ACW342 (#1),
...after pilots try various methods of trying to kill you...
No doubt about it, you were in an exposed and hazardous position. After all, 75 ft from the runway edge is well within the "margin of error" of most 'Bloggs', and as I have previously noted here somewhere: "the sight of a Hastings on approach coming at you in a bumpy crosswind, wallowing about like a galleon in a heavy sea, is enough to make the stoutest heart quail". No surprise that the weaker brethren ran for their lives, or sought refuge under the caravan !
Yet I believe there were remarkably few collisions (wasn't there a Vulcan crash which wrote off the caravan
en passant, as it were ?) To balance that, you saved many an aircraft from disaster by spotting "something wrong" when they were stationary at Marshalling point outside your door. The fact that you sometimes raised 'false alarms' was accepted as normal by all sensible pilots, who appreciated that you were only trying to help them, if only mistakenly.
As I have told you in response to your PM, we lectured our baby Controllers at Shawbury thus; "Your Corporal in the caravan is a pain in the bum to you 364 days in the year. On the 365th, he is worth his weight in gold !" - he is the Local Controller's "long-stop": the best of us make mistakes, a second pair of eyes is always valuable, and sometimes priceless.
"Electric Kettles and Air Con" - where did you get the power from ? Obviously the site was wired up, but as you had to change ends with the runway you would have to break the connection (and pull up an earthing spike) every time. Stirs memories of the old MPN-1 "Bendix" GCA trucks, mostly self contained with their own diesel-electric sets, but some (never met one myself) reliant on the dreaded "100 Amp Socket", lying balefully in the wet grass, waiting for some unsuspecting new Radar mech to plug in his Hundred Amp Plug (and producing a dazzling pyrotechnic display and a bit of a tingle even if he were wearing rubber gloves and gum boots). As with the old radars, the very first Vital Action (after you'd got power) was to Put the Kettle On, and brew-up !
Needless to say, in Shawbury's "Mock Control" scenarios, you could always rely on the "Runway Controller" to but in at some point to try to throw the wretched student "off his stride", as it were. Added to the realism.
Surprised to hear that you got no formal training for the job (and certainly no extra pay). It was like the "Tracker" in the old MPN-1 Bendix GCA, who was doing every bit as skilled and as responsible work as the (officer) Talkdown beside whom (and feeding Glide Path information to) he sat in the Truck. They were (in my day) just ATC Assistants who learned "on the job".
Could go on for ages, but you'll have plenty more Posts on this, I'd think.
Cheers, Danny.