A recurring LINE from my days as a Simulator Instructor: Graham R.J. Voke

1. When it was my turn to teach, MWO Bob Fennell (our boss) entered the classroom and grabbed a chair. While I got my course material ready, he and I were discussing Labrador Retrievers as we both had them.  The first student entered the class wearing a foam brace around his neck. We were too polite to say anything. Another arrived, wearing one too. OK, so maybe they were both in the same car accident I thought. When the other 4 students all showed up wearing them, we definitely knew something was up. The neck braces of foam (called OMS throat protectors) were designed to shield themselves from the newfy instructor who had a reputation for "going for the throat" when telling jokes. The OMS included Frank Cameron, Tony Turner, John Richter and Bryce Warren, Bill O'Connell, George Palmer - all of which deserved whatever they got from me after that. To this day I've never been able to figure out who the clown was who came up with the idea.

2. The first time there was an injection of locomotive humour in my classroom, was during the CP-140 Aurora Operational Mission Simulator (OMS) ZC course. The subject matter (Manchester Interface & Trainer I/O Interface) was rather dry. The instructor was rather boring too, I'm told. In the middle of a bit chasing while bombarding the students with a series of 35mm slide projector and overhead projector slides, I selected a photo of 1057 passing through a train crossing at Brampton Ontario. Like the students, I just stared at the screen. About a minute later, I turned back to my lesson plan and mumbled "Carrying on with that train of thought..."

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3. The ZC and the ZA (CP-140 Flight Deck Simulator Course) were created at CAE Montreal, and finalized at 404 Sqn. at Greenwood by Bob Fennell, Claude Dufour, John Doyle, Paul Cockrill, George Palmer, and myself. Somehow, DND owed CAE, and CAE took it out in manpower instead of cash. Six military members were sent to Cote de Liesse in 1979 to develop the OMS and FDS courses - it was a brilliant move, because we couldn't possibly complain about the quality of the end product, could we?

Many Argus simulator techs cross-trained to the CP-140 Aurora simulators. You might be interested in this:

This (excellent) print was commissioned to help as a fund-raiser for the mid-90s paint stripping and repainting of Argus 10712 at Comox. The print is extremely realistic. The lighting bolt paint is faded just like the Argus was 99% of the time. The original painting is on display at the Comox Air Force Museum, but that one looks like the aircraft was fresh out of the paint bay. I like the print much better.

It is an illustration of the pre-launch of sister ship 10711 (none of the Argus aircraft were capable of in-flight refueling) just before she set a world record for aircraft type for flight endurance. It's an interesting story, because a search & rescue mission interrupted the record-attempt. The sailor they were sent out to find was later found in a marina - rumour has it he wasn't alone either, LOL.

The prints are signed by the majority of the of the 10711 mission members (Rollie Zwicker missed the signing ceremony but added his signature to mine later on).

They are currently selling for $25 but originally sold for $65 each.

http://www.comoxairforcemuseum.ca/giftshop/posters.html

There aren't many who have RUTHERFORD originals on their walls.  It was (and still is) a terrific opportunity to get a RUTHERFORD print at an incredible price.  A description of what happened that day accompanies every poster.

Graham R.J. Vokey

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