Jim Hall's Photosite

Tower Tales...

The above photo is the title of my book on aviation, based on my experiences in my career as an Air Traffic Controller and Pilot. The factual short stories are sequential by date of various events of incidents, accidents and fatal crashes while on duty in ATC. Including stories of my flying experiences, with inserts of humorous and unusual occurrences.

This book can be considered as an aviation biography by date.

The (Non-Fiction), Factual information is historical.

The Birth of Tower Tales.

Immediately after an unusual occurrence, incident or accident, an Air Traffic Controller must enter a writeup in the daily Control Tower Logbook. On duty controllers witnessing the event were required to write a report in detail of what they observed and retain it for future use. Accident investigations sometimes take many years to resolve. Controllers needed to refresh their memories and re-familiarize themselves by reading their previous story report before being called on to present their accounts of the occurrence to an accident investigation board of inquiry.

As I was on duty and witnessed many accidents and unusual situations that I had to log, I retained these stories for many years thereafter knowing they might be of interest to readers in the future. I also wrote up any unusual event that happened over my many years of flying and added these to the long list of stories I had on file while working in the Towers.

For many decades these ATC and flying stories of mine were filed away and forgotten. Then, over the last few years, I took them out, dusted them off and transferred them from written long-hand to digital short stories. My plan was to rewrite them to story form and pass them on to family and friends to enjoy reading. Instead, I decided to publish these stories in book form so they could be available to a wider audience. The result is my 90 stories in a 350 page book Tower Tales.

Tower Tales Intro…

Fiery crashes, near misses, stunts, mishaps and even encounters with strange lights in the sky. From Harvards and Vulcan Bombers to airliners and fighter jets, Jim Hall has controlled all kinds of aircraft.

Jim started out as a bush pilot in Canada's North and then went on to various types of flying, from hail suppression, cloud-seeding and crop spraying to fire patrol, aerial photography, banner towing, sky divers and instructing. From his years as a commercial pilot, a bush pilot and in his career as an air traffic controller, Jim Hall has seen it all. His stories are filled with excitement, heroism, high jinks and danger. The factual stories describe various incidents and accidents plus humorous occurrences.

This is the history of aeronautics from the view atop the control tower.

These are the Tower Tales.

During the printing process my printer contacted the federal government for the ISBN # and Bar-Code.

They read it and authorized it as Factaual-History and requested two Tower Tale books. One for their research files the other was to go into their "Library and Archives Canada" in Ottawa.

This book of mine was available as a hard-copy, soft-cover and is now sold out. It is costly and has increased in price of printing. To have less than 200 reprinted including the price of Printing, Sellers Commission, and price of Shipping there is little or no remuneration in it for me, the author.

Take Note...

My book Tower Tales is now available in Digital reading on Amazon.ca ...

https://www.amazon.ca/Tower-Tales-James-Hall-ebook/dp/B08814549P

For your entertainment, there is more information about my book .... Tower Tales on my YouTube Channel below...

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC63VhyiR7MHMe6NhVpgQG4g/videos

Why I wrote a Book

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Why I wrote a book

Throughout my life telling stories and communicating with others was a means of social entertainment. Like most youngsters my interest in listening to stories started at a very young age.

I was born in 1937 during the great depression. As a child one learns mostly from parents and tends to copy their habits. My parents were very social and took every opportunity to be with others. This was during the WW2 era before television. Radio was also either unavailable, too expensive or with very poor reception for those living near mountains. So during the time I lived in Fernie most adults found entertainment socializing with others. They would talk about personal events that happened to them, discuss news items and tell stories that may have happened or repeat stories they heard from others. Most evenings after supper the adults enjoyed social hours and us children would sit quietly listening in awe to the short stories.

I was 10 when my parents purchased their first radio. In Canada there were only two stations, Canadian Broadcast Corporation, (CBC) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Both stations aired classical music with hourly news reports. There was absolutely no radio entertainment for children so most youth spent their social time together with other youth repeating the stories they heard from their elders. Later television arrived but the reception was poor quality and the price was too costly for most people. I was 18 and just finishing high school when my parents were able to afford a TV set.

While in high school I was interested in a career in aviation. The Royal Canadian Air Cadets (RCAC) had a squadron in Wetaskiwin AB. I joined at the age of 16. A half dozen of my school buddies saw the fun I was having so they joined later. The driving time to our weekly squadron training was 20 minutes from Millet. My Dad gave me a few driving lessons and I was now a proud owner of a driver’s licence. Back then there was no drivers test required, just a signature from a parent. Every weekly cadet night I would pile a half dozen of us youth into my dad’s 1941 Chrysler and barrel down highway 2 (now 2A) to the RCAC drill hall in Wetaskiwin.

At age 16 I attended my first RCAC summer camp in Abbotsford BC. There I had my first airplane ride and all cadets on board had their turn flying from the copilots seat. At age 17 I qualified for the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) cadet Flying Scholarship Plan for a Private Pilot’s Licence and trained at the Edmonton Flying Club, (EFC).

Now finished high school and after a couple years working and saving my earnings, I returned at age 19 and signed up at the EFC to upgrade to my Commercial Pilot’s Licence (CPL). I had the same six flying instructors that flew in WW2 for my CPL training that I had while taking my PPL, two years earlier. Two instructors flew Spitfires in the Battle of Britain. Two were Bomber Pilots. One flew off of Aircraft Carriers. And the other was a woman Ferry Pilot who flew newly built fighter aircraft in WW2 from Canada to Europe. During my year training I sat with this group of instructors over coffee breaks and lunch hours. They were a lot older than I so I was intrigued and quietly listened to each of their stories. I told them they should all write books so the rest of the world had a chance to read of their flying experiences. This was answered by a laugh from all of them.

At age 20 with a new CPL, I acquired my first flying job in the northern bush and there was no radio, tv or electricity. My only leisure entertainment was joining the construction workers in the light from lanterns listening to their stories and telling them my flying stories. At winters end, I returned to the EFC to take my flying instructors rating.

At age 21 I acquired a job as an Air Traffic Controller (ATC) that I made my main career. I kept my CPL and flew part-time for the next 50 years before letting my CPL expire. As an ATController, there were many days and evenings during a slow shift due to poor weather conditions when the controllers would encourage me to tell them about my flying experiences. When off ATC duty, while flying part-time, my pilot friends would encourage me to tell them ATC stories that happened while I was on duty in the Tower. So I was well familiar with how to entertain others with my ATC and Flying experiences.

While on shift in ATC, if there was an Incident, Accident, or Fatal Crash, a full written report needed to be entered in the Tower Logbook. The Air Controller and others on duty that witnessed the accident were required to write a full written report and keep it until the accident was resolved. This could be years later. When these stories were no longer required the other controllers would garbage their stories. Fortunately I had the good fortune to retain these written stories for future decades. As unusual experiences happened while flying over the following decades, I would write out a full story of my flying events and fit the story in amongst my stories that happened in ATC.

One of my clients I flew during the 1960’s was an aerial-photographer who previously photographed from bombers during WW2. On returning to Calgary he opened his business and continued doing aerial photo for local industries. I was his pilot for the next decade. I learned a lot about photography from Ken H. I tried to tell Ken how he should promote and sell his photos, but he insisted he wanted to have only drop-in clients to his office. This resulted in loss of sales for him. Ken was 20 years older than I and was planning retirement.

After 27 years in ATC at age 48 I retired. I opened my own Aerial Photo Co. with an office at the Calgary International Airport. I specialized in Scenic-Oblique Aerial-Photo. I did my own flying, shooting and marketing by taking site photographs to the owners or managers. This resulted in immediate sales with more reprints requested. By shooting on speculation I retained the copyright to the negatives, which allowed me to continuously sell prints to various customers over the years. On most of my aerial photo flights while composing a shot and pressing the trigger-release I knew that particular shot was going to be a historical site in the future. Now, a generation or two later, I was correct. That was the reason I donated all my negs to the museum so future generations could see the sites from the past and the development through to the present. After 14 years I retired from Aerial Photo and donated over 5000 negs to the Glenbow Museum Calgary, which are now available for viewing at the University of Calgary.

At the age of 70 I let my various pilot licences elapse. Whenever I was socializing with other aviators, or those with an interest or passion for aviation, they would ask me to tell an aviation story or two. I found that regardless of age, all have a desire to listen to a well told story on a topic of interest.

In retirement I found I had the time to resurrect these stories, edit them as factual historical stories accompanied with photos and self-publish a book named Tower Tales. I had a 100 printed and these sold in a few months. I didn’t reprint but have the digital version on amazon.ca. I’m now arranging to sign over the book copyright to the UofCalgary so future generations will have the enjoyment of factual history in and around Calgary.

I’ve enjoyed saving, editing and having these stories published. And now, along with my historical photos, I have the pleasure of knowing others will be able to read these stories and view the photos of a past era. The reviews I received were most appreciated, self satisfying and indicated it was a job well done.

Jim Hall

Tower Tales Reviews

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My Tower Tales Book Reviews…

- Hi Jim,

I received your email address from Tim Auger, President of the Salmon Arm Flying Club. He mentioned he would let you know that I would be in contact with you.

I am manager of The Aviator’s Bookshelf at Canadian Aviator Publishing Ltd. One of our enterprises is an online bookstore that specializes in Canadian aviation themes: www.aviatorsbookshelf.ca. We also publish a few titles ourselves and resell many other books through the two magazines we publish, Canadian Aviator and COPA Flight.

We are interested in carrying this book and listing it on The Aviator’s Bookshelf and in our magazines. Would you please provide your terms for bulk purchases? I have also left you a voice message. Thank you.

Roberta

Subscriptions and Bookshelf Manager

Canadian Aviator Magazine

The Aviator’s Bookshelf

canadianaviator.com aviatorsbookshelf.ca

604-999-2411

- Hello Mr. Hall,

My name is Erin - - - and I'm a curator at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa.

I'm currently doing research on the history of air traffic control in Canada and I would love a copy of your book. How can I go about ordering one?

Thanks and I hope you are well and keeping safe.

Sincerely,

Erin

Curator, Aviation and Space| Conservatrice, Aviation et l'espace (A)

Canada Aviation and Space Museum/Musée de l'aviation et de l'espace

Office: 613-991-3084

Cell: 613-222-7471

11 Aviation Parkway

Ottawa, ON

K1K 2X5

- A walk down memory lane

Rick S, on Sep 06, 2020

A very easy and enjoyable read. Fascinating how Jim has lived so many aviation lives and how he was able to remember so many stories. As a fellow controller for so many years I was familiar with many of the characters and locations in the book.

Highly recommend this for any reader especially aviation enthusiasts!!

Rick S.

- Hi Jim Hall.

Just finished your book. Thoroughly enjoyed it!! Recommend to everyone, especially those who had the pleasure to work in YC. I think I could put faces to all the first names listed in the

stories. With my short attention span the many and short chapters were welcome.

I ordered it from the bookstore in Salmon Arm. Took almost 7 weeks to get to the UK. Thanks for taking the time to put it together.

Cheers

Rick S.

- Hey Jim !

Good to hear from you !

I have been meaning to talk to you about your book “ Tower Tales “. I purchased an autographed copy from Bookingham Palace Bookstore in mid May. Jim , I must tell you that I truly enjoy reading your book and have done so three times. I have shared your book with three other YYC controllers.

First of all , you wrote the book and chose words that Jim Hall would say. Knowing you from the past , it’s easy to sense that your personality is in the stories that you tell. Many of those stories I have heard before from you and there were several other stories that I had not heard from you before. I really enjoyed reading your book Jim and thank you for writing it. You certainly have inspired me to perhaps take on the similar challenge of writing a book and thank you for that. I always did look up to you in ATC and continue to do so my friend.

I could go on and on about you and your book but hope that some day in the future , COVID 19 notwithstanding, we could meet again over a meal and / or a beer or two and discuss this literary journey.

Take care Jim and we’ll remain in contact.

Cheers !

Bill W.

- Hi Jimmie;

I just finished your book, and I want to tell you I enjoyed it immensely! I’ve heard many Jim Hall stories over the years and was pleasantly surprised at how many were new to me! I gained a renewed appreciation for the guys of your era working for a clerks salary. The salary I earned in my career; Post 1972 strike, and the retirement benefits I enjoy today are a direct result of their efforts setting up CATCA. I am grateful!

Which hanger was the RCAF hanger at YC in the 50’s? How are the book sales going? You mentioned you had to cut a lot of stories out of this edition. Are there plans for a second book?

Oh yes, I had promised to compare your writing style to that of Ernest Hemingway. You write nothing like him; And in my opinion, that is a compliment!

Take care!

Glen (Julio).

- To: Jim Hall
You have such a great way of telling stories and explaining things ... you should write a book !!
Speaking of which, I keep yours by the couch so whenever I take a break, I polish off one or two stories .. it is really a super book Jim ... I hope you are proud of it!

Next air flight I take I will be scrutinizing the airport to see if they are compliant.
Take care, keep well.
Jake. jj. Date: August 8, 2020.

- Jim.

I had no idea you had such a great writing style !!!!
I thought to myself ... well I’ll take a gander at the book and see if I can get into it.
Read through the first two stories and was totally enthralled ! Loved it.

Excellent work Jim ... you can be proud of what you did.

Jake J.

- Tower Tales Takes Off
Jake J, on Sep 04, 2020
I am not an aviator nor do I have much more of a fascination with flying than does the average person. Jim Hall is a long time friend and out of support for his effort to write and publish a book, I purchased a copy. I figured even if I was not super interested in the topic it wouldn’t hurt and it would be fun owning another book written by someone I knew.

Well I could not put it down! Jim writes as he speaks and tells a great stories. Each chapter is independent of the next and yet the book weaves an intriguing story of his life in aviation. I loved the fact that the stories are only a few pages each as I can pick it up at any time and be totally entertained for a few minutes at a time..., which fits in perfectly with my busy life style.

So if you want to hear some great stories from an era that will never be repeated, beg, borrow or steal a copy of “Tower Tales”. Even if you have to buy a copy, it is well worth the money. No piloting experience needed, no aviator lingo required, just sit back and let Jim take you on a great human adventure. The truth is, it feels like Jim is telling me the stories over a cup of coffee rather than me reading them.

Thank you Jim for taking me to a place where I would never have thought to go.
Jake J.

- Jim,

Just had to tell you I had a customer buy your book and was in here this morning to tell me he was absolutely fascinated by your stories. He was so thrilled he could not put it down. Bought three more copies and sent them to his friends including one in Idaho.

Cant wait for mine to arrive.

Gary B.

- Hi jim.

Just finished your story and enjoyed the stories immensely. I'm sitting on the deck in Invermere watching the glider floating up over the edge of the mtns. When i finished the book, i wanted to still know where your whitehorse family got to. I remember vaguely a wife and daughters.

Cheers

Gk.

- Hi Jim,

Attached is an interesting flying story that I thought you might like.

I read your book and I thought it was fantastic!!! Well done.

Fred B.

- Good Afternoon, Jim,

Well, your book arrived on Thursday afternoon, and I started reading it immediately, finishing it last evening. I enjoyed it thoroughly. A lot of well written and very interesting stories. Who even knew that working in a control tower could be so exciting! I remember the Tri-Pacer/Golden Hawk incident quite well, but I didn't know you were so closely connected to the sad event.

What a lot of good memories you stirred up in your chapters about Chinook Flying Service in the days of the late fifties and early sixties.

I enjoyed your flying stories. I was struck by the huge difference between flying professionally, and the recreational flying that I did. I actually got to appreciate the fact that if the weather or other conditions were not to my liking, I didn't have to go.

So, thanks for the book. It brought back a lot of memories, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Sincerely,

Walt B.

- Tower Tales Review.

Sep 07, 2020

I thoroughly enjoyed Tower Tales by Jim Hall. I knew Jim when he was working in the Calgary Control Tower in the late fifties and early sixties. He was a part time instructor at Chinook Flying Service, where I was working on my commercial license at the time. Jim was not my main instructor, but I did fly with him a few times, and his book, brought back many memories of people and airplanes we both knew at the time. That was the Calgary portion of his book. I thoroughly enjoyed each of his stories whether from his Calgary era, or from his time in the Yukon.. The book was well written, and very interesting. I would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in aviation, whether you are a pilot, a controller, or just interested in aviation stories.

Walt B.

- Good Evening, Jim,

March 25, 2023.

I have just finished Tower Tales for the third time. I found it every bit as interesting the third time as I did the first and second read. It is a good book, and contains a lot of history around CYYC that I can relate to.

Have a good evening.

Sincerely,

Walt B.

- Dear Mr Hall,

I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed reading Tower Tales. You had so many exciting and scary adventures during your career. I am not a pilot but love reading about aviation. I remember standing on the parking garage roof at the new (now torn down) terminal one at Pearson watching the first 747 jumbo to arrive in Canada pull up at the gate below me. I volunteered as a test passenger at the new terminal one as they were doing trial runs. After "checking in" I got a boarding pass to North Bay. I was hoping for a more exotic destination. Arriving at the departure gate I handed in my boarding pass and promptly proceeded to arrivals level to pick up my assigned luggage. Some prankster must have put bricks in the suitcase as it was heavy!

Sincerely, Anton Spelt.

- Jim:

I’ve had so many books on the go, I’m only just now getting to have a go at Tower Tales. This is so entertaining – this is my type of book: short chapters and each one is a little adventure that is so well-written that it’s easy to imagine myself in your shoes (especially the Gretchen story, the details of which we will never know). I’ve only just finished the chapter where your eyes were burnt by watching the welder in Waskahigan. Wow! . . . sorry to laugh at your misfortune -- it’s cool that you aren’t afraid to show us your human screw-ups.

No doubt I’ll be writing you again as I get further into the Jim Hall odyssey.

Chat later . . . Gene LeD.

- Hey, Flyboy!

Well, Jim, I've finally made my way to the end of your most-enjoyable career story. I've started many books and somehow just forgot to get back to them -- but not this one! I figure this would make a really entertaining and informative movie. Really.

But, you've got to tell me how the hell you wrote it. What was your method? In some of those fast-moving episodes you had many different types of airplanes to deal with in a short time frame along with all the dialogue which you seem to have down verbatim -- and capturing the intense drama when pilots would ignore or misinterpret your orders, or the fear on forcing yourself to jump out of a plane. I can't see how you could possibly do this without taking detailed notes throughout your shifts and then putting it together at the end of the day. Otherwise the details from one day could be totally eclipsed by those of a more exciting following day, and so on.

I imagine you're lined up for the Covid shot, if you haven't received it yet.

Let me know about your writing method and when you will be starting work on your movie.

Gene LeD.

- Follow-Up, of all of the above by Tower Tales Author, Jim Hall…

All 100 books I had printed sold out in 2 months.

I - “Bookingham Palace Bookstore Salmon, Arm BC”. advertised, sold, packaged and mailed my books internationally.

2 - “Canadian Aviator Magazine” advertised, sold, packaged and mailed my books internationally.

Decisions…

My opinion on publishing a book through a Book Publishing Companies “OR” Self-Publishing?

- Advantage - I self-published because I had full continuous control of the advertising, printing, marketing, sale and shipping of my book.

- Disadvantage - Cost of advertising, printing, marketing. But shipping is paid by the customer.

“IF” your book is accepted and published by a professional book publishing co, they have a contract for a predetermined length of time by date. If they find that other books are selling faster and more popular than yours they will invest more time and money on promoting them, and your book slips into the background shadows. And there is no way to encourage the company to increase the promotion of your book.

EG: If your contract is for 5 years, then your book sits dormant for 5 years.

If it's Self-Published and your book sales diminish, then it’s up to the author to increase advertising and marketing.

All this was explained to me by a well acclaimed author.

Jim Hall.

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