The Quad.

Well, the photo at left, which was in our last issue, certainly caused some interest, and we received many mails telling us what it is, what it does, where it was and who's not paying. Here are just a few:

Dave Claydon says the radar is definitely the Quad and he was trained and worked on a green coloured one at ATTU from 1984 to 1986. He says it was a mechanical monster but looked a treat when it went into Precision Approach mode with both antennas sweeping. Dave says there were many knowledgeable ground Techs in the RAAF who worked on  the Quad, one famous one was a Max Pola

From Frank Alley.  The Quad GCA radar is as you describe. One antenna oscillates on the horizontal plane giving the target's bearing, the other antenna 'nods' up and down giving the angle of elevation of the target and computed as range and glide slope for the approach controller. I can remember standing on the runway threshold at Richmond with a theodolite tracking our testing aircraft on finals and listening to the instructions given by the approach controller to the pilot. That was when I was working at ARDU.

Pygmy McAndrew, who's now in the UK, tells us it's definitely an AN/FPN-36.

From Geoff Reddish in Launceston, re page 7 of edition 20 The device is an FPN36 Quad radar- It was a 3cm Ground Control Approach ATC radar which replaced the AN-CPN-4 which was a 50's version of the GCA radar used during the Berlin airlift. The CPN-4 was used at Melbourne Essendon airport for the 1956 Olympic Games then was taken back to East Sale. Other 3 were at Butterworth, Williamtown and Amberley I understand 1 is at the RAAF museum at Point Cook. One major difference between the 36 and the 4 was you had to move the CPN-4 from one end of the runway to the other with a wind change. The 36 had 10cm search and 3cm precision radars The Quad was at Ballarat in 1959 for Tech training and subsequently they replaced all the CPN 4's. I was on no 5 Radtech in 1959 and we trained on the Quad. I was then posted to East Sale and trained on the CPN-4 with Barry Laidler under the tutelage of Eddy Nagajak. Then to Butterworth with Buster McLean et al. on the CPN 4. After transferring to ATC, I ended up back at East Sale at CFS teaching ATC student GCA controllers all about the Quad which had duel indicators and controls.

Last time I visited the ATC school they had the Quad indoors bits on display. Don't know where the outdoors bits ended up. It was a good bit of gear 60nm search which picked up most rainfalls as well as Pelicans and aeros. It was brilliant at pinpointing thunderstorms and the Met Bureau used to consult the RAAF quite often. It also had the GCA bits, centreline and glide path for talkdown and with experience it was easy to observe the undercarriage come down . It was fixed in one spot and rotated appropriately to the active runway. At Sale it covered all 4 runways which was a good enough explanation for the name (for students).

Peter Hastings  The beast looked for 40 miles as a final approach radar. The Horizontal antenna was used for “search radar” and left and right of the runway approach. The vertical was for height position and had a height find function that was used to gauge the height of aircraft (or incoming storm fronts some of which exceeded 50,000 feet in Darwin. The two dishes oscillated back and forth though a 15 degree area and was used by controllers on the ground to guide aircraft to the touchdown point on the end of the runway. The display that lived within the control tower had a screen that displayed height and left / right of runway and the aircraft was “flown” down these lines by ATC instructions to the touchdown on the runway. As this was an early RADAR, the first blind speed was 155 knots….which just happened to be the landing speed of a Macci Jet…oh!!! The Radar could be rotated 360 degrees and lived on the edge of the strip for landing in both directions. I think from memory this was called a CPN4 in all the books, but went by the “QUAD RADAR” description. (You can work out the blind speed using this formula v_m = m l f /102 - just though you would like to know - tb)

Alan Wilson.  The AN/FPN-36 Quad Radar was born of the days when pilots did not need or get instrument ratings, rather highly qualified ATC controllers talked them down through fog or storms until the wheels hit the tarmac. The RAAF had several Quad Radars [Laverton, Sale, Townsville, Edinburgh, ATTU] at non fighter pilot airfields as AN/CPN-4 [at Williamtown, Pearce? And Butterworth] could handle several aircraft on final approach at the same time. Quad could only handle one aircraft on a 12 mile final, and fighters would run out of fuel waiting. I had to write papers in the mid 70's arguing for their replacement and it was a near run thing. But the RAAF bought AN/TPN something [22?] to replace the Precision Approach Radars at several airfields. Later pilots got more training and flew down ILS, Australia tried to get MLS microwave landing systems internationally recognized. Now pilots hit buttons and fold arms, and have to let the computer fly every third GPS approach and are now concerned that the same 5 Sq meters of the runway is being pummelled into potholes. Such is technology and progress.

If you are going to try cross-country skiing,

Arnie Vereschildt and Allan George at "Sick Parade" at the Kurrawa Surf Club (Gold Coast) after a 19 Appy reunion a little while ago. Arnie now works for AeroTest  on the Sunshine Coast while Allan George and wife Jane have moved down the hill from Canberra to Tuross Heads on the Coast .

Howard “Sam” Houliston, ex 19 Appy, tucking into what looks like a glass of Guinness at a "recovery and wind up" lunch at Kurrawa Surf Club. Sam lives in Balmain in Sydney and has been a regular contributor to the RAM for yonks.

Photos sent to us by Phil Laird

Above: 19 Appy on the buses (above), on their way to RMIT for the day, a bunch of eager and enthusiastic young blokes, with not a care in the world  -  it all seems such a long time ago.....a life time really....

A blonde is terribly overweight, so her doctor puts her on a diet. "I want you to eat regularly for two days, then skip a day, and repeat this procedure for two weeks. The next time I see you, you'll have lost at least five pounds." When the blonde returns, she's lost nearly 20 pounds.

"Why, that's amazing!" the doctor says. "Did you follow my instructions?"  The blonde nods. I'll tell you, though, I though

A blonde reported for her university final examination that consists of "yes/no" type questions. She takes her seat in the examination hall, stares at the question paper for five minutes, and then in a fit of inspiration takes her purse out, removes a coin and starts tossing the coin and marking the answer sheet Yes for Heads and No for Tails. Within half an hour she is all done whereas the rest of the class is sweating it out. During the last few minutes, she is seen desperately throwing the coin, uttering and sweating. The moderator, alarmed, approaches her and asks what is going on. "I finished the exam half an hour ago" she said, "