion he placed his Tupperware sandwich box on the radar screen. An aeroplane called him. Its route would take it under the box. Having learnt a lesson from his airmiss at Woodley he was more cautious. This time he vectored the aircraft around the Tupperware box giving the pilot a series of headings to fly. The pilot never queried the headings probably thinking he was being kept clear of other aircraft. It never occurred to Jolly Jack to simply move the box.
C.
Last edited by Mr_Grubby; 11th April 2009 at 17:48.