RCAF Air Traffic Control
Goose Bay, Labrador

Comments by Don Hodgson - These photos were taken when I was stationed in Goose bay for the summer of 1959. It was the time between my second and third years of University. I was a Flight Cadet assigned to work as a Flying Control Officer. At that time, the term Air Traffic Control was not used in the RCAF. It was "Flying Control".

I did very little actual "controlling" in Goose Bay as there was serious air traffic at that base. I should have been sent to an Canadian air base where I could have had a chance to practise. The USAF SAC base provided most of the activity, followed by commercial flights. It was at the end of the propellor age and trans-oceanic flights were still needing to refuel. Mixed in with this were the flights of the RAF V-Bombers. Goose Bay was their staging post. There was some RCAF traffic, but very little. All in all, it required highly skilled controllers at all times.

The pictures were taken with a borrowed camera which had no telephoto lens. I was often sent to the end of the runway to relay messages to construction crews (the runway was being extended) to warn of impending touch-downs. So I was able to get close to the "action". The aircraft photos show the wide variety of air traffic which existed at Goose Bay.