Page 80 - Demo

80tatty bits of paper became the norm. New tactics and procedures werelearned at speed as the Nimrod force settled into its new-found roles,including low-level bombing and fighter evasion. The bombing was areal step change from 8 lb break-up bombs to 1000 lb HE, although thebombsight remained a chinagraph line on the windscreen. The fighteraffiliation and AIM-9 training was great pilot sport but very necessary inanticipation of those bright sunny days off Rio de la Plata.Other problems that we encountered included:1. Navigation in an unfamiliar area %u2013 with foreign fishing fleets, someof which exhibited radars uncannily close to military parameters andlooked like warships on our radar.2. A closed-loop inertial navigation system designed for nine-hoursorties and whose output could affect sensor performance.3. A lack of assurance that the long range Omega fixing systemwould be accurate or adequate in the South Atlantic.4. An initial lack of suitable maps and charts %u2013 at first, I planned mysorties on a meteorological chart with a scale of 1 to 10 million %u2013great for small cocked hats when astro fixing! There was also theembarrassment of arriving at your tanking slot to find the Victordisplaced some considerable distance to the west! This did nothingfor pilot-navigator relationships, but once the properties of Lambertsversus Mercator projections were recalled harmony was restored!The final challenge was the forward operating location capability ofASI about which you heard earlier from David Pierce. I would add that,prior to the arrival of ASMA and the TCW, one innovative solution wasto employ a grounded Nimrod as an HF communications station with thegalley doubling up as the planning office.This was a challenging and innovative time for Nimrod operations,but our skills and training proved to be sound. The flying was hard andgreat fun. After a twenty-hour adrenaline charged sortie with threetanking slots, some at night or in cloud, the sight of ASI on our returnand the thought of a beach barbeque to use up our remaining aircrewrations after the crew debrief was indeed welcome.Finally, I must praise all the backup teams at home base, the legionsof ground crew %u2013 especially the armourers %u2013 the Victor crews, and theUSAF and PanAm who provided unstinting support at this busy airfieldbefore we had a SWO and the other trappings of an RAF station. Theairfield was indeed aptly named Wide Awake.