We had a training room wherein were two synthetic interception trainers. These machines enabled us to track real-time radar plots and to control a synthetic paint as if it was a fighter intercepting the real-time plot. Before going 'live' I had two such sessions. On the first I selected a target whose speed was calculated to be 500 knots and generated an artificial 'fighter' pulse with a speed of 550 knots with which I carried out two 90° quarter attacks. The second training session was a week later when, selecting real and 'artificial' aircraft, both of lower speeds, I concluded 6 successful attacks and aborted another because the 'live' target disappeared. This session was under the supervision of Flt.Lt. Billing, my Flight Commander.
My first real use of our new radar (other than playing with it for training purposes) was the next day, Thursday, January 17th, 1957, when I was allocated a pair of Hunters on a freelance sortie. I had them under control for 26 minutes at an altitude of 40,000 feet and, using 90° quarter attacks, intercepted a USAF F86F Sabre and a pair of Canadian F86s. Such a mission would never have been possible using the equipment on the old site. Four days later, I was allocated another pair of freelance Hunters with which I was able to intercept two other pairs of unsuspecting Hunters, whose pilots could not have been keeping a good look out because they didn't break away to 'mix it' with mine. My pilots had been looking forward to a good old dog-fight but were disappointed.
I was in Fighter Controllers' Utopia. This was what fighter control was really all about, and it would have been the same in wartime. To be given fighters with which to 'bounce' any other (hopefully) unsuspecting aircraft, was a thrill and very satisfying for all concerned.
Then came the boring bit; pairs of comparatively slow Meteor NF11s for my next four sessions before the end of the month. These were night PIs. The first, an hour-long session, which included six PIs, of which one was a successful, very tight parallel head-on attack. This was a new technique to practise both for me, the pilots, and the radar navigator of the attacking aircraft. With a head-on closing speed of near 1,000 knots it took some guts and no small amount of skill to pull it off. In the next session of an hour and four minutes, seven 90° quarter attacks were successfully completed before the aircraft returned to Ahlhorn. The last two sessions were not as good. The aircraft suffered Bent Weapons and the aircraft R/T was pretty duff.
In February I completed no less than 50 PIs, of which only one was aborted because, during a practice head-on PI, I turned the attacking aircraft on to the target just a second or so too late. This was the only 'Controller Error' to be recorded in my Log Book since qualifying. With the amount of practice and experience I had now accumulated, I could, without any pause for thought, come up with the reciprocal bearing of any 5° angle on the compass rose, even when under the strain of extreme concentration. This quickened my R/T responses and increased my efficiency as a controller. I also found that I could, in extreme circumstances, control two independent pairs of aircraft doing separate sets of PIs at the same time. In these instances R/T transmissions were longer because almost every call had to be preceded by the appropriate aircraft call-sign.
It was an interesting month. There was a mix of PIs, five sessions with NF11s at heights varying from 4,000 to 35,000 feet, with 9 parallel head-on attacks and 14 ordinary quarter attacks. There was another session, also with Meteor NF11s, during 'Exercise Skittle' when I had five aircraft under control for an hour and five minutes on patrol duties only. In the middle of the month, for the first time, I controlled a Swift, the pilot of which intercepted a Hunter and a USAF B45 bomber.2 All the other sessions were with Hunters. All were either during specific exercises or freelance. To sum these up: apart from intercepting other Hunters, they successfully intercepted 4
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2 The B45 was also called the Tornado. There were less than 150 built, so this was quite a rare catch.
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