This is a reprint of an article which appeared in the 1982/2 issue of Sentinel Magazine.

HORNELL CENTRE: Focus on Aurora
by Maj Craig Mills
Photos by PO Wayne Loane

Day and night, all year round, Aurora sub hunting patrol planes head skyward from CFB Greenwood in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley.

Within sight and sound of each Aurora's takeoff, sits the Hornell Center, the modern, spacious hub of Greenwood's training and operational staffs. Housing base operations, 404 Maritime Patrol and Training Squadron and the Aurora Software Development Unit, the Hornell Centre, like the Aurora it supports, never rests.

More than 40 people from base operations here, planning missions, briefing Aurora crews and analyzing data from returning flights.

Mission planners get input from Maritime Command HQ in Halifax and other sources to help in scheduling tasks. Briefers alert crews on everything from weather and airport conditions to the positions of transiting subs in the Atlantic. After each mission, analysts examine hours of taped sensor information, breaking it down to get a "fingerprint" of each flight.
 

MCpl Cy Young, standing, teaches Comox-based students Pte Don Kerr, left and Cpl Perry Gardener maintenance of the Aurora's complex electrical system. (Photo #ISC 82-2038)

Sgt Eli Bowen, an instrument electrician instructor, checks the lighting panels on the universal systems trainer. Looking like a large Lite-Brite set with removable mylar plastic overlays, the trainer is capable of showing the Aurora's fuel, hydraulics, air conditioning and auxiliary power units. (Photo # ISC 82-2043)

DIAC IS THE ANSWER

The key to handling the millions of bits of information collected is DIAC, the Data Interpretation and Analysis Centre, located deep in the heart of the Hornell Centre. Using the most modern computers and with five display consoles located throughout the Hornell Centre, the DIAC keeps everyone aware of the current situation.

One analyst, Capt Dave Scallion, played back sensor tapes from a recent mission. "The DIAC helps us analyze information 16 times faster than real time," he said. "This information can then be immediately passed on to other crews and to Marcom HQ for their instant use."

"It's still a hell of a big job," said Maj Chester MacNeill, deputy base ops officer. As many as 12 missions have been planned, flown and evaluated in a day. These missions are usually a mix of training and operational flights, with emphasis on training when operational tasking allows. "Normal ops staff manning can never cope with the peak periods; at those times we call in everyone available," said Maj MacNeill. With the heavy tasking and constant demands, it's good to know the best people available are on the job. The briefers and analysts are all pilots and navigators with from four to 20 years' maritime patrol experience.

Experience is also the key for the 88 military and civilian staff in the Aurora Software Development Unit. Working closely with everyone else, military operators, engineers and civilian computer scientists continually improve and test the software needed for the Aurora's onboard computers and computer-based systems.
 
 

Atop the sophisticated flight deck simulator, (FDS), 404 Sqn Instructor Capt Bob McElman checks a point with MCpl Garth Aalders, who maintains the simulator. The FDS and the operation mission simulator provide crews with realistic training at a fraction of the cost of actual missions. (Photo #ISC 82-2041)

Cpl Art Ward, a weapons tech air instructor, adjusts a mockup of the Aurora's bomb bay in the ordnance/photo trainer. Students learn maintenance of the Aurora's weapons and camera systems. (Photo # ISC 82-2039)

MCpl David Day, a Comox based weapons technician, performs a systems readiness test on a training model of an Aurora console under the eye of 404 Sqn instructor Sgt Barry Rowan. (ISC #82-2042)

AURORA TRAINERS

404 Maritime Patrol and Training Squadron has the big job of introducing the Aurora pilots, navigators, flight engineers, sensor operators and maintenance crews to the intricacies of their new aircraft.

Seven state-of-the-art maintenance trainers teach everything from quick engine changes, weapons and cameras to propellor synchronization. Two computerized simulators teach flight deck procedures and use of the Aurora's avionics and sensor systems.

"These trainers make excellent use of simulation," said Maj Terry Rogers, squadron DCO. "It's a big step forward." But cranking out the trained crews urgently needed by the Forces' three operational Aurora squadrons has been a heavy load for 404's instructors.

The frantic activity in the cramped instructors' offices on the second floor is a startling contrast to the 20 neat, organized classrooms, spread over half the first floor of the Hornell Centre. With 1350 students pushed through in a 16 month period recently, training simulator time was at a premium. Sixteen-hour days for students and instructors alike were not unusual. Some students could be found bent over their equipment, checking procedures and watching blinking control panel lights at 3:00 A.M.

But long hours and extra effort elicit few complaints. For the students, it's only a prelude to the busy life ahead on an operational squadron. For the instructors, it's a vital job, calling for experience and energy.

WHO'S PERFECT

As good as the equipment and the computers are - and they're the best - the people who operate them harbour no doubts about their own role. As one sign, taped near the flight deck simulator put it: "To err is human; to really screw up takes a computer."

Ernie Cable of the Shearwater Aviation Museum provides some additional background to the story. "The Hornell Centre (named after Flight Lieutenant David Ernest Hornell who was one of two RCAF aircrew awarded the Victoria Cross while serving with 162 (BR) Sqn in Iceland during the Second World War) at 14 Wing Greenwood, NS houses three units which have operated in the Hornell Centre since it opened in May 1980.

1. It accommodates 404 Long Range Patrol and Training Squadron which is responsible for training all CP-140 Aurora aircrew and maintenance technicians. The squadron uses state-of-the-art flight and operational mission simulators and numerous maintenance simulators to train its students.

2. It accommodates the Data Interpretation and Analysis Centre (DIAC) which is part of the 14 Wing Operations organization. The DIAC is responsible for analyzing all of the data from each Aurora surveillance mission then planning the follow-on missions based on the information gathered from previous missions; and

3. It houses 14 Wing Software Engineering Squadron which is responsible for maintaining and adding new capabilities to all computer software associated with the CP-140 aircraft and maintenance operations, training simulators and the DIAC".

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Credits and References:

1) Sentinel Magazine 1982/2,  page 8.
2) Ernest Cable <erncar(at)ns.sympatico.ca>

Aug 31/10