Morning,
Danny42C. I hope folks will excuse us nattering here?
I was on 132 Joint ATC Course in Apr/May 1965, and 211 Radar Approach Course in Nov/Dec 66. As the system was then, you did the basic JATCC which covered Approach (DF) and Local and then on graduation headed off for your first appointment. After a year or so working in Local and Approach (DF) you returned to the School to do the "Big Boys" Radar Course. Subsequently (in 1968) the JATCC and RAC courses were combined and students went through the full spectrum of professional training before graduating. Don't remember you, I regret: my RAC Course Commander was Harry Talton, and one instructor was Fg Off Graham Wood (later Air Cdre and AOC MATO) with whom I had some lively arguments.
Apart from classroom work, practical training was an odd mix of the Simulators at Shawbury (based on the Cossor 787, the one with a rheostat for the range rings that could give them showing every mile on the display*, and the SLA3D PAR.) Then Sleap had the two MPN11/CPN4 Trucks (Red and Black) working live traffic (Vampires and Piston Provosts, flown by Marshall's pilots) which were pointed at simulated runways on the now disused airfield. Both trucks were parked just in front of the old Control Tower. So the training was a mix of equipments and simulated/live traffic. Of course [ooops] if you were going to a unit with different equipment then you would have to learn on the job - I managed to avoid that ACR-7C abortion, fortunately!
How the School managed its instructors is, of a course, beyond my ken. Did some just do Sleap/trucks and the others do Shawbury/simulators?
* That's where Graham and I clashed, as he insisted on me working on the Sim with range rings showing every mile. I pointed out I was going back to an MPN11 unit where only 5 mile rings were available, so there was no point (from my POV) of getting used to having the display cluttered up with rings I would never see or use again.
** It was on my RAC that I managed to have a Mess Bill bigger than my plt off's Pay Statement. The numbers are forever burned in my memory … £54/12/6 vs. £52/10/0
