Peter Copland Works in Meteorological Electronics (continued)

By now the south-east wind had strengthened. The tide was dropping and it was not easy to see the under-water coral outcrops. Our first attempt to take off, across the bay in the more sheltered water, was not successful; it was too rough to reach take off speed and we aborted only 50 metres or so from the low cliffs. Our next attempt was through the mouth of the bay, to keep away from the now invisible coral outcrops, but it was again too rough. The plane would lift off the crest of one wave at 75 km/hr but would then crash into the next wave before reaching its flying speed of, I think, about 85 km/hr. At least we were clear of the coral, but heading for Mornington Island by sea. Eventually managed to take off cross-wind along the swells, but that was a bit hairy too. Arrived in Gove just on dark with only 15 minutes of fuel left. And then the 'well done' steak at the pub had to be held down to stop it from 'going bush'. At least the repairs to the AWS were satisfactory.

The system for emergency maintenance at Cape Wessel was similar to the above. To Gove by commercial airliner and then by a chartered aircraft, usually single-engine VH-MAF from the Mission Aviation Fellowship. The idea was to get as high as possible so there was a chance of reaching land if the engine stopped. The grass strip at Cape Wessel was about 'minimum length' and had a hill in the middle and a cliff to the sea at each end; a bit like a stationary aircraft carrier, only a bit wider. It was built to service the lighthouse and with some good sense our AWS was close by.

The Cape Wessel hut developed a bad rust problem in the painted steel cladding. The Department of Works had this replaced with stainless cladding. The next problem appeared the next year when we found that the new cladding was held on with mild steel tek screws. Visits over the next few years were often a race to replace as many rotten screws as possible, so that none of the cladding was lost, while still attending to our normal work.

I think it was during 1974 that our 'tech' staff increased by one with the arrival of another ex-RAAF technician, one Mr Barry Passmore. At the start he was paid by the Bureau but actually worked for the Ionospheric Prediction Service (IPS) in Sydney, which was part of the Bureau at that time if that makes sense. The IPS had extended our enclosure at Emery Point and had built an Ionsonde next to our satellite tracking station with a transportable hut for the equipment. As I understood the device was to determine the condition of the reflecting layers in the atmosphere to assist the prediction of the expected radio path propagation and of expected changes. In short, the best frequencies to use in a certain situation. I think Barry moved over to work for the Bureau, full time, at about the end of 1975.

Bureau of Meteorology