Holberg, BC

There were no major items of historical interest during the period of this report.

There have been, however, several new construction projects which had added to the social and recreational picture of this unit. They are:

1. Airman’s Wet Canteen has been relocated in a larger building.
2. Corporal’s Institute has been built and is to be officially opened on the sixth of December.
3. Two bowling alleys have been under construction and should be in use early in December.

In addition to the projects listed above the CE Section has had a storeroom added to it.

The auxiliary power unit which was installed after a power break on 10 Feb 57, which resulted in a collapsed and completely destroyed radome, has paid for itself many times since. The most notable occasion was during a severe storm on 25 Oct 57 when power at the Ops Site was lost for eight hours. Other less notable power breaks would also have resulted in destruction of the radome as calm air at the site is more of a rarity than the winds that sometimes blow over one hundred miles per hour.

Also installed during the period under review was a 15J1D trainer. Its use has been somewhat restricted by unserviceabilities and lack of personnel fully acquainted with servicing. However the month of November saw a decided change for the better and it is anticipated that the 15J1D will prove a valuable aid in training and maintaining proficiency among Controllers.

The new radome and the smaller height-finder radome were painted during the summer, a job that took from 4 Aug till 3 Sep 57, due to poor summer weather at this unit.

The installation of the UHF equipment was completed 1 Nov 57 but will not be of much use in the conducting of intercepts until similar equipment is installed in the fighters this unit is responsible for. Radio communications have been bad for the entire period during which time many attempts to explain the reason has failed. It is generally thought that the proximity of commercial frequencies is responsible for some of the unit’s VHF interference problems.

When RCAF Station Tofino closed down on 30 Sep this unit assumed responsibility for their subsector and with it their share of the intercept load. This resulted in 463 attempts for the month of Oct. The pace slowed in Nov to 248 due to weather and aircraft unserviceabilities.

There were seven exercises carried out that required the unit to come to a state of maximum readiness. This coincided with the sharply increased number of overflies by the Strategic Air Command in the last three months and resulted in much needed practice by Controllers against tactical type targets.

The following is a breakdown of the number of intercepts attempted by type:

Surveillance

The review of the surveillance picture for the period is completely normal. The shutting down of Station Tofino and subsequent taking over of their subsector did not increase the load on the unit. The following are statistics for the period:

All of the unknown tracks were subsequently identifies by flight plan correlation or interception with the exception of one which was thought to be a balloon. It was carried for 248 miles over a period of 2 hours and 48 minutes.

Of particular interest was an incident on 10 Aug 57 concerning a lost aircraft. Port Hardy radio range reported to F/O JA MacGregor on duty at 53 Squadron that a Seabee aircraft was overdue on a flight from Vancouver to Port Hardy and was thought to be lost. Port Hardy was in contact with the Seabee but the pilot didn’t know where he was. With no common frequency between the aircraft and 53 AC&W Squadron existing, F/O MacGregor gave instructions to Port Hardy by telephone who relayed them to the plane by radio. The aircraft was found, identified and set on course for Port Hardy on a straight in approach. The pilot refused to come down through cloud, being understandably nervous about a letdown through cloud in this area and continued on to a point over the field. About one mile out F/O MacGregor requested the range operator to put his head out of the window and listen for the aircraft. This was done and the pilot was advised to make a port orbit letting down.

The pilot let down quickly and broke cloud about 800 feet heading for runway 10. Completing a safe landing he taxied to the parking area but ran out of gas before he got there. The pilot, a Mr. George Wise, phone afterward and was most profuse in his thanks.