Day-to-day tasks
On a typical mission in early August, a Hercules C Mk 1 (K) and two Victor K Mk 2s were required to get one Hercules PLR2 from Ascension to Port Stanley. While the two Hercules proceeded together, one Victor took on 41,000 lb (18 598 kg) of fuel to bring its tankage back to the full 123,000 lb (55 793 kg), before continuing to rendezvous with the two Hercules; the first Victor then returned to Ascension.

Some four hours into the mission, the primary Hercules took on 23,000 lb (10433 kg) from the Hercules tanker, which an hour later topped up with 48,000 lb (21773 kg) from the remaining Victor, the latter then returning to Ascension. Finally the transport Hercules received a further 22,000 lb (9980 kg) of fuel from the Hercules tanker, both aircraft at this point having sufficient fuel to return to Ascension.' the tanker turned back and the PLR2 continued to Stanley.

There have been a couple of missions where landings did prove impossible, at the end of the outward flight, and passengers were treated to 25 or so hours of ear-battering to little avail. Two emergency diversions to Brazil also occurred during August, one when a probe tip broke during refuelling - the only such incident to date with the Hercules - and the other with an engine problem.

Between 15th and 28th August, the runway at Port Stanley was closed for extension and improvement. In this period, the Hercules maintained a regular service to airdrop supplies and also to collect mail, using the snatch method developed at short notice during June/July at the Joint Air Transport Establishment based at Brize Norton. The equipment in the aircraft comprises a grappling hook trailed on 150 ft (45,6 m) of nylon rope, and a pair of powered winches used to wind the rope, hook and mail bag back onto the aircraft after the snatch. Ground equipment comprises two poles 22 ft (6,7 m) tall and 50 ft (15,2 m) apart, with a loop of nylon rope slung between and the mail bag (up to 100 lb/45 kg in weight) attached to this loop by another 150 ft (45.6 m) length of rope. The poles are set up so that the rope between is at right angles to the wind, and DZ (Drop Zone) markers are set up at 300 ft (91 m) and 600 ft (183 m) distance on the approach. Trailing the grappling hook, the Hercules flies at 50 ft (15.2 in) above ground level to snatch the bag. About 30 snatches were made in this way before sufficient length of runway was again available at Port Stanley, with AM2 matting laid, for the Hercules to resume landings.

Crews flying the Hercules into Stanley in the early days after the surrender found that care was needed during take-off to avoid the crater from the first Vulcan "Black Buck" mission, then still not adequately repaired. Heavy weight take-offs (unlike those by the Argentine Hercules, which needed only small fuel loads to reach home base) meant that the wheels were sometimes still in contact with the ground when the crater was reached. Conversely, heavy weight landings produced no difficulties, and as VMC (minimum control speed) increases with weight, handling was firm and positive.

Now that routines have become well established, crews normally night stop or "slip" at RAF Stanley (as the base at Port Stanley airfield is now known), flying the return leg next day. They are detached from Lyneham to Wideawake for periods of about three weeks at a time, allowing for six round trips to Stanley; these are sufficient to use up the monthly flying allowance, despite an increase in duty hours from 120 to 160.

Between each detachment to Stanley, crews spend two months in the UK, during which time special attention has to be paid to training in the skills required for normal European operations - despite the increased hours, the nature of the flying in the South Atlantic tends to be less demanding in some respects and skills can become blunted.

The four Hercules tankers were, for the time being, permanently deployed to the South Atlantic, and by dividing these between Wideawake and Stanley the need for Victor support for the tankers which was gradually reduced.

Some of the 16 probed Hercules C Mk 1’s remained more-or-less permanently based at Wideawake for the flights south; the remainder of the Mk 1’s, plus all the C Mk 3’s - none of which were fitted for AAR at the time were based at Lyneham.

During the period of the Falklands conflict, the offensive aircraft of the RAF and Royal Navy inevitably attracted most public attention; but it is certain that these aircraft could not have operated effectively, if at all, without the support provided by the tanker and transport forces.

Of the latter, the Hercules demonstrated once again the versatility and reliability of a proven thoroughbred, and the air and ground crews showed a high degree of professional skill to mount, as a daily routine, long-endurance missions of a kind previously considered to be one-off special flights.