Air Traffic Control
CANADIAN MILITARY AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL OPERATIONS
Prior to WW II, the RCAF did not have Flying Control as a trade or profession. RCAF "controllers" were comprised of pilots who had lost their flying category or young provisional pilot officers who were to gain some aviation experience prior to start of flying training. The Air Traffic Control Assistants were from the "General Duty" trades, annotated for Flying Control duties. Whenever flying was carried out on the RCAF stations a qualified pilot was always in the Tower or Runway control Tender with the control staff on duty.
RCAF APPROACH CONTROL INITIATION
Over the years the Officer Courses changed dramatically - initially, in 1951, the only officer course was the Airport Control Course. The school continued for several years with this mandate as well as training the ATC Assistants courses. Prior to 1955, the RCAF had no formal approach control units, nor had any personnel been trained for such work, although some base procedures emulated a type of approach control used in RCAF NATO Bases. In mid 1955, the Air Staff was advised that the Department of Transport was planning to establish Approach Control at fifteen Department of Transport Airports; this prompted an Air Staff order to study RCAF needs for Approach Control Units. As a result, AFHQ ordered establishment of Common Approach Control frequencies at Air Defence Command stations. Following that decision, in December of 1955, the Air Member for Personnel decided to train the necessary personnel before establishing Approach Control on RCAF Stations. The following orders were issued:
"Training Command was to establish an Approach Control Course of two months in length with ten students per course.
Training Command was to train four Approach Control Courses per year; this would ensure twenty Flight Lieutenant graduates per year and twenty Flying Officers."
The first course was held 20 May to 27 June 1958. Three months later AFHQ directed that Approach Control operation be established at the following RCAF Stations:
Comox ---- 1(F) Wing Marville
Churchill ---- 2(F) Wing Grostenquin
Frobisher Bay ---- 3(F) Wing Zweibruecken
Claresholm ---- 4(F) Wing Baden-Soellingen
Torbay ---- Moselle Control-Metz
Portage ---- Trenton
Moose Jaw ---- Greenwood
Penhold ---- Centralia
Rivers Camp
In June 1958 also, the Air Transport Command requested the RCAF establish a Flight Following System across Canada, which would comprise eight centres with fifty Air Traffic Control Personnel per Centre. After a great deal of discussion with the Department of Transport, this idea was rejected because of the DOT Air Movement Information System (AMIS) could easily accomplish the same aim.
On 1 May 1958, the Air Staff received a proposal that two Ground-Control Approach Flight Check Teams be formally established - one for Eastern Canada and one for Western Canada. While the Air Staff was sympathetic, they could not free up the resources for such an establishment. With the usual capacity for improvisation and double-tasking, the Air Staff directed that Commands/Stations were to provide the resources required by the Senior Flying Control Officers to carry out all necessary Flight Checks.
Many events, reductions-in-force, and base closures forced changes to the plan ordered in 1955, and the present Military ATC system has evolved from the requirements changes dictated by Government policy. But it is fair to say that the RCAF Air Traffic Control organization began to expand in the 1958 era with the training of Air Services/Flying Control Officers in Approach Control:
1958-32 ---- 1959-72
1960-41 ---- 1961-20
1962-32 ---- 1963-20
1964-27 ---- 1965-21
1966-18 ---- 1968-33
1970-20 ---- 1971-24
1972-24 ---- 1973-24
In 1970, the two officer courses were combined into a single course and this continued until 1974, when it was decided to reconvert back to two courses. The first IFR Terminal course of this regime was held early in 1976. This double course system was maintained until early in 1983, when it was decided that ATC officers who failed their IFR course were being discriminated against; consequently, since that year, the two training phases of an ATC officer's career, IFR and VFR were held concurrently. During 1976, Director Air Regulations and Traffic Services (DARTS) ruled that 12 Airport control positions were to be manned by Warrant Officers or Master Warrant Officers. The first NCO Airfield Controllers graduated in 1977. Some minor problems with this policy kept recurring until 1987 when an attempt was made to return these positions to officer status. The Vice-Chief of the Defence Staff ruled that the positions were to remain for the Non-Commissioned members, however, the minimum rank was to be Warrant Officer and it would no longer be voluntary - if a warrant officer refused the training, it would reflect on his/her career. The NCMs join the course at the onset but only complete the VFR portion, while the officers complete both IFR and VFR Training portions sequentially.
In 1982, after some soul-searching by DND, it was finally decided that combined officer courses with the Ministry of Transport Air Traffic Services School was not totally compatible with both Department objectives. Consequently, the Airport course for the military was divorced from the Airport Control Course of the air Traffic Services School. Henceforth, the main area of cooperation would be at the computer and simulator interface. In other words, Military School ATC policy was independent of Ministry of Transport. Also, in 1982, Air Command had decided that CFATCTU should rightfully be a part of Air Command. With the assumption of support by CFB Ottawa, thus Air Traffic Control training came under its functional command. In 1984, 14 Training Group assumed responsibility for supervision of Air Traffic Control training and the circle was complete. The Air Element controlled ATC training as the RCAF had!
Updated: November 28, 2004