In 1954 two very important events took place in the field of aviation. The U-2 Aircraft was born; the brainchild of a thirty-nine year old engineering prodigy named Trevor Gardner. This aircraft was built in less than eight months, and in the air flying at altitudes above 70,000 feet for periods of 10 - 12 hours without refueling. It was later called the "Black Lady of Espionage", by Francis Gary Power, 1956. The other event took place at 10 a.m. on a bright sunny day in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. A NATO student, flying a Harvard aircraft had just taken off from the airbase south of the city and was cleaning up his aircraft at 4000 feet VFR over the Exhibition grounds on the north side of the city, on a heading of 360 degrees. A Trans-Canada Airlines, Northstar was westbound, also at 4000 feet IFR in VFR conditions when the Harvard slammed into the left underside of the airliner killing all passengers and crew of both aircraft. That was the worst accident in airline history in Canada, April 8, 1954; 37 killed - 31 passengers, 4 crew, 2 air force pilots. The rules and procedures of Air Traffic Control changed dramatically, with the rapid growth of civil and military training, increased speed and altitude.
     When I arrived at Winnipeg Centre to begin my formal training I was given a tour of the centre where I was to be working. This did not take too long as the controllers on duty were very busy. The size of the workspace was smaller than most living rooms at 14 x 20. The four controllers and the chief of the unit were controlling all aircraft flying IFR from the Lakehead west to the Alberta border. There was a large sign above the Winnipeg control position that pretty well summed up the situation as far as the Controllers were concerned. It read: IF YOU CAN KEEP YOUR HEAD WHEN ALL ABOUT YOU ARE LOSING THEIRS, THEN YOU JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND THE SITUATION.
     The other facility where I was to be training was the Winnipeg Tower. This work place was slightly larger than our bathroom and looked like an abandoned steel tower with a glass enclosure on the top. Inside, controllers were speaking a language I didn't understand, and the pilot 's responses were unintelligible to my ears! After my indoctrination to the work area and introductions, I was assigned to train with one of the B stands. There were two B Stands on duty to assist the controllers with message handling, weather information and many more tasks that occur during a tour of duty. We were told that when the controllers said; "Jump", we should respond; "How High?" I was to keep out of the way as much as possible, but to stay within earshot when we were needed. Because of the small workspace it was easy to understand why. The noise level increased as the traffic built up each day. There were 4 Controllers on duty, and their workload was extraordinarily heavy. They grumbled now and then, but they were glad to be doing the job they did because of the challenge, plus the feeling they were performing a very necessary service to all concerned. One of the controllers would sit back in his chair during a lull in air traffic, close his eyes, and dream of the peach orchard that he hoped to have someday in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia.
     When a new controller is assigned to a unit, one of the first things he gets with his indoctrination is a set of initials. Usually his own initials will be used, except, as in my case someone already used those initials. My initials are R T C , but Richard Cowan was using RC; Robert Turner was RT and Torchy Cowan was CR, so I adopted TR. These initials are used with all transmissions when using landlines. All conversations are recorded so that if there are enquiries or procedures to be checked, all persons are easily identified. These operating initials remained with each Controller throughout his career and quite often ATC personnel call each other by their operating initials. Although I am now retired I have my ATC initials as part of my personal license plate.
     All the controllers, save 2 or 3, in Winnipeg Centre were Veterans. Vic Skinner (VS) had been a fighter pilot who lost a leg during the war. He smoked a pipe, and even when there was no tobacco in the pipe bowl he would chew on it. His bottom teeth were worn down to gum level. He had scrounged an old passenger seat from a DC3 aircraft that he would use when he was relaxing between busy periods. Vic was an excellent controller and eventually became chief of the centre. He has now gone to that control centre in the sky, where so many controller friends and colleagues have joined him.
     All the controllers in this business were excellent; each one had an individual way of doing the same thing. Rolly Porter (RP) was the smallest one there at that time, but he had a strong voice and everyone knew when he was around. Dudley Dorsett (DD) had long black hair in pompadour style, heavy eyebrows, wore glasses, smoked cigars and a pipe. George G. Smith (GG) was soft spoken, smoked a pipe, and would tell you exactly how a grapefruit should be cut and eaten. Bill Kelloch (WK) was short, slightly stout, wore glasses, didn't smoke, was not a veteran which I think the other Controllers gave him a hard time about. He would volunteer to work most of the midnight shifts just so that he could avoid the bugging and hostile atmosphere during the day shifts. Ray Peden (PR) was tall and slim, bespectacled with a very quiet manner, except at a Staff party. At a Christmas party for tower and centre personnel at Jack s place, south of Winnipeg, there was a lull in the music from the orchestra, so everyone went back to their seats, or to the bar, or the food buffet. Ray was standing in the middle of the floor with a pickle in his hand, waving it around, as though he was scolding, or trying to get a point across to the tower chief. He hadn't noticed the music had stopped, and they were alone in the middle of the floor. Everyone had a laugh about that. Robert Turner (RT) was a blond suave debonair, quiet controller. He was the guy dreaming about the Peach Orchard. I think he used that as an alternative to the pressure of the rat race in the Centre. Bob had another favorite expression when things got hot and heavy; "ONE OF THESE DAYS THE WHOLE THING IS GOING TO BLOW UP".
     The control centre was small and the smell of smoke was heavy at times but you had to tolerate it then. Everyone brown-bagged then, because there was nowhere close to eat out. The control board was set up with four sectors: Winnipeg (about 30 mile radius of the Airport); Winnipeg West included Portage and MacDonald Airports (RCAF) to Yorkton, Sask; Regina, Moose Jaw and Saskatoon airports sector; Winnipeg East - including Gimli (RCAF), and Lakehead airport (now Thunderbay). The Controllers aids were primitive by today's standards, but as air traffic increased so did the facilities and the Controller' s aids, but they always seemed to be one or two steps behind. All the rules and regulations for controllers were contained in one small book. These of course had to change with progress and today they involve a manual about two inches thick covering two volumes of procedures, and many more covering rules, NOTAMs, equipment, administration, directives, etc. All the controlling in the centre was done by a telephone system to other radio operators and tower controllers. The Winnipeg controller had one frequency to talk directly to aircraft inbound or outbound to/from Winnipeg. The switchboard system on the control panel was duplicated on two desks at the rear, for the B Stand. Every day was a busy day in the centre and the noise level was nerve wracking; phones ringing, bells ringing, and voices raised to get a message across. There was no stopping for meal breaks, eating on the job was the way of life for controllers.

Embryonic Traffic and Types of Aircraft

     In 1954-55, the jet age was beginning, so the rules of the air began to change rapidly over the next several years. As a matter of fact they are constantly changing and continue to do so. The T-33 was the military trainer at this time, and there were many stationed at Gimli, Portage and MacDonald bases in Manitoba. Of course the other old reliable work horses were still prevalent here and scattered across Canada; Harvards, B25s, C45s, Cessna, Argus, DC3s, Helicopters, C119s, F86s, CF 100s, CF 101s, Northstars, and Britannias. Trans Canada Airlines (TCA) were flying NorthStars, DC3s, SuperConnies and the Bristol Freighter. The first time I gave landing instructions to a Bristol coming in to land on runway 36 from the north, I blew it. We were programmed to say; "check wheels down and locked", after giving landing instructions. The Bristol Freighter had fixed undercarriage. The pilot was quick to respond with down and welded.
     One thousand on top was a new term being used to accommodate a lot of aircraft in the sky at the same time. The meaning of the term was basically that an aircraft could go up above the cloud at least 1000 feet, and fly by the Visual Flight Rules (VFR). A clearance was needed to get above the cloud, and again when the aircraft decided to come out of the cloud . Jet aircraft would generally go above 20,000 feet, and the piston planes would fly at the lower levels, sometimes between the cloud layers. Civilian aircraft were able to live with this arrangement because they were all piston, and flying at lower levels. There were problems from time to time but the system was still safe. The Department of Transport did not have Radar. There was an American Early Warning Radar site just east of Winnipeg at Milner Ridge which was available for emergencies. The main navaids were Radio Ranges, some beacons and few stations had Automatic Direction Finders (ADF). NATO training was increasing and the skies would fill up with students and instructors from the three RCAF bases in Manitoba. Winnipeg had a large RCAF training station based on the west side of Stevenson Airport (Winnipeg International Airport).
     During my first week at the new job, I heard a MAYDAY call on 121.5mhz from a T-33 lost on a navigation trip. The Radio Station was in the next room to the centre and when the radio volume was turned up we could hear everything from where we were sitting. I was involved in a lot of emergencies during my career, but this was the only time I heard the words MAYDAY-MAYDAY-MAYDAY being used to signal that such an event was taking place. The pilot talked in a calm and collected voice as the ground stations were frantically trying to get a fix on the aircraft. Finally the pilot said, he was out of fuel, the engines had stopped running, and he said; "I'm going to leave her now." Then there was silence. The T-33 crashed near a graveyard south of the Manitoba border. The pilot parachuted safely into a farmer's field.
     Friendships grew rapidly at the Winnipeg Centre. The tower controllers and the centre controllers were a closeknit group. The profession was unknown by the average person on the street. Whenever someone asked where I worked, that was confirmed. When I replied I worked for the Department of Transport, it was assumed I worked in one of three areas: 1) Truck Driver, 2) Royal Canadian Air Force, or 3) Trans Canada Airlines. Controllers pretty well stuck together as a group, mainly because no one understood our language. The thing uppermost on our minds was to replay last week's or today's problems and to talk about them with someone who understood us. Most pilots were friendly and understood that most problems were due to the system, and not to the Controllers. To err is human and this can happen to a controller or pilot anytime. When I was taking my training in the Winnipeg Tower my guiding light was Hank Batt, who is now in that Control Tower in the Sky. Hank made it very clear to me from the start, that I was to make my own decisions, make them right, and stick to them. Don t let someone senior change your mind because, he said, if you make a mistake, and you turn around to see where everyone is, there will be no one there. Even your best friend won't know you. You will be left holding the mike all alone. This advice proved to some of the best I got throughout my career. I saw it happen to other controllers many times.
     Winnipeg Tower was just that - a tower. It was a steel tower with a glass box on top, about 70 feet high with a zigzag staircase on the outside. The Winnipeg flying club was built along the north side of the Tower. There was no lunchroom, bathroom, or reading room. The heat was supplied by old electric floor heaters, originally used in railway cars and converted to 120V. We used to toast our sandwiches on them. A water jug stood in the corner, like you see in offices, with everyone congregated around it. On cold winter nights it was a long way to the bathroom, so some of the guys would just relieve themselves over the railing. The flying club manager asked us not to do this, as when it was freezing, with a south wind blowing, It would freeze to their lounge windows, and no one could see out!!
     There were very few women in ATC at that time; one in Edmonton, one in Montreal, and Beth Russell in Winnipeg. Beth was an excellent controller and she was well liked by everyone in the business. I admired her very much and she taught me a few lessons, although I was never assigned as a trainee to her. There was a girl hired shortly after me, Marg Quinn who became a good controller. Because women were a minority and new to the profession, some of the guys gave them a hard time. I think that quite often, Beth would try to give me a bad time when I was working on her shift, just because of that. Torchy Cowan came on the scene about this time. He was an ex-air force type who still flew Mustangs for the reserve. He was called a Weekend Warrior. He and Marg struck a note with each other, soon married and moved to Regina where Torchy signed on as an airline Pilot with CPA, and Marg continued as a controller for a short time.
     Jack Dodd was a cranky, older, seasoned controller with very little hair. They say he pulled it all out trying to control the Weekend Warriors. Usually there would be four or five of them up in the air at the same time and they would either spring an oil leak, or the gear would stick half up, or they would come screaming into the circuit at 200 knots and disrupt poor Jack's neat and orderly circuit patterns. The tower controllers mike hung from the ceiling on a long curly cord so that controller had some mobility to see out the backside of the tower. Jack would be stomping around, hollering into the mike, and when it was all over he would get on the phone, and do it all again. Jack was also a Reservist so he swung a bit of weight over at the other side with the Reserve Squadron.
     The procedures for a new trainee to follow were quite simple. Do the work of the B Stand, absorb what was going on around you, and study on your own time; the weather manual, airport procedures, aircraft types and capabilities, radio terminology and techniques, memorize the airway system and abbreviations for the reporting points and operating stations, airports, and aircraft types. When you thought you had a handle on it all, you requested an examination date with downtown office to write the exams one at a time until finished. The next step was to get a Radio Telephone license so you could use the radio equipment.
      The Attributes of a Good Controller Were, and Still Are:
1. Common sense and Stability. 2. Flexibility and Good Judgment 3. Maturity, Alertness, Decisiveness 4. Ability to work Individually or as a Team Player 5. Reliability 6. Memory Retention and Loyalty 7. Self Confidence, Self Control, Integrity 8. Good Voice Projection 9. Leadership Qualities 10. Responsibility and Initiative 11. Ability to Work under Stress 12. Gregarious 13. Ability to think in an abstract three dimensional environment.
     Winnipeg Tower used a board with large numbers on the outside of the tower facing the runways. This was for the benefit of the NORDO aircraft to see which runway was in use. When the wind direction changed someone had to run out and change the numbers, no matter what the temperature, and it could often be - 30C. Usually everything in the Tower went along tickety-boo until bad weather moved in or a power failure occurred. Emergencies always seemed to happen when the weather was crappy or some aircraft had a radio failure. Backhoes working around the airport area often would dig up cable and cut off the tower land-lines. Due to the numbers of aircraft that would be in the air using VFR and the scramble was on to get back to base, also the navigation flights would return and this would produce a stack, some were stacked on beacons and some the range. VORs were not in use in Canada, and there was no radar. Aircraft on the bottom of the stack naturally got first chance to the approach, but when an aircraft iced up, or had fuel problems, it usually came barreling right on down through the whole mess. This stacking system sounded straightforward and should work - 10 minutes between let downs, if all military, otherwise fifteen minutes. So when the aircraft was cleared for an approach, it had fifteen minutes to carry that out. In the tower the noise level was high due to the poor acoustics and the row of individual speakers along the front of the console. One speaker for each frequency and several would be in use at one time.
      At times the ground visibility would be so bad, the ground controller could not see the aircraft or vehicles on the taxiways. The old hand signals were then used between ground controller and airport controller to signal each other about different occurrences. Once an aircraft called for taxi instructions and the controller gave him the works (wind direction, speed, time, altimeter and direction) to get to the button of the runway. A little later after the controller strained his eyeballs, but couldn't see anything, he asked for his approximate position. The aircraft said it was still in the hangar and would be starting up shortly!! Everyone howled with laughter at this, but the ground controller was too busy, and just let it slide. The Tower quite often got phone calls from Realtors, who had houses on the market near the airport. The Realtor wanted to know the wind direction and which runway was in use. If runway 36 or 32 were in use, there was no sense in taking a prospective client around because of the noise levels on those approach paths. One Realtor actually wanted us to hold traffic to another runway for about 30 minutes, so he could take his client to see a house on the approach path to runway 36!!
Roy Cushway