Hello
Danny42C … you called? Before I respond to your request, I should note that Toad is also the term used by the denizens of an adjacent Island to describe Jerseymen (we are called "Crapauds", they are "Donkeys")
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.
Let’s see. I left OCTU on 1 Apr 65, after which I think I had a week’s leave and then pottered slowly from Surrey up to Shawbury, breaking my journey in Stratford-on-Avon as I wasn’t convinced my old Ford Popular would do the journey in one go! On arrival I was told that the course wouldn’t be starting for another couple of weeks, and that I could head back home on leave. Nice bit of admin: well done Shawbury/Feltwell! The idea of using up 2 weeks leave, and moving back in with my parents, was too much to bear … so i volunteered to stay and help with the ATC Camps which were being held at the time.
That would mean the course started around the end of April. However, we Direct Entry total newbie A/POs started off by doing the initial 2 weeks of the airmen’s Assistant Air Traffic Controller course, in a mixed classroom environment. I guess this was part instruction, part indoctrination, and at least got us all speaking the language of ATC. As an aside … I had previously been a Civil ATC Assistant at London Centre, Heathrow, and for one of the lectures on Civil ATC our Sgt Instructor asked me to conduct it, saying I probably knew more about it than he did!
So, by my reckoning, we started the journey proper in mid-May, and graduated on 27 Aug (thank you, RAF F5994). That seems to be 16 weeks, which appears long - perhaps we also had some leave in the middle?
And did two or more Courses run concurrently, or was it just one at a time? How many on one Course?
I’m almost certain that the Courses overlapped. As one course moved up to the Advanced simulators, Live Tower (Local) and more demanding exercises, the next lot arrived to start the grind of classroom lectures and the Basic sims (the CRDF trainers, and doing “Local” whilst looking at a static model of an airfield!).
For course numbers and composition, I refer to the outstanding (but private) “ATC Old & Bold” photo library, which inter alia contains the Joint ATC Course photos from the 1950s to July 1968! Course sizes seem to be around 18-24, although there are a few exceptions with around a dozen. My course (132) seems fairly typical of the time - looks like 6 wartime aircrew, 6 post-war aircrew, 8 A/POs, 1 Mid RN, 1 Sgt AATC and 2 Sudanese Officer Cadets. And the Course Coordinator you referred to (The Admiral) was Lt Cdr Tim Derrick (see photo below).
Chief Instructor at the time was Wg Cdr G A L Elliot, of whom I have no recollection whatsoever, and the Stn Cdr was Gp Capt A F Wallace CBE DFC who I seem to recall was a bit of a Tartar.
* Source CATCS 25th Anniversary Handbook, 1975.
As it’s
my course, and I have the photo, I feel able to post it here
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?).
That sounds familiar, although certainly the pattern rotated. I vividly remember our little band of A/POs being inspected one morning in the DF Sim by Flt Lt Nat Tranter, who wished to ensure we had clean collars and polished buttons. We were told to ensure that our batman had polished them properly!! (We were accommodated 2 to a room in those days)
Did we issue Lecture Notes? (if so, have you by any remote chance still got yours?).
I have a distant memory of a yellowish hardback binder, with those annoying little brass screws, filling up with foolscap sheets of nasty fluffy cheap paper run off a Gestetner machine! But that document is sadly gone, and we of course had to return our copies of AP3024 on departure. I do believe my wife still has her Admin (Sec) course material - how sad is that?
Finally, a note or two on other individuals you mentioned:
Dear Bob Warwick moved on to be DSATCO at Tengah when I got there in Sep 67, and ended up in later years as a disturbingly stout wg cdr. So Shawbury was not a career impediment in his case - indeed, subsequently
very few ATCOs reached wg cdr without having been on the staff at CATCS. Indeed, I can only think of one during my time. Perhaps Harry T's research paid off?
The Met Man I remember vividly, as he had a strong accent/impediment. Some giggling ensued when he referred to “low claaaaads all over the graaaaaand”.
