Blue Jay

Our latest item on Blue Jay shows us another first in the aviation world for Gander Airport.  The first airport to use GCA as an approach procedure for civilian aircraft by civilian air traffic controllers. Frank Tibbo describes their unique talent to have pilots put trust in their ability to guide them to touchdown safely in adverse weather conditions. The DOT guys, trained by the Blue Jay staff, continued this talent. I never had the opportunity to see the Blue Jay guys in action but I did observe the DOT controllers who replaced them. An example of this was I heard one DOT controller, whom I will call ‘uncle John’, say during one of his approaches ‘…on the glide slope, on course. Continue present heading. The centerline [runway] is between you and the co-pilot…’.   Sometime casual but professional banter between pilot and controller eased a lot of tension in stressful situations. They were good. Oh, by the way, Frank Tibbo was one of these first DOT GCA controllers in Canada.