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| C-17 Landing on the Sea Ice Runway |
Oct 18
It has been a very busy but successful week here on the ice. The weather has been nice enough that we were able to get
all our flights in from New Zealand. We moved over half a million pounds of cargo and personnel. I could tell we were clearing
out the backload of cargo since package mail and fresh food ( freshies) started arriving on the planes. Package mail
is the lowest priority cargo and only makes it on the plane when everything else has been shipped. The freshies have been
a treat. It has been very nice to have salad greens and fresh fruit with our meals. The food down here is pretty good but
most of it comes by ship once a year and often is stored for several years before being served. Freshies are always
a welcome surprise !!! Starting Oct 26th we go to 24 hour a day flight operations and begin shift work. I
will be working 6 PM to 6 AM 5 days per week until early December then switch to days until the end of the season.
We have 61 planned C-17 flights from New Zealand this season and over 500 C-130 flights to the South Pole and various
field camps around Antarctica. It is going to be a busy season. Right now the population of McMurdo is right at 900
people. It should hit a high of just over 1000 by late November or early December then slowly decrease until the season ends
late February. I am happy to tell you that my cold is better and I feel much better. Tomorrow I teach a cargo
class all day then the rest of the week I will be busy finishing the set up at the sea ice airfield . The sea
ice is 10-12 ft thick and strong enough to land a C-17 with over 100,000 pounds of cargo.
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| Inside the C-17 on my way to the ice |
Oct 11
I am on the ice !
My flight made it from Christchurch to McMurdo Station on Sat Oct 3rd. The weather was perfect for the flight and we
landed to a crisp minus 28 degrees. Since arriving the weather has been nice enough for us almost to get caught
up on our backlog of cargo and passengers but 50 plus mile per hour winds yesterday and today have delayed at least another
3 flights for us. We all worked very long hours this week and were happy to have the weather bad enough today to cancel the
flight. We got the day off ! I spent the day moving. The first room they asigned me was very cold. It never
would warm up above 49 degrees and hovered around 45 most of the time. After much complaining they gave me a new room in a
much nicer dorm and it is toasty warm. My room mate does not arrive until Oct 23rd so I get to enjoy a private
room until he arrives. It has been so busy this week that I have not had time to take any photos or update this web
site. This week I will do better and get some photos posted. The only bad thing is that like every season
down here the cold and flu spreads like wild fire. Right now several people are quarantined with the flu and about a third
of the population have colds. I have had a scratchy throat and a raspy voice for 4 days now but do not feel too bad.
I hope my luck holds out. Now I am off to do laundry and take a long long nap.
Oct 2
CHRISTCHURCH
BONUS DAY IIII
Happy Birthday Jill
Another day of delay another $90 per diem !! The latest is that the C-17
will be repaired today and we will fly on Sat Oct 3rd. The problem with that is the weather forecast for McMurdo looks iffy
at best. Right now I am scheduled to catch a shuttle at 6 am tomorrow to take me to the airport for the flight. Let's
hope that works out as planned. We are now backed up 3 flights deep and another wave of people arrive from the US on
Sunday. The plan is to get all of us on flight number 1 to the ice tomorrow. Flight 1 is a full load of passengers.
Flights 2 and 3 had cargo and passengers. The plan is to remove the cargo , combine the passengers from flights 2 and 3 and
get them to the ice on Sunday or Monday. That would put everything back on schedule except the bumped cargo which would come
on a later flight. Let's see if the weather screws up these plans.
Oct 1
CHRISTCHURCH
BONUS DAY III
Yep I am still sitting here in Christchurch. The latest news is that
the EARLIEST the plane may be fixed is tomorrow afternoon. I am expecting an update on that late this evening or early tomorrow
morning. The bad part is that our baggage is sitting on the plane built into baggage pallets. We are all living
out of carry on bags. Those of us that were smart or lucky had toiletries and a change of clothes in our carry on. .
Those who were not had to buy enough to live on for a few days. Several really unlucky folks packed their street
shoes in checked baggage and only had the extreme cold weather boots they wore boarding the plane. They had
to go shoe shopping as soon as we were delayed. I have been using this delay time to review plans
for the operation of the air fields on the ice. The joke here right now is the Air Force is going to the auto parts
stores in Christchurch asking " Do you have a part that looks like this ?"
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