Courtesy of Larry Pasch
I was a young 18 year old contact trainee in Gimil back in 1960. It was Friday afternoon (around 1930/2000 hours) and the controller, a B-Stand and I were in the Tower. The controller said he was going to check his mail in the mess - after all, it's Friday night and all was quiet. A little later, the B-Stand said he was going to gas up the L12 - after all, it's Friday night and all was quiet and I can always contact him with the FM radio.
Five minutes later the ATC line squawks... "Gimli Control - WG Centre inbound...VC 123, a Sword, inbound from Lakehead, IFR at FLXX; ETA TT beacon at whatever...".
I called the B-Stand on the FM and got no reply. After that, I called the controller at the Officer's Mess and got nowhere. I called the gate as the controller lived in PMQs and was advised that he hadn't left the base.
It was just a matter of time before I heard the words "Gimli, VC 123 inbound from the Head, cancelling Item Fox".
The summer before I had won my wings through Air Cadets and I had a bit of practice and knowledge so I passed on the weather and the active runway. Still no joy from either the controller or the B-Stand.
Sword (F-86 Mark V) requested a low pass. It looked good to me as he swept over the airfield climbed out and asked for a full stop. He called initial, final, and landed. I called Ops and told them the bird was down. Twenty minutes later the B-Stand (Roy) sauntered up the stairs to the tower. "How's it going" he asked and and went white as a sheet when I told him the story. I honestly thought the controller was going to have a heart attack when he was told. So much for a quiet Friday night!
Updated: April 7, 2005