Danny Goes Back to School
There was only one Truck and so only one Talkdown position at Sleap. It must have been one-to-one instruction for that. As there are two Director positions in it, they could take two F/Sgts at a time and, IIRC, they were instructed in the basic way of operation, ie a Search and a Feed Director working as a team to present the next headache to the unfortunate in the Hot Seat. In practice, of course, when they returned to their Units, in almost every case, Approach (using the CR/DF) would replace the Search Director.
Now at some time in the past, I've said that they also trained Trackers, but now I'm not so sure. I don't remember any instruction going on at my left elbow, more likely there was just a Staff Tracker (and the limited space in the truck was already packed to bursting). It follows that Trackers must all have been trained "on the Job" at Units. Obviously a SATCO would pick his brightest ATC Assistants for the job.
Now who did the training ? I certainly don't remember doing it. One of the F/Sgts, perhaps ? As I've already shown, it was an extremely important task and I reckon was certainly worth Corporal (as was the Runway Controller already), but I don't think they even got any extra pay. (If any survive - and they would be 10-12 years my junior - and are reading this, please let us know).
Guessing, I would say that we must have been divided into two groups: each group doing "Ground School" at Shawbury in the mornings and Practical at Sleap in the afternoons, and changing over weekly. At Shawbury we were introduced to the Principles of Radar, our heads and notebooks stuffed with all sorts of weird creatures: Klystrons and Magnetrons, Pulse Widths and Pulse Recurrence Rates, Lobes, Waveguides, "Skip" Distances, Ground Returns and "Ghosts", and Lord knows what else besides, only imperfectly understood then and now long forgotten. Was there an End of Course Exam ? Can't remember one. Of course the MPN-1 was the 'only Truck in town' then: they just taught that.
At Sleap, the Chipmunks had great sport with us. They put up two or three at a time to trap the Directors into 'MisIdents'. A good trick was for two to hide behind the Wrekin, No.1 going in from the West, No.2 from the East. As soon as they knew they were out of (radar) sight, they did quick 180s and came out t'other way. Director (handling No.1) would pick up his chap (as he thought) on the same heading as that on which he'd gone in. All this was mixed in with whatever else Shawbury had flying around. How we laughed !
Over the Talkdowns it is better to draw a veil. Suffice to say that many ended with the classic despairing line: "Look around for the runway and crash visually - Talkdown out !"
The mornings turned frosty. One morning I had to use boiling water on my frozen car door lock. But generally I took the bus; so still the daily rush over the little footbridge. Sometimes a pair of sculls from Shrewsbury School, sometimes a swan or two at full bore, paddling and flapping frantically to get lift-off, succeeding and instantly reverting to the beautiful thing it had been on the water.
Peter went AWOL two or three times. Each time his little elastic collar ensured that he was promptly handed in to the Law. Our local 'bobby' (there were such things in those days, believe it or not) brought him home on each occasion. He made no attempt to evade arrest, but settled down comfortably in the crook of the constable's arm much as he had done in mine when I first chucked him out of church. Luckily we came back to Mablethorpe before he outstayed his welcome at the Police Station (yes, we had one of those, as well).
"Oh, you're back, are you ?", said Boss Norcross "About time, too".
G'day, chaps,
Danny42C
Nice to know you've been missed !