We sailed at ten, heading out to the south of the Isle of Wight. Very soon after clearing the immediate vicinity of Portsmouth we went to Flying Stations with the trusty old Wessex 5 HDS aircraft, and trying to get a few of the Sea Kings of 814 NAS into the air rather than having them cluttering up the flight deck and the hangar. That squadron hasn’t been doing too well lately, and the helicopters have been suffering more than their fair share of unserviceabilities.
We also welcomed – if that’s the right word – some more of the 814 Squadron personnel on board, and a second Wessex from 772 NAS for HDS duties as required. The ship is beginning to fill up again, although we still have quite a few civilians on board, just helping out with a selection of the final cheeks, and we are still, of course, getting new equipment on board, including a new DAPS (Deck Approach Projector Sight) which was fitted in Portsmouth.
This a visual aid designed to assist Harrier pilots in making their final approach to the ship in marginal weather conditions and provides them with glide path information. We had to have a new one as the old version almost completely obscured the view aft from Flyco, which made controlling deck operations interesting, at best, as it meant that we could see virtually nothing of approximately half of the flight deck, or what was approaching the ship from astern.
Yet another triumph for the Naval architects, I suppose.