Strumble Head Lighthouse at night

Comment by Michael Grove on July 10, 2018 at 9:52

     Strumble is on the North West tip of Pembrokeshire, west of  

     Fishguard. The area is known as the Pencaer Peninsula, although

     it isn't actually a  peninsula. Bordered on two sides by the sea and

     on the inland side by a line of low hills, it does give the feeling of

     being cut off. The focus for  Pencaer is Strumble Head Lighthouse,

     perched on a tiny island just off the coast and reached by a small

     suspension bridge. The Lighthouse is automated NOW so there isn't

     any access onto the island.

Comment by Michael Grove on July 10, 2018 at 10:00

   During the 1960s and 1970s civil and military air traffic control

   officers worked and trained together at the site which also retained

   an air defence and special  tasks role including that of supporting

   Research and Development flying programmes from Farnborough

   and Boscombe Down and the early Concorde flight trials. [IT] was in

   1967 that I completed my Joint Military Fighter Controller/Civil Area

   Radar Controller training at Southern Radar RAF Sopley and in 1968

   provided Summer Leave Relief on secondment duties from LATCC

   London Radar.

Comment by Michael Grove on August 12, 2020 at 18:08

   

   I well remember during that time at Sopley providing assistance to

   an Aer Lingus flight en-route from Cardiff to Dublin, following an

   ATC clearance to [RE]join controlled airspace at the Strumble DVOR •

   subsequent to being caught in bad-weather en-route • by a process

   of guiding the pilot around and between the rain clouds, because of

   the phenomenally detailed accuracy of the Type 80 radar, in the

   detection of weather, as well as aircraft and other  unidentified flying

   objects [UFO's], which was an inherent nature of the beast at that

   time. Oh how that Primary Radar capability swiftly disappeared with

   the advent of Secondary Radar and then in more recent times GNSS. 

   

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