Comments by Bruce Wellman
GROUND CONTROL APPROACH SCHOOL, AYLMER
Meanwhile, some of those GCA controllers who had been trained at Dorval were beginning to leave the Service, and as new GCA equipment was being purchased, the immediate need was filled by training some controllers with the USAF at Biloxi, Mississippi until the RCAF established its own GCA School. This school, under command of F/L JA Honour was set up at RCAF Station Aylmer, Ontario in the fall of 1953, collocated with the GCA Technician School. Training of GCA Controllers continued here until, facing base closure in 1957, AFHQ ordered the consolidation of GCA training with other Flying Control training at RCAF Station Camp Borden. This move took place on 2 December 1957. Due to the cost of providing aircraft flights to train GCA controllers, new computers (the infamous T-2) were provided to the School and the designation of School of Flying Control change to a non-flying unit in June of 1959. That date marked the inception of Simulator-only training for the School of Flying Control. Henceforth, live aircraft training for all controllers would be carried out in the field.GROUND CONTROLLED APPROACH SCHOOL, AYLMER ONTARIO
F/L Jim Honour 1954-1956
F/L Mike J Campbell 1956-1957
The GCA School was moved to RCAF Station Borden, Ontario in 1957 and became an integral part of the Flying Control school.
Comments by Kenneth "KD" Macdonald
The GCA school at RCAF Station Aylmer was set up in the fall of 1953 with F/0 Jim Honour as the OC and F/S Blake Muloin was the NCO i/c. I was transferred there from Gimli in the summer of 1955. Aside from the aforementioned, the other instructors were FS Al Archer, Sgt Cec Newton, Marshall "Dupe" Dupuis, BJ "Rick" Ritchey and Nick Nicholson. F/L Mike Campbell replaced Jim Honour as OC in 1956. We had a T2 Simulator as well as a CPN4 GCA unit. The courses consisted of four candidates who received three weeks classroom, three weeks simulator and three weeks "live" runs provided by Harvard aircraft from Centralia. We had three courses in residence all the time so all phases were continually in operation. There was a huge demand for GCA Controllers at that time, so we were turning them out at a great rate. We also trained the initial cadre of MOT Controllers that were to set up the GCA unit at Gander (see GCA Course photo #20). This group was headed up by Mr John Scammell who went on to be one of the "Top Dogs" in Transport Canada. FS Dave Miller of the NCI i/c of the technicians. The GCA school relocated to Camp Borden in late 1957, and I remained with the School until the Summer of 1958 when I was transferred to AFHQ, Ottawa as the GCA advisor to S/L Bill French DFC, who was the Air Traffic Control "boss" at that time.
Updated: April 8, 2005