EGNS RONALDSWAY ISLE OF MAN

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NS1 with British Air Services/Cambrian Viscount G-ALWF from Barry Davidson  as is NS2 with Jersey European FK-27 G-JEAH

Jon Wornham at Ronaldsway ATC has a long standing interest in the history of ATC on the Isle of Man. The result is a web site that tells that story

Ronaldsway ATC

Jon believes that Ronaldsway is the longest continuous serving civil ATC unit in the British Isles, 1937 – present day, including the war years!

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NS3a  BRISTOL 170 FREIGHTER MK.21, G-AIFW

NS4 with Aer Lingus Dragon EI-ABI

NS5 1949 POST CARD

NS6 Fairchild SA227-BC Metro III EC-ITP (and NS7 below) from Tom Singfield

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NS8 Manx 146 GOJET

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1948 ATC

We have a lot of background info to the photo provided by Jon, the EGNS ATC historian.

 “It was taken on a ‘Flight’ visit to Ronaldsway on 12/2/48, I think they visited Liverpool as well. I managed to buy a print of it a few years back on Ebay and I have it on my website together with the identifications of the three controllers (one’s the SATCO) in the foreground.  It’s a fascinating photo as it shows the message slips in use before flight progress strips.  At least two sets of these have survived and are in the museum (stored) at Ronaldsway, I found them in the back of one of the old log books that ATCA John Woodside saved when he found them being thrown into a skip, he saved as many as he could but a lot were lost.  Some of them date back to the start of WW2.

This was on the second floor of the tower, in the old Royal Navy Control room.  Ground floor was tele printers and telephone exchange, first floor Met Office and then the control room.  The Royal Navy had a ‘Watch Office’ on the roof, but in early civil days it didn’t seem to be used by ATC, rather by pilots for doing planning etc. as far as I can see.  The radio and d/f operators were in a room behind the control room and I think the section at the far end of the photo was the Flight Clearance office, manned by either ATC assistants or clerks (I’m not sure quite what the difference was).  All ATC messages written on the slips and passed to the radio operators for transmission by Morse to the aircraft on m/f.  Replies also written on slips and passed back to the controllers.  I’m not sure when VHF started to come into regular use for civil aircraft, but I suspect in the 1950s when the ATCCs were first established. I think that was also when Flight Progress Strips started to be used at Ronaldsway, as shown in this pic:

http://island-images.co.uk/ATC/zRon1950s/1950-2.html

In the 1960s a new VCR was installed on top to contain the TWR and App controllers. the RN Watch Office was extended and blacked out to become the home of the new Ronaldsway Radar, AR1, very expensive and advanced (and probably better performance than more recent solutions).  The AR1 wasn’t the first surveillance radar installed at Ronaldsway as the RN had one in 1944, fellow researcher Chris believes that it was an RAF Type 15 and the buildings still exist near the new Selex site.

You can see the picture (with the identifications) at:

http://island-images.co.uk/ATC/zRon1940s/1948%20-%200203.html

and some of the message slips from the 1930s at:“

http://island-images.co.uk/ATC/zRon1930s/G-AFFF8669.html

You may be able to help Jon with his research

Firstly…. “Something I’ve been unable to find is a copy of the Manual of Air Traffic Control. I recently managed to obtain a MATS Pt1, think it’s the second amendment from the 1970s when I joined ATC at West Drayton.  Was the MATC in three parts though?  Put one being the equivalent of the current MATS Pt1, then Part 2 was ATC centre specific with Part 3 being airfield specific? I’d love to see some of the original versions which would shed a lot of light on how the current ATC system started in the 1950s.  I’m guessing that most of the first ATCOs are no longer with us these days, I think I worked with many of them at LATCC and Heathrow.  In those days they were just ‘old blokes’ that talked about how much better things used to be and how the ATCAs dress code had slipped – and that was when we used to wear jackets and ties!”

Secondly, something else Jon would love to know more about is the Training Flying Control Centre that was established at Ramsey, IOM in the 1940s.  It was in effect the first Air Traffic Control Centre in the British Isles and controlled traffic from 10 training airfields around the Irish Sea.  It seems to have been generally forgotten about though and the only photographs he has ever seen were external ones during a visit by the King and Queen, just before it closed down.  He has put what information he could discover into the 1940s section of his website,  scroll down the page and you should find it:

http://island-images.co.uk/ATC/zRon1940s/z1940s.html

(atchistory thinks the centres at Prestwick and Gloucester are probably about the same date).