A busy flying day, and as the weather was pretty lousy until fairly late in the afternoon, I ended up having to hang about round the Ops Room waiting for the Sea Harriers to return, and then talk them down using the prehistoric radar set that I am supposed to use. The talkdown radar is so bad that I will very shortly be going into print about it, because I do not feel that we can safely operate Harriers in all weathers with the present radar fit, and it’s time something was done about it.
I watched ‘The Baltimore Bullet’ on ITV – a film about pool hall hustlers, starring James Coburn. A bit long, but funny and entertaining for all that.
The bad news was that I was duty man overnight, so, with a Hercules expected to leave the islands at about midnight and a briefing at 0445, I decided that it really wasn’t worth going to bed, and I stayed up in the Air Office overnight, writing letters and sorting out signals. I’ll sleep tomorrow. I hope.