Originally Posted by
Pontius Navigator
Wensleydale will also confirm that there was a 'serious' question asked of 8 Sqn on whether it could reach the FIEZ and how long it could remain on task. Once off task the plan was to ditch near the TF. While this might have given a useful, albeit very short, time on task the best that could be achieved was 4 or 5 shots before writing off the sqn.
With hindsight, for we were told nothing else, the question might have been in relation to either the initial Black Buck raid or of the initial landings on East Falklands rather than guessing when to launch. Under that assumption the question was not as daft as it seemed. Certainly there was pressure within light blue on trying to get a piece of the action.
How right you are Pontious. It was me who phoned Octagon and OC8 and asked!
The question asked of me at HQSTC, while I was the desk officer for AEW at the time was, 'How long can a Shackleton stay on task 2000nm from Ascension". The conversation went like this:
GMP: Oh, about 15 minutes, which allowing for plan of a 20kt headwind would be as long as it would take to splash down out of fuel.
Astonished WgCdr AD: But the bl**dy things fly for hours!
GMP: Yes we do, but at 180kts range speed we don't actually go very far.
Even more astonished Wg Cdr AD: Pause of silence, obviously thinking something like 'How do I tell the RN that!' then departed down the corridor at high speed.
To help, I then wrote a paper proposing cutting the radars out of the Shack to put them in ISO containers to get them installed as ground stations on FI. For all manner of practical considerations it didn't come off...I suspect much to the disappointment of a large proportion of 8 Sqn.