LATCC West Drayton

[DC10RealMan]

I heard a story that in the 1960s when the site of the new ATC Centre was being chosen the senior RAF officer who made the decision chose West Raynham but was mis-heard by his Secretary who was a little hard of hearing as West Drayton.

Does anyone know if this is true and if it isn't it should be because it is a great story and it would explain one or two things.

[kcockayne]

I heard this too, but I don't know the truth of it. It could just be ATC humour !

[ZOOKER]

I heard that someone on a course, who had been posted to LATCC, thought it was a village on the South Coast. LATCY?

[DC10RealMan]

Personally I would rather have gone to West Raynham.

[Brian 48nav]

I heard the story as two sites were being considered, Market Drayton and West Raynham - and the inevitable happened! What a bl**dy dump West Drayton was, I hated every minute I spent there. If LATCC had been built on any of the sites out in the sticks that NATS owned I probably would never have gone on 'my travels'!

[Lon More]

Agreed Brian. The site was previously a prison I believe (or was that another joke). Just swapped one set of bars for another. The delights of sitting on the flight plan suite in the Ops room on nights watching couples having it off up the closes between the Council Houses over the street.

I heard the story back in the 1960s so it's nothing new.

What a brilliantly stupid decision. The Air Defence Headquarters for the country co-existant, in a soft building about 8 km due North of Heathrow. Would have been almost impossible for the Russians to find it. Later I remember seeing bunkers placed along the front, obviously to deter the IRA hoying hand grenades through the windows

BTW it would have been planned back in the 50s)

[DC10RealMan]

Market Drayton would have been even better than West Raynham.

[sambatc]

You can't be serious. Have you been to Market Drayton?

[DC10RealMan]

Yes, but you could have lived in leafy Cheshire in places such as Nantwich or in Shropshire.

[63000 Triple Zilch]

Much as I like the idea of working at either West Raynham or Market Drayton I fear that this is just an urban myth. Having joined at West Drayton in 1972 there was a very good reason for its siting. The old radar station was on the north side of EGLL and the S264 radars were fed through heavy cabling to give an analogue picture, the old 10 mile wide blips! The new radar centre had to be within a few miles of Heathrow as the signal degraded significantly over distance due to cabling. Digital radar was a few years away. The first digitised radar at LATCC was from Burrington which came down telephone lines in 1973. Up until this time the centre had to be near the radar heads, West Raynham would have been too far away. However it is a very pleasant thought!!

[sambatc]

Yes...Good point DC10man

[Proletarian]

The selection of the run-down RAF station at West Drayton was no accident. The nucleus of the initial civil and military controllers that would man LATCC would move across from Heathrow Radar, so a site in the general vicinity was considered essential. Cost was as usual a major factor, so the whole place was built on the cheap, as anyone who ever worked there knows only too well. Thankfully the RAF were committed to LATCC development and were therefore not involved in the planning or anything else when the Swanwick plan got underway.

The Fighter Control element at West Drayton (Linesman) was essentially a trial of the system to see if it would work, so housing Linesman 1 (L1) in a bunker was considered unnecessary. If the Linesman concept actually worked, then Linesman 2 was planned to be installed at Bawburgh, an Sector Operations Centre R4 bunker in Norfolk. In the event the whole Linesman programme was a complete disaster and a colossal waste of money; consequently, it was effectively abandoned and the concept of the Master Radar station was introduced instead.

[Del Prado]

West Drayton was great! You could live in London or out in the Home Counties. Great transport links. Wherever you chose to live you made more on your house than you did as an ATCO.

I hate Hampshire!!

[Lon More]

Wherever you chose to live you made more on your house than you did as an ATCO.

To do that you've first got to get on the property ladder. That's becoming more and more difficult with the stupid prices asked for houses there.

[Del Prado]

Too true LM but it was a lot easier to get on the ladder 10 years ago when Drayton was in its death throes.
And I'll wager that every ATCO posted to West Drayton from at least the mid 80s onwards made a tidy sum on property, much more so than if LATCC had been in the Midlands or Norfolk. Or almost anywhere else in the country.

[Talkdownman]

I'll wager that every ATCO posted to West Drayton from at least the mid 80s onwards made a tidy sum on property
…er…I think you must mean 're-located'. Some of us were 'posted' across the A4, just for love...

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Most of the ATCOs I knew lived miles away from LATCC, including me!

[Wham Bam]

and I can certainly add that no, not every ATCO posted from the mid-80s made a tidy sum on property. Sweeping false statement :ugh:

[RedhillPhil]

My Pa was posted to West Drayton in the seventies - I'd left home by then. The family was quartered in Uxbridge.

[eastern wiseguy]

An old STPO at Aldergrove insisted on calling LATCC LAXEY. No amount of discussions would persuade her that LATCC was NOT situated on the Isle of Man.

[AyrTC]

STPO.Not heard that phrase for years. I must be getting old!

[chevvron]

In the 90s, we had several ATSAs at Farnborough who'd originally been STPOs.
When I was 'recruited' to be an ATCA by NATCS starting in early 1969, (I'd actually passed the interview in late 1967 but then there was a freeze on civil service recruiting with NATCS being part of the Board of Trade) I was told to report to West Drayton. On arrival that first day, I was amazed at the number of times we were asked to either 'go and have a cup of tea' or 'have you had a cup of tea?'
There were about 12 of us starting that day, and after we'd had a cup of tea, we were redirected to the LATCC Training Section which was in the old SATCC at Heathrow,(where the Compass Centre now stands) which still housed the radar part of LATCC - only the procedural side was at West Drayton. As I was still living with my parents in Chesham, Bucks, the journey to WD was an easy commute in 35-45 min. We spent a week at Heathrow, then went to the College of ATC at Hurn for our 4 week Initial ATCA Course.
I spent the following 8 months at WD, then went to the radar unit at Heathrow for training as a CCTV board assistant. 12 months later, in early 1971, I was on the watch which closed down the LATCC radar unit when Mediator Stage 1 commenced. In Sep 1971, I left LATCC to commence my ATCO Cadet course and I must say I enjoyed every minute I spent at WD. I did several liaison visits to WD between 1974 and 2006, my final experience of WD was to attend simulator training and famil with Thames Radar/SVFR prior to the introduction of the extended Farnborough LARS in 2007 when LACC had already moved out. Shortly after this of course, LTCC moved to Swanwick and WD closed.

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

When I was a lowly-paid clerk in the Min of Av in the early 1960s the white block on the north side of London Airport was always referred to as the "Southern Centre" and its full name was written on the outside wall in large metal letters.

The Centre Superintendent's name was Len something (I can't recall his surname). Come the day when workmen took down the metal letters to do some repainting some ATC wags on the night duty rehung some of the letters to read "Len's Cafe". Next morning the car park was full of lorries.....

Does anyone know how far down the LATCC building went? I was told about 5 floors but I never investigated in case I had an accident down there, never to be found!

[LadyAtco]

"Come the day when workmen took down the metal letters to do some repainting some ATC wags on the night duty rehung some of the letters to read "Len's Cafe". "


HD, how do you get letters for LEN'S CAFE from SOUTHERN CENTRE ?? There is no L, A or F in.........

[obwan]

You women are so picky:ok:

[Talkdownman]

There is no L, A or F in
There was with 'AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL' in the middle...

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Thanks folks.

In my defence, modom, I did say:

"referred to as the "Southern Centre" and its full name was written on the outside wall in large metal letters."

By "full name" I meant the whole thing.

[Lon More]

Does anyone know how far down the LATCC building went?

We went walkabout one night duty, passed through a number of unlocked heavy fire or blast doors and ended up in a large ampitheatre. Further exploration was bought to a halt by the appearance of a number of pissed-off Rockapes
I forget what my miserable pittance was when I joined in '67. Suffice to say it was so little that i also got meal vouchers.(worth 3/6 p.w. IIRC) . Come my next birthday i got an increase of 2/6 p.w. but the meal vouchers stopped. :ugh:
I'm now getting an OAP from the UK for the three years undetected (mostly) crime I committed there. It's more than I was paid back then each week by the Campaign Against Aviation

[chevvron]

I did an Air Britain visit to Southern Air Traffic Control Centre in about 1966 when there were still radar heads just outside the building and 'procedural' and FIR were still there. By the time I was summoned to West Drayton about 3 years later, the procedural side and FIR had moved there leaving just radar at Heathrow.

All the time I worked at the Heathrow Radar section of LATCC I never knew there was a bunker underneath. Heathrow Mil, forerunner on LonMil, operated above ground mostly in a separate room but they did occasionally operate from a couple of 'fonts' in the civil radar room under the guise of 'SEJAO', which eventually became LJAO.

The man who recorded VOLMET also operated at the old radar unit. One of my colleagues incurred his wrath one morning when he accidentally beeped his car horn; a VOLMET update was just being done and the 'beep' went on the tape, so he had to start again! Apparently the window flew open and a stream of profanities was directed at my colleague!

[Lon More]

the 'beep' went on the tape,

Lucky he wasn't at Aberdeen, waiting for the last Danair of the day. :O

[chevvron]

Did you hear the one about the last Dan Air of the day at Glasgow and the Glasgow ATIS?

[Nimmer]

I thought it was Aberdeen and the Aberdeen ATIS??
Yep heard it!!!

[DC10RealMan]

Aberdeen, Danair, LATCC, No Swanwick, Happy days!

[Nimmer]

I love living in Hampshire, hated west Drayton, and the M25/ M4 drive. Best thing NATS have done for years, move from that dump.

[DC10RealMan]

I loved living in Hampshire but it was Swanwick I hated.

[Vercingetorix]

Worked both the Southern Centre on EGLL Northside and LATCC and it was a hoot, great bunch of people. No regrets, glad I didn't move to Hampshire as I lived in London W2 (Sussex Mews).
Reason for leaving NATS was the coming forced move to 'ampshire.

:uhoh:

[Lon More]

Fag-ash Lil was another good reason to get out

[Vercingetorix]

Fag Ash Lil made a mean steak and chips.

[Lon More]

Fag Ash Lil made a mean steak and chips
if you could ignore the little extras on the plate and the state of the cooker on North Side

[chevvron]

Not talking about 'Gypsy Rose' are we? Did the 'night duties' in the WD canteen?
Len Vass once told me he went down about 4 am and asked for 'egg and chips'. After a few minutes, she poked her head out and said 'are 3 eggs enough dear?'. When she brought his plate out there were 3 eggs on a huge mountain of chips and she said 'not much there, that'll be 1/6d!'(pre 1971 so one shilling and sixpence to you uneducated youngsters - 7.5p in todays money)

[Talkdownman]

Lovely lady. We called her 'Fang'. The gap between both of her teeth made a good cigarette holder whilst she served out appetising wind-up (undercooked) eggs.

[Lon More]

Chevron, yes she was Always on nights; probably had to get back in her box before Sunrise. I think all the watches had different names for her.

There was another bright spark there - fresh off the boat - being shown how to make toast. Nobody wanted toast at that time so it went in the bin. Come the morning rush, everybody ordering toast but nothing arriving. Someone took a peek round the back .... out of the toaster, butter on, into the bin ....

[Meowmix]

Give me West Drayton any day! I hate it down here :(

[zonoma]

Meowmix, I think you may be in the minority there :cool: