The mixture as before, for the most part.
We are still playing around in the Portland danger areas, where virtually all ships spend a good part of their early lives, working-up and getting checked by the staff of FOST. We have started to get reports back from the FOST people on various evolutions carried out over the last few days, and with a few exceptions, split more or less evenly between ‘GOOD’ and ‘UNSAT’ (unsatisfactory), these have been ‘SAT’ (satisfactory).
We got a ‘GOOD’ for the brief that we delivered to the aircrew the other day, which pleased John Lamb, Lieutenant Commander (Flying), a good deal, and I got a verbal ‘well done’ for the various talkdowns I carried out last night when we had a very full programme of night flying, with numerous staff-induced emergencies incorporated as well.
The FOST people, of course, are assessing controlling ability from the point of view of someone who is a seaman first and a controller second, and they seem to regard it as quite magical if you can actually not panic when an aircraft becomes speechless and then has a compass failure, with possibly a further emergency thrown in for good measure.
What they don’t seem to realise is that most Naval air traffic controllers are weaned on this kind of thing, and when you are used to recovering four Hunters simultaneously, each short of fuel, one perhaps for exercise with the engine flamed-out and two with other exercise emergencies, bringing one plodding Sea King pretending to be speechless back to the ship is hardly anything to get excited about. The biggest problem you’re likely to face is trying to keep awake while doing it …
The afternoon was interesting, or, at least, what I saw of it was. There was a ‘firepower demonstration’ shortly after lunch, when some of the Harriers got into the air and showed off their various weapons on a splash target towed astern of the ship, finishing up with a ‘bomb burst’ from three of them. Almost, but not quite, exactly unlike the Red Arrows. Unfortunately, all the lack of sleep I have been suffering from of late caught up with me shortly after this, and I retired hurt to my cabin for a kip, and in consequence missed by far the most interesting event of the day – the return of the Hermes.
By all accounts, this was quite a moment, with the majority of the ship’s companies of both vessels on the upper decks. The day was hazy, with only about two miles visibility, and as the Hermes loomed out of the mist there was spontaneous cheering and applause from both ships – they seemed as pleased to see us as we were to see them. The old girl – she’s often referred to as the ‘Rusty H’ – looked a bit rough (from the photographs I have seen), with a lot of rust patches showing up, but after a lick of paint she will no doubt be restored to her former glory.
The Leading Photographer said the sight of her brought a lump to his throat – he had served on board her for three years, just before joining Illustrious – as we matched her course and speed. She will be arriving at Portsmouth very soon, and for anyone looking forward to a quiet evening out, I would recommend that Portsmouth the first night that Hermes is in port will probably not be the ideal place to find it.