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[raflaunches]

Hi everyone

The weather is terrible, especially yesterday, the winds exceeded our little wind measuring device (over 50mph!) which meant the serving of the 767 was shall I say very interesting. Today the wind has slowed a little but the rain and sleet has come back instead- at least it was warmer yesterday, today is absolutely 'Baltic' conditions!

The carts were lawnmower engine powered and very small but fun- I don't know the class but I can find out the next time we go down there.

On Friday I am going on exercise to Mare Harbour which is where the current protector of the islands is anchored, HMS Dauntless, there is much rumour what we are going to be doing with her in such close company so watch this space- hopefully I can get some good pictures of her.

[Arrow5]

 "Baltic" ????  looks OK to me in Helsinki today    What about that 50mph wind indicator, not much use surely if it gets breezy ?

[Norseman]

Hi Nick

I was just thinking how different it must be for you with Mayhem, Facebook and maybe Skype on hand,
than it was for lads who went out there years earlier and were just cut off from home contacts.
I could even forgive Twitter if it helps you.

Dave ......... stay safe

[w3bby]

Not cut off... letters (remember those ) and a phone call once a week 

Brian and I must have been down at the same time as MPA opened during my tour. The 747 back sure beat the Hercules on the way down, still remember the strawberries 

[raflaunches]

We are still cut off to a certain point! We have Wifi cards or phone cards (you can only have one per week, one or the other not both!) the phone card lasts about 30mins whilst the wifi card allows 100mins of internet use. So you have a choice of talking or emailing. We are allowed to use the computer suit for 45mins a day for personnel use but you have to book some of the terminals in advance. We still get a lot of blueys sent down here. So we more access to talk to home but still have the same restrictions of time allowed to use the facility!

I forgot that it is summer in the northern hemisphere so suppose 'Baltic' is not appropriate at the moment, the wind indicator is only a small hand held item primarily for the use of pretending that we know what we are talking about we get all our weather reports from the Station Met office!

I have heard a lot about the trips in a Herc and how bone rattling, noisy and boring the journey was, and that came from the aircrew flying it yesterday!

Weather has improved for the moment... remember you can get four seasons in a day (or sometimes less than an hour!) 

[Arrow5]

I thought the Baltic reference included monkeys one way or another but we want to see PENGUINS, penguins, penguins, more penguins  Picture IS the Baltic in winter, that is ice they are standing on !  Love the reports keep `em comin`

[essex2visuvesi]

I have heard a lot about the trips in a Herc and how bone rattling, noisy and boring the journey was, and that came from the aircrew flying it yesterday!

You can have a similar experience flying Ryanair 

As for Baltic conditions it can be fun here... there is a temperature variation here between summer and winter of around 70C (at least -40 in winter and usually more than +30) in the summer.  Tho this summer has been very wet and not that hot.

The snow can be an issue at times

[raflaunches]

Don't worry when I get home in 2.75months time I will upload as many penguin pictures as possible! and maybe some more...

Yes the term should include a reference to brass monkeys too, I have never been to a place where just to go to work requires four layers of clothing just to keep warm- just!
Its strange but we think we are getting used to the cold, an example- we stepped out side in gym clothes (just t-shirt and shorts) and thought it felt quite warm the outside temperature was 6 deg C!

I am on exercise tomorrow so I will miss writing my daily thread, and I have been informed that Dauntless has moved from Mare Harbour back to Stanley so I have missed taking a picture of her again

So until Saturday...

[raflaunches]

Hi everyone, I survived yesterdays exercise!

It was a very strange experience because I have not had to do anything like this for almost 9 years! The patrolling was fine no problems but vehicle check points- how boring we all thought- within 10mins of setting up our check point two men jumped out of the ditch about 800yards in front of us and walked down the road, we realised that at least one of them was armed and we were about to challenge them when they opened fire! All of us jumped for cover and returned fire, after two minutes the assessors said that they were dead, so we were about to investigate the 'bodies' when two more men popped up to our left and fired at us. After another 2-3min firefight we 'killed' one and the other surrendered. Usual protocols were put into place to control the prisoner but the call came in that this part of the exercise was over!!!
After the excitement of the morning we found ourselves called out on a quick response alert to one of the look out positions overlooking the Harbour we were defending, one of the assessors had walked up the fence and dropped something, the lookouts had gone to investigate and discovered an unexploded mortar! We rushed out to cordon off the area and captured the assessor! After all that we were glad that the exercise was over.
I did notice that HMS Clyde was in harbour and her sister was sailing around, they are very imposing ships for their size and I can see why modellers like them. I got told by my mate who flies in the Hercules that they were scrambled to investigate a target just outside the national waters of the Falklands and discovered an Argentinian Frigate sitting there! They did some low fly bys and the frigate got the message and sailed home!

Weather has got a lot better, warmer by Falkland standards (not in double figures yet!) the wind has dropped again but I have learnt not to trust what the weather men say down here either because one side of the island is predicted to get nice weather whilst the other gets nasty weather- they don't seem to think that wind can move the rain and sleet from one side to the other!

[raflaunches]

I have been reliably informed that the spring is here is the Falkland Islands!!! Because of this wonderful season has got here at last we can go walking and visiting other parts of the islands that are usually closed during winter. A few of us from my section at work are looking into a couple of battlefield tours around Stanley and a few other sites dotted around the East Falkland Island. If I had known earlier yesterday (I thought I had to go into work!!!) I could have had a battlefield tour at Mount Longdon but it was too late to put my name down on the list.

Still having fun and a good laugh with my new mates down here, its amazing how quickly time flies when you are having fun, I discovered that I have less than 80 days left but I will miss the Warwick show by 5 days! something I was looking forward to this year! Hopefully I will see some of you at the Mobile Marine Models Christmas Cracker this year, my first show since June!

Until tomorrow...

[Bryan Young]

Don't worry when I get home in 2.75months time I will upload as many penguin pictures as possible! and maybe some more...

Yes the term should include a reference to brass monkeys too, I have never been to a place where just to go to work requires four layers of clothing just to keep warm- just!
Its strange but we think we are getting used to the cold, an example- we stepped out side in gym clothes (just t-shirt and shorts) and thought it felt quite warm the outside temperature was 6 deg C!

I am on exercise tomorrow so I will miss writing my daily thread, and I have been informed that Dauntless has moved from Mare Harbour back to Stanley so I have missed taking a picture of her again

So until Saturday...

When I was doing my FDO "bit" I had an elecritally heated suit. Don't you guys have them? BY.

[Norseman]

Hi Nick

I was just thinking about the mention of mines in post 6 - are they still in place there, and does anyone do anything about removing them?
Mines are one of the worst legacies of a war.

Dave

[pugwash]

In 2010 the BBC reported they were starting another pilot project to start clearing the estimated 20,000 mines still left in the
Falklands Islands - I assume it is a very slow business as so many of the modern mines are not metal or easily detectable.

Geoff

[Norseman]

This might seem a very stupid question to those with a military background - do the explosives/mines break down with age?
......... I have a big box of stupid questions so I don't mind wasting the odd one here

Dave

[Stavros]

If they were made of metal then I suppose they would but as they are made of plastic ...I think ....well lets put it another way how long does it take for plastic to degenorate.And lets face it WW2 and earlier bombs and Mines are still being found intact and still alive so personally I think the last sentence will answer your question BUT i will stand corrected if I be wrong


Dave

[Norseman]

I was sort of wondering more about the modern explosive materials themselves Dave - sort of if they're shelf life is limited 30 40 50 years? I can see you are right that the plastic containers won't rot

Dave

[Stavros]

Wouldnt have thought t had a shelf life but who knows in this day and age lol


Dave

[RAAArtyGunner]

This might seem a very stupid question to those with a military background - do the explosives/mines break down with age?
......... I have a big box of stupid questions so I don't mind wasting the odd one here

Dave

Complicated question. Simply put, Yes they do, for example all WWII ammo should by now have been either dumped or expended.
Not being a chemist, it has to do with the chemical properties of the explosive, which circa WWII was TNT, Tri Nitro Tolulene.

With technological advances these days the explosive, etc, would have a longer shelf life, if stored and maintained correctly.

Also advances in technology for bigger and better, render some "ammunition" obsolete, such as artillery projectiles, which then need to be destroyed/dumped.


Not to mention depleted Uranium type projectiles which when expended have a  life of......................................

[raflaunches]

Hi everyone

To answer the question regarding the minefields, they are being cleared but at a slow pace. The problem is that the Argentinians were not kind enough to leave detailed maps of all the mines laid. So the entire area suspected of being a mine field is cordoned off and investigated for longer than normal. The landscape does not help either, most mines were laid around Port Stanley which has a layer of moor land type grasses and mosses but beneath is a layer of peat and peat bog. Over time the mines sink and can move around in the peat bog and resurface outside the known mine field! This happened to a good friend of mine who was brave enough to go for a swim in the sea, he ran out into the sea and got back out 10mins later to discover the tide had uncovered an unknown minefield on the beach! Luckily he had a radio with him and called for help!
The mines also seem to be a mixture of plastic and metal cases so they have degraded to different degrees of dangerousness. The locals claim they know where all the mines were laid and can often be seen taking short cuts through mine fields but as a member of the RAF I have been advised to keep away and ignore the locals if they suggest going through the minefields. 
Curiously the penguins are light enough to walk over the mines without detonating them but sheep are not... there are lot of sheep in the Falklands and occasionly you can hear a bang

The weather is worse today- gale force winds are back with rain showers inbetween what sunshine we have! Over all a very grey day with a 6 deg C ground temperature so God knows what the wind chill has knocked it down to

BY- Unfortunately the electric suits are long gone we have to put up with long johns or thermals underneath our CS95 uniform with a fleece and thermal socks and occasionly when it gets very cold a wooly hat!   

[Martin (Admin)]

"electric suits"..... what like in the film TRON?!?!  


Sheep, mine filed, occasional  bang,.... must be a joke in there somewhere!   
 

[raflaunches]

What, baaa baaa boom! I don't know what you are implying Martin are you suggesting something else ?
Hope you enjoy your self on Friday and Saturday at Ron Deans open day, you might see my dad there on both days!

[Bryan Young]

"electric suits"..... what like in the film TRON?!?!  


Sheep, mine filed, occasional  bang,.... must be a joke in there somewhere!   
 

No Joke Martin. Battery pack on a belt and plugged into the wired suit. Same with the gloves. Magic when standing for hours on a freezing flight deck. Cold (read freezing) feet though.
Did you know that the "de-icing" fluid used on flight decks was horse pee? Came in big drums. BY

[RAAArtyGunner]

Now that's what we in OZ call Horsepower   

[essex2visuvesi]

No Joke Martin. Battery pack on a belt and plugged into the wired suit. Same with the gloves. Magic when standing for hours on a freezing flight deck. Cold (read freezing) feet though.

You need some of these then...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-Unisex-Battery-Powered-Heated-Fleece-Winter-Socks-Medium-UK-5-8-/290681810056?pt=UK_Men_s_Socks&hash=item43adfc6c88
The ladds from my local bought me a set when I moved to Finland lol

[raflaunches]

We use pig urine on land airfields, very strange stuff, its mixed up in a large vat on the back of a 7tonne lorry and heated through. When it gets sprayed on the tarmac/concrete it works like magic removing the snow and ice, on the aircraft it get pumped through a spray gun, it comes out looking like some one has sneezed all over the jet!
I should know because I got a back wash from the spray a few weeks back whilst I was spraying the ice on the wing of a 767 airliner! It doesn't taste or smell very nice, sweet and sickly taste but with a raw after taste of something nasty!!!

Weather update- Rain through out the night and a few broken showers over MPA, 6 deg C ground temp but with gusty winds knocking it down to 0 deg C.
A Landie broke down again and was taken back to the garages- hope they actually fix it this time, the replacement is slightly better- the starter motor actually kicks the engine over but still not instantly and what was worse whilst I was changing Landies I brushed past a post whilst reversing and got a telling off from a 'jobsworth' in MT for being the third person that day that had hit the same post, to which I replied that perhaps he should do something about it instead of telling me off! Needless to say he was not happy with a airman telling a corporal how to do his job and walked away in a huff!
Oh well, we won't be getting a decent Landie now!