Fleet Air Arm observers: goggles, weather, and Morse

The account explains how corrective lenses were hinged onto service goggles so an observer could clear mist, spray, or rain in an open cockpit. Naval observers also had to send and read Morse at twenty words per minute, a skill achieved only through sustained practice. The memoir then follows a Fairey IIID whose pilot tried to loop a floatplane and became trapped in a steep inverted dive. An unorthodox use of rudder and control column finally rolled the aircraft upright just above the water. Together, the episodes show that observer training joined communications discipline, improvised equipment, and exposure to the physical hazards of early seaplane flying.