Carnarvon Capers
A personal account of the HAD launches in Carnarvon and Quobba by Glen Secombe
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We arrived in town and booked into Wilson Tuckey's pub and set about getting organised.
The explosives arrived a day or so later and we had arranged to store them at the race course under cover and secure. We then inspected the launch site which was a real shock. We understood it was a clay pan. It was when Bryan Rofe and Don Paginton saw it months earlier however it was now covered in a foot of water caused by the high tides experienced in the area. Some sticks marked a track through the water to the launch site which was on higher ground. Despite this we decided to give it a go, you will note this condition from the photos. We set up the launcher and firing post with a fair amount of difficulty as you can imagine. We then had to run a communication cable to the tracking station across about 3 miles of low scrub and bushes which took a fair while.
Then came the vehicle preparation, the fin alignments were all carried out at Salisbury so it was a matter of assembly. The motors were towed to the launch area which was no small feat as the track was getting progressively worse. The job of towing fell to yours truly as I had more experience with donga bashing than the rest of the team. We were told that busloads of people were coming from Perth to see the firings, a smart move by the locals as tourism is handy for the local economy. Pity that no one told them that each motor only burns for 3 seconds.
We had Gun Sight Aiming Point cameras (a small 16 millimetre Bell and Howell camera) set up to film the launch. Some of them fell over in the mud but we got some shots. Three of the firings were very good, but one was a bit shonky as the vehicle failed to spin as it should have. A motor landed near the taxiway at the airfield, and part of the head landed near a fellow working near the town. He got a lot of drinks out of his story. The tracking station reported a “lock on” of the sphere but no change in azimuth or elevation only a change in range. It was coming down their spout.
Since both the conditions and safety were a concern it was decided to move to "The Blows', and because it was taking so long to elevate the launcher, about 45 minutes of back breaking work done in shifts. I had in mind a gantry fixed to the front of the Land Rover with a block and tackle fitted to lift the first stage onto the launcher. I also had made a set of rollers to put under the rear wheel and vee pulleys fitted to both the launcher and the rear wheel of the vehicle. On my second trip, which was the third series of launches, we launched 10 vehicles successfully in short succession and these modifications to the launcher worked very well. While very tiring it was a very satisfying experience.
Glenn Secombe participated in the first series of HAD launches in 1964 and the last in 1965. He was a Technical Officer and later Senior Technical Officer who during his years at WRE was employed in the various groups engaged in Upper Atmospheric Research.
