MACC Closure
 

Mods could you make this a sticky please?

MACC/Manchester Sub Centre is closing next year.[31 Jan 2010]
We are trying to get a booklet together, so I am after any photos that I can beg, borrow or get hold of in any way,
Photos of MACC/Subcentre, Pennine Radar , in fact anything from the Fourth floor, and any Tels equipment as well

As has been said.....
The Task/Role is moving to Prestwick at the end of Jan/10.
We [as a unit] are trying to produce a booklet. For this, we need photographs, so anyone who has a photo of MACC/SubCentre/Tels
ALL are welcome

Chigs Baaybee!

Try the MAN plc Archive. They have tons of pix etc. covering all the years. If you need any bits of old desks, they're are at Barton Tower which is kinda nice considering Preston Control was at Barton Hall.

Also, Man City Council have an extensive archive, as do the MEN (a friend dropping in) !!!

Are your knees licensed to wear a Kilt?:eek::eek:

Sir George Cayley

Sir George,
Thanks for that ino, I will pass it on. As I retire in Oct 2010, I am deemed kiltless...to the relief of many, no doubt.
No I am not going to Scotland....:{

u can never get a day off in scotland for xmas eve or new years eve.

welcome retirement
:D

Celebrating? Commemorating or commiserating perhaps, but I am sure that the majority of staff do not want to leave wonderful Cheshire for Ayrshire.

I think a lot of my ex-colleagues will be pleasantly surprised when they do move to Ayrshire.

As for the MACC organised do for the closing event, it's taking place beneath the wings of Concorde. Sadly though, it's a black tie event, and I don't own any black ties.

Ahh...G-BOAC.
Retired from service well before its time. If you don't believe me, ask Dai Woodham.
It's appropriate that the Manchester 'wake' is held under its wings. Retired from service well before its time, due to the combined 'vision' of a small 'Dunwoodied' Scotsman and a Lincolnshire "engineer". :}

Superb Zooker :E

But wrong, as usual.
The two centre strategy was originally formulated by the CAA (Capital Expenditure Committee Paper number 1 of 1993), when NATS was 'a joint CAA/MoD organisation' and had no employees of its own. Although the existing MACC Ops Room was fitted out in the early 1990s, it was expected to be retired before the then new airport ATC contract ran out in 2003. (The plan at that time was for Swanwick to open in winter 1996/7!)

As one who would have liked a posting to MACC at the end of the Cadetship in 1975, I continue to follow this thread with interest - but with ZOOKER's 398 posts in PPRuNe, all of which seem like clues to the Times Crossword, it's sometimes hard to grasp ;)

If the SNP have their way, you might be getting it back in a couple of years

Thanks Zooker - here's your chance to get it up to 400 ;)
Caledonia still is best IMHO :ok:
Because Barton Hall had closed & staff had gone to Manch, I knew no Cadets were being posted in to the Centre at that time, so I made PK & PF #1 & 2 on my Dream Sheet ( I got EGPF :))
A good move as here I am, still in chilly jocko land, 34 years later :D

"NO MEAN CITY"!! :ok::ok::ok:
P.S. If you haven't already done so, check out "The red-haired Glaswegian with the voice of a fairy".

Salem perhaps?

No Mean City
Belfast used it for a photo exhibition in 2006 !

Science Museum London
 

I have just revisited the Flight Gallery at the Science Museum and rediscovered the Air Traffic Control Console. Although the radar picture (on a rather fuzzy display) and maps are appropriate for London, various labels make me think that the furniture (green Mediator style) may have been recovered from the old Sub-Centre. I never visited Manchester until the new Ops Room was commissioned, so can't be sure. Can anyone enlighten me?

I can't upload photographs, so will need to PM anyone who might be able to help.

http://www.pprune.org/L:%5CDCIM%5C10...5CP1000868.JPG
http://www.pprune.org/L:%5CDCIM%5C10...5CP1000863.JPG

I took some photographs during a visit many years ago, (mid 1980s) and the controller's desks were dark green with, (mainly horizontal), orange radar displays.

There is an article about Manchester Centre in October's 'Airliner World'.

Pelton Level is quite correct. The green Mediator radar suite is one of three which were in the Manchester Ops room until the current Ops room was commissioned in 1993. West Drayton's furniture was grey and didn't have a cursor on the display.

MACC Ops Room
 

The current Ops Room was designed about 1988 and the "Radar/Coordinator" concept was tested in EU662 held in April 1989. The "new" Ops Room was intended to last for about 12 years from installation. The latter was completed, if I remember correctly, by late 1991/early 1992 but the positioning of the sectors did not then reflect the design as tested at the EU. In 1993 changes were made to bring the sector positions into line with those originally tested.

Subsequently, various changes were made by the addition of sectors (S25) etc. MACC had some "spare" capacity in the furniture and that proved to be invaluable to NATS as the old LACC wished to "hive off" bits and pieces. Also, somewhere along the way, the old "Liverpool Radar" position was finally kicked into touch.

Over the subsequent years, a lot of work was done on redesign of "sector splits" and such like.

Don't remember all the details any more but I think my basic dates are right. If ATC OPS have retained all the old SIs then much of this history could be recovered - assuming anyone is seriously interested anymore!!

Thoughts must now be turning to Christmas 2009 and then New Year and MACC closure at the end of January - practically 34 years to the day it opened with the "mediator suites" (East and West) and a badly cobbled together Manchester Approach Radar position (single "scan converted" picture) which was nowhere near the facility in the old approach room (located just behind the Visual Control Room).

Hope everyone there is well and good luck to all.

Sincerely
Peter Hargreaves (NATS Retd. 2002)