This morning we finally reached the FIPZ (Falkland Islands Protection Zone), and we are now wearing two complete layers of clothing during the day: normal or working dress, with a set of overalls on top, just in case.
One piece of good news, I suppose, is that the ship and her air group have now completed the second section of the work-up phase, under the supervision of Battleaxe, and that ship’s crew conducted a mini ORI (Operational Readiness Inspection) code-named LUSTY LADY as a finale. Quite what we’d have done if we hadn’t passed wasn’t made very clear … Gone back to Portsmouth or Portland, maybe?
Today, again, was very quiet from the point of view of aircraft work, as most of our helicopters were very fully employed in collecting and delivering stores – we have finally met up with the Carrier Battle Group, Task Group 317.8, and with Invincible. I went up onto the Quarterdeck just after lunch to have a look at her, and as we were only a mile or so away from her, we had quite a good view. She looked, literally, like new, showing no signs at all of the conflict she has been through. I just hope we look as good when we turn round and leave the area. Several of the officers from Invincible came across to Illustrious, including HRH The Prince Andrew, who appeared unexpectedly by Sea King last night, when I ran into him in the bar just before going to bed.
We are also making preparations for the Admiral and his staff to arrive over the next day or two. The weather was splendid today, cold (very), but crisp and clean, and the Task Force looked very impressive indeed, with ships scattered as far as the eye could see. We were, at lunchtime, only some twenty miles or so from East Falkland, and several people said that they could actually see the island through binoculars. The most prominent feature, they said, was the snow!
As a point of historical interest, we joined the Carrier Battle Group in the Falkland Islands almost exactly ten weeks (to within an hour or so) of leaving Tyneside. Quite an impressive achievement, by any standards.
We left the FIPZ this afternoon, and re-entered the COA, which is further to the east and out of range of Argentine forces in practical terms, and where we are able to relax to a certain extent, at least as far as dress is concerned, reverting to normal working dress. There was a reasonable film on ITV – ‘Escape from Alcatraz’ – which I watched before retiring to my cabin to read the rest of the evening away, prior to going on watch at 0200.
One of the 814 Sea Kings had a bit of a nasty this afternoon, when it had a single engine failure while in the hover at about 80 feet. The thing started to sink rapidly, and only very swift action by the pilot saved the aircraft. Almost as soon as he had got enough forward speed on to maintain forward flight on a single engine, the fire warning caption lit up on the stopped engine, at which stage he decided it really wasn’t his day and upgraded his ‘Pan’ call to a ‘Mayday’.
After several checks to ensure that they were going to operate the correct extinguisher, they put out the fire (to extinguish the wrong engine would be disastrous, obviously), and the aircraft was successfully recovered to the Illustrious, which at the time was doing a RAS with Olwen. Judging by the greatly increased speed we made to recover the aircraft, by that stage we were probably towing the tanker with the fuel lines, rather than maintaining station alongside. All ended happily, though.