As I sense my faithful readership becoming restive and inclined to drift away, we'll return to that Fountain of All Wisdom and ATC Knowledge which is wedged between Grins Hill and the Wrekin in the fair county of Shropshire (and then return to our ongoing enjoyable
craic).
We had contact with friends at RAF Shawbury; the Venns (whom we'd known at Strubby and Mablethorpe), booked us into a local pub, but we found a better place, and after about a week moved out to the Tern Hill Hall. Comfortable and good food, (but "Sally" managed to get into mortal combat with the hotel dog).
BTW,
what could Frank Venn have possibly been doing at Shawbury ? A S/Ldr when we caught up with them at Wildenrath in '61 (he'd been an A1 QFI on Canberras with the Empire Flying College at Manby/Strubby), he must have been on a Canberra Sqdn in RAF(G). But there were no Canberras at Shawbury, only the CATCS, Marshall's Vampires and Piston Provosts (mechanical mice for the GCA School), and a Javelin MU.
Now I've already said that, as we slowly grow closer to the end of my story, my memory does not get better (as you might expect). For a start, what did I
teach at Shawbury ? Much the same as I'd been taught there myself ten years before (IIRC). So what was that ? Can't really remember much any more.
But I know we have at least two colleagues on this Thread who (I hope) may now come forward and help me out, for they
must have Sought Enlightenment at our Seat of Learning between late '64 and autumn '67, when I (among others) did our best to provide it. For:
"The toad beneath the Harrow knows/Exactly where each toothpoint goes".
We have two (metaphorical) Toads. So I call on
MPN11 (#4088 p.205). And
HughGw01, who said (#4101 p.206):
"I recall being taken to Teesside for a liaison visit in an elderly Peugeot" [it was mine !!]
"with an electric clutch and shown the repaired hole in the OM wall" (this relates to the well known story of the Middleton Ghost, amply covered in previous Posts).
How much of the lecture syllabus, our Mock CR/DFs, the Mock Control Room and the "Mentoring" system do you remember ? In particular:
How long was the ATC Course (excluding the GCA part) ? It had been 13 weeks in my time in '55, but could have been extended by '64. And did two or more Courses run concurrently, or was it just one at a time ? How many on one Course ?
How were your days split up (lectures in the mornings: practical - Mock Control Room and CR/DF simulator in the afternoons - week and week about ?). Did we issue Lecture Notes ? (if so, have you by any remote chance still got yours ?)
That'll do to be going on with. Now, for my part, what do
I remember ? There must have been a W/Cdr as O.C. of the whole school, but the ATC school had a Lt/Cmdr RN in Command, known to all and sundry as "The Admiral" (names long forgotten). Thinking hard about the Instructor's Common Room on the first floor of the School building, there might have been fifteen or twenty desks - so I suppose that many Instructors. The majority were old-time aircrew like myself, but we had at least a couple of post-war younger aircrew entrants. I don't think we had any direct-entry ATC people yet - it was too early for them to have gained the experience. All of us were Flt.Lts. - there were no RN instructors in my time.
One ex-aircrew was Bob Warwick (RIP), a pilot who'd flown Hunters on 20 (?) Sqdn in Hong Kong, the other was Harry T., a Nav (not sure what on). They'd come in IIRC, on some sort of
sub rosa deal which promised them early promotion in the Branch if they settled in successfully. This did not go down too well among the others, who naturally were not happy with these ready-made "Crown Princes" (and in fact, Harry, whose desk had been back-to-back with mine, would reappear as my SATCO in '68 at Leeming).
But Harry had done some very interesting statistical research. He'd found that the odds on promotion to S/Ldr in the ATC Branch were
worse for people who'd done a tour on the School as Instructors than for those who hadn't. This was obviously wrong: I believe Harry put his findings up, and something (I hope) was done about it.
There were, of course "specialist" Instructors: a Nav to teach Navigation, a Met Man for Meteorology, and a Civil ATC Controller to keep us up to date on
their procedures. He had his own office, and was always referred to by initials, as his Department was always changing its name. So he became, variously "CATCO" (Civil ATC), "MOALO" (Ministry of Aviation Liaison Officer) and "CLO" (Civil Liaison Officer). The system broke down a little when the Board of Trade took over Civil ATC, and he was dubbed "The Bottle-O !"
Much more to come, Goodnight, all.
Danny 42C.
"What's in a name ? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet"