Vasco Sodcat.
Thank you, nice for one of us to be remembered thus. I can assure you that forecasting for drops was just about the most frightening, difficult, demanding and rewarding of the things we were asked to do.
In retrospect I cannot believe that I was allowed, unsupervised, to forecast and mass brief for a major drop from RAF Nicosia. Fresh from training, 24 years old, all of 6 months at Gatwick [of all places] sitting by Nelly, and WHOOF! here's a major exercise. In fairness, the pseudo-science of drop forecasts had been well studied and documented, with lots of cases, during the war, and we had full access to this received wisdom.
I didn't have the intelligence to be frightened until 10 years later.
No bones broken, no gear destroyed, no dropped loads rubbished; all was sweetness and light.
Lucky or what?