I can remember very few names from my Strubby days. In the Tower there was S/Ldr Norcross, the SATCO. John Henderson, who had been in ATC at Weston Zoyland while I was there, (and after retirement was SATCO at Teesside Airport when I was at Leeming).
"Vin" Harvey was my "oppo", (worth ˝d a mile to me as a passenger home/duty when I took the car to Strubby). All of us were ex-war, John and I had been pilots, Norcross was a nav, and Vin was a Wop/Ag (I think).
Of the AFS Instructors, I only remember the name of "Paddy" Hine, who would go on to greater things. Among our Mablethorpe friends were Frank Venn, who instructed on the Canberras, and Jimmy Maxwell, an ex-Pathfinder pilot now on the Lincolns at Manby.
Poor Vin had been a F/O for as long as he could remember, for Examination "B" was far beyond his powers. He looked like staying at that rank until retiring, and there were many like him. As a family man, life was pretty spartan on his pay. In a rare rush of generosity to the head, however, the RAF relented and allowed all those over a certain age to be deemed to have passed "B". Vin put up the second ring, and went out and bought fillet steak for dinner.
Then as now, birds were a constant flying hazard. At Strubby we were particularly plagued with crows, and it would have been amusing (if it were not so annoying) to see how quickly these highly intelligent creatures shrugged off our countermeasures. We tried broadcasting recorded alarm calls, they treated them with contempt. Limited success for a short time came from a sort of anti-bird "flak".
A Verey cartridge propelled a little packet of fused gunpowder some 50 feet into the air, where it went off with a very loud bang and a puff of white smoke. I forget what we called it. But as there could be no shrapnel with it, there was no harm in it, it was just a frightener: the crows soon worked that out. And the cartridges must have been very expensive, so they were rarely used.
A cheaper and more effective idea was a two-foot length of slow-burning fuse rope with a big "banger" firework every three inches or so (called ?). As the fuse burned along, you got a bang about every twenty minutes (presumably on the supposition that the crows had forgotten about the last one by then, so they got a new fright). At first, the rope was simply laid on the grass, but if that had grown a bit, the explosions were muffled - but still enough to frighten the ###t out of any mushroomer who was collecting nearby, for of course you couldn't "switch off" the fuse at the end of the day.
Mod No.1 was a two-foot stake in the ground, and fasten the the fuse up to that. This worked well for quite a while, then the crows grew
blasé again. Time for Mod.2: two foot-long, inch-wide strips of alloy were dangled from the top of the stake; when a firework went off the blast flung these up and jangled them about for several seconds after. This was a new one on the crows, and really shook them for quite some time (and besides the "chimes" also rang in the breeze).
One day, things were quiet, one of these stakes was about 50 yards in front of the Tower. A large crow had perched on top of the stake, the better to view his surroundings without having to take the trouble to fly..... This should be funny, we got the binoculars out.
The awaited explosion came, the chimes clattered. Our crow flapped his wings a couple of times, issued a derisive caw -
but didn't even move off his perch ! Local Controller, who had the binoculars, swore that he lifted two single claws in our direction, but I find that difficult to believe. (Crows 1, ATC 0). We retired defeated from the field.
Of course, these were all pointless exercises, the crows didn't go away, but just moved to another part of the airfield, where they would be just as much of a nuisance. Having said that, I do not recall an ingested crow case ever - they seem to have the sense to keep out of an aircraft's way. It seems (Wiki) that one of the collectives of crows is a "murder" of crows; you can look up the reference, it's quite interesting.
In the end, the only real answer is the falcon, and falcon plus falconer is a pricey item, and the falcon itself is a hazard. Artificial falcons (kites) have been tried, I believe. And how about a radio controlled model aircraft dressed up as a falcon ? You could organise a volunteer body of Air Training Corps Cadets, on a rota of a day off school in turn. They'd jump at it, you'd give them a games console of some sort to control the "falcon" from Local, and when they grew up there's a new Trade all ready for them in the RAF.... Can't be bad ?
This suggestion is offered
gratis to MOD (but a MBE would be nice, and a suitable financial reward even nicer, but will not hold my breath, as it might be fatal at my age).
Goodnight, chaps,
Danny42C
Strictly for the birds !