Could one of you knowledgeable chaps help me out, whilst in the Air Ministry Meteorological Office prior to joining the Navy I made enquiries about becoming part of the crew of a Aircraft which sole function was to record Meteeorological Data by either ascending or descending at a fixed rate, producing a code similar to the synoptic surface code. Much as I try I cannot remember what it was called. I believe it may of finished in the late 1950,s I was with the Air MINISTRY IN 1957. The name that is in the back of my mind is the Bizmuth or something similar.
The subject was brought by a ex RAF Pilot and ex Customer of mine.

Ray and John W – thank you too for your response to my dit on her Ladyship HERMES –
A personal cmment on the passing of Lady T is that I met her on HERMES at SPITHEAD – first impression – teeth not good – Iron Lady – salt air- corrosion – don’t want to be derogatory – maybe just no time to see a dentist.

Charlie has put a little pressure on me to do a TWMPP, and I have to say that ‘she who has to be obeyed’ did likewise some time ago. (A great pillar of this site – I wish her well as she approaches a double hip replacement- stay well Gill!)

Ray in an much earlier dit asked if one of us METOBS ‘re-threads’ from ‘before the mast’ would let the site readers have an insight to a career in the Andrew .

Those who know my personal background – that I have a family security issue because of my (and my two brothers) service in the RN will understand I can only contribute within the more secure boundary of the FORUM. (where search engines don’t penetrate).

From there maybe Peter Squib might extract, with my help, a suitable TWMPP for this site.
If he does it will be different – because having left METOBS I was never far away from my ‘plotting pens’ in my RN Observer role. Indeed in the Type 21s and other ships, including RFAs with a Helo it was the Flight Observer who provided the Met info and “forecast” (suitably trained to plot the CANAL at the RNSOMO (as I was on 29 July 81 – the day Charles married Diana 1981–).
So – on ships without dedicated Met I produced the plotted ‘CANAL’ and forecast at Flight Briefing and, until the SYNOP code changed I managed a meagre plotted chart of actuals that the communicators could find on the B17 ? broadcast ???? – today all would be available on the ETHERNET-.

I have partially contributed to that earlier request with my recent dit on my short time on HERMES in ‘82.

The only verifiable record of my service post MET I have to refer to is my Flying Logbook which I was supposed to surrender with my Gas Mask and aircrew watch when I retired. Well I don’t have a gas mask or ‘free Rolex’ but I have my logbook (please don’t tell anybody).

I will release my ‘above deck’ history soon to Charlie for ‘moderation’ and eventually to the FORUM and will hope that Peter Sq will be able to extract a topical, meaningful and interesting element to this site.

For Ray – The only flying I did after retirement was the occasional ‘recreational’ flying (Piper Alpha), mainly UK South Coast, from Lee on Solent . That ended in 2006 – (cardiac thingies !)

Best wishes to all – SPUD

At last! Someone else joins in! Well done, Marie, and thanks for your little report. I remember theodolites well, but unfortunately they don’t work at sea in a Force 8 gale! The radio-sondes also recorded temperature and humidity, and sent back continuous coded signals with all the information. Meanwhile the real sailors on the radar sent us bearings and distance of the radio-sonde from the ship every minute; it was fitted with a radar reflector. This had to be plotted in relation to the ship’s course and speed to give true wind speeds and direction. All this was happening while the Met office lurched from side to side….ah, happy memories. I remember once one of our aircraft was doing night flying, and picked up the position of the radio-sonde, then proceeded to shoot it down as a bit of practice…..

Ray and Jonnie

At Halfar the last duty of the night watch at7am in the morning for two weary-eyed wrens was to fill a hydrogen balloon weighted to rise at 500ft or 1000ft per minute, then, while one with stop watch in hand timed the balloon the other tracked the balloon with a theodolite and read out the readings.

Tracking a Radio Sonde balloon while sitting comfortably in the Met Office was not a luxury for us – we were in the ‘dark ages’!!

Spud thankyou for your latest entry, My experience of the Hermes was probably of my own making.
Ray I also remember releasing the Radio Sonde Balloons I had a couple of experiences in launching them. to ensure a smooth take off of the balloon I would phone the Bridge to ask them to alter course a touch to the left or right, I could imagine the rest of the accompanying ships moving in sequence, The other strange event was.. The Forecaster insisted that we send up a Balloon off Gibralter, because of the winds around the rock the thing hugged the contours of the land, the operation was a pure exercise therefore did not take readings. After a hour or so I was called to the Gangway where I was greeted by the Naval Police a strange object had been reported ascending the Rock. I jumped into their Jeep where we climbed to the top escorted by two Motor Cyclists to clear the way of our ascent, almost to the top we found the Balloon almost intact hung on to a bush, after assuring that the UFO was harmless we were ready to return to the Ship one of the out riders asked if he could have the remnants of the Balloon to cover is Cycle.
Nothing further was said about the incident.

What a good story, Spud! Did you remain a helicopter pilot when you left the RN? All I ever did on the Happy Hermes was to release a radio-sonde balloon every night at midnight – and then sit in the Met office tracking it and ending up with a Tephigram for the duty forecaster every morning before flying stations.

Spud would like to add to the Happy HERMES history of happy and non-happy times in the Great Lady. I appolgise for the long narrative – it is the first time that I have put these memories in writing – so HEREWITH …

ONE day in SPUD’s life on the Happy HERMES.

In ’82 I served on the happy HERMES having been transferred with my Lynx Flight from RFA FORT AUSTIN on our return from the taking of South Georgia.
I did visit the Met office regularly – Sadly , I can’t remember names the Met staff . What a pity they are not members!
When I joined ‘Happy HERMES’ we were short of food (varieties) probably because we were so overcrowded with extra aircrews (like myself), Naval Gunfire Spotters, Admiral Woodward, his staff and retinue and of course CRAB AIR with their handbag carriers and their GRAs ( – ground attack harriers flown down from UK via Ascension with multi VC10 Tanker sorties). They were useful – more useful than the ‘bombing’of the Port Stanley runway!

We did seem to have lots of Ice Cream though – (probably an Ice Cream making machine onboard and of course lots and lots of the powdered MILAK and it was not unusual to have Brocolli-Ice cream for dessert ! Think one night we had a garlic ice-cream!) Mostly the Ice Cream was served in a different colour – the alternate dessert was an Ice-cream – yes- of a different colour just to add variety ! only the crabs complained!) Actually the Crabs were very well behaved –(too busy being sea-sick ‘me ‘tinks)!

Despite food shortage – during one VERTREP (helo replenishment) a large pallet of Fray Bentos corned beef was jettisoned into the sea probably because of an incoming raid – the Commander briefed the ship’s company after the raid about about the loss of the Argentinian Fray Bentos to a great cheer in his background !

The Captain (recently deceased Admiral Len Middleton) was (rightly) very nervous of submarine attack,- although we had sunk one of their two working boats at South Georgia, the whereabouts of the other (German type S206 or S209) was not known.

The NBCD teams (those teams that repaired the ship after damage – mainly of course, flooding , but also electrics etc ) had ‘standing orders’ to close EVERY water-tight door in every compartment at the ‘Action Stations’ alarm and it did not matter who you were you had to stay in that compartment until the end of the raid.

The Captain also put an embargo on anyone sleeping below the waterline and guess what – all the junior officer cabins were down there – so I slept fully dressed (the rule) on a camp bed or on the floor wherever there was space for my sleeping bag and my ‘rucksack’ (could not leave that unattended – after all the Crabs were onboard!) – BUT I can assure you IT REALLY DID NOT MATTER where you went to sleep or what you had to eat.

On the anniversary of the Argentine Republic on 25th May (82) we had a very quiet start to our day (we kept GMT – 3 hours ahead of local time) – so we were up and about well before sunrise (a very good tactical routine) and by midday (9am Argie time) – with no raids – which was unusual – we thought they would be celebrating.
However, onboard, the day went as usual – all defensive onboard and airborne assets were at their airborne or at ‘alert’ ! (perhaps even more alert!) – but many of us not due to fly for a couple of hours mustered in the Wardroom (sea level plus 6 ft – in HERMES- about the height of an incoming sea skimming Exocet) (we knew that) to watch a couple of xxx videos sent to the Padre from fellow padres in the UK. The title of the vids ..? Midnight Blue? Or similar – (at least they had a sense of humour) or something similar indicated soft ‘Playboy’ material (I’m a southern Irish catholic boy I would not know anything about these ‘tings after all I nearly became a Priest (these vids would probably be aired today if there was an equivalent BBC video of ‘Thought for the Day)– anyway I promised myself that I would never be caught below deck during daylight (the Argies did not fly at night) – (though WE WERE prepared if they did!) I ended up early that afternoon on their National Day, down below in the wardroom watching the ‘blue’ vids.
Mid way through the Midnight Blu – just about as she was taking off her … we got hit with a major raid – at an intensity not seen before – ( the results were disastrous for the Task Force and have no place here in my light hearted account of one of my days in Happy HERMES).

ME – Fcuk – I found myself face down on the deck and annoyed (mainly for my family) that I got ‘exposed’ to a situation I could have avoided by staying ‘up-top’). ?wondered if the vicars who sent the videos were Argies ? of course not .

Happy HERMES can keep her name and title – she got herself (and me) home VICTORIOUS ( I’m sure the VIC association will allow us that!). I am proud and HAPPY to have been part of her crew.

All ‘old’ HERMES can be proud of her final act in the RN – she won that war – she fulfilled her duty as did all those who served in her throughout all those commissions’ – getting her to the preparedness for the ultimate design for a warship, sadly which is to fight – and help win Wars !.

There is one Meteorological phenomena of the Southern Winter of ‘82 that I can report – one of course I could not have experienced in my four earlier visits because mine were ‘southern summer’ – and that is in my many flights away from HERMES and close in to the Eastern Falklands shore line there were well defined Cumulus and often towering cumulus clouds SITTING ON THE SURFACE of the sea ! so much so that, as we in our LYNX helo had NO defensive weapons , we could use these Cu as a hideaway – very assuring – the Arg PUCARAs had no radar so we were generally safe hiding in the Cumulus with clear air and good visibility in between !.

Happy HERMES will always be a happy memory for me – But
I would much prefer that Ray, Ian P etc & co’s happy HERMES memories had prevailed – we were, after all in our times ‘geared-up’ for the Cold War and ended up in a War with a ‘friend’ !.

Ray you often talk of Happy Hermes obviously you were not part of the 62/63 crew which seemed far from happy,
The Winter of 62/63 I missed being on board the not so Happy Hermes but my Wife at that time sent me shots of her playing in the snow in Early March.

Forgot to mention that First Mate and ace tiller-man on the narrowboat trip was none other than Steve Howard, my old mate from the Happy Hermes! We should organise another trip next year with all ex-Hermes crew on board…….

I know I have some stupid holidays, but I have just excelled myself! Remembering how hot the end of March was last year, six months ago I booked a narrowboat holiday in Wales between 23rd and 30th – i.e. all last week. The only time I have ever sailed through ice on a canal! Had to come back two days early, as it was ridiculously cold. The boats are steered from outside in the elements……