Journal-Jan

Jan 24
The US Navy fuel ship Paul Buck has arrived and was helped to the ice pier by the Swedish icebreaker. This week it will offload over 4 million gallons of fuel. Enough to power all our vehicles , power equipment ,aircraft and run the generators at the south pole station for an entire year. It is pretty interesting how we get fuel the 800 miles to the south pole. Their generators run on the same fuel that the LC-130's burn. The LC-130's will fly there with full fuel tanks which is far more than needed for the 1600 mile round trip. At the pole they will drain off all the excess fuel leaving just enough for the return to McMurdo. Over the course of the season this will fill up the storage tanks for the long winter over season when no flights can get to the pole.
When the fuel ship is offloaded a cargo ship will arrive. That should happen around Feb 1st. When that is offloaded everyone will begin flying home and McMurdo will be left to the 200 or so "winterovers" who will be isolated here until next summer season starts.

Jan 17
More Penguins !!!! This week small flocks of Adelie Penguins have come wandering through, curious to see what we are doing. We give Penguins the highest regard and adust our air operations to not disturb them. We have had to keep planes circling ,waiting to land while penguins walked on the skiway . We all love to see them.

He looked me over for a few minutes then squawked as if to say "You are an odd looking fellow" then went on his way. It is times like this that make up for all the long work hours and cold .

There has also been a Skua ( pronounced skoo-AH ) that seems to have taken a liking to LaDon and me.

The really big news is that the season is rapidly coming to an end. That is a good thing because we are all getting tired and even our day off does not allow enough time to fully rest up. The Swedish ice breaker Oden arrived this week and began cutting the channel for the ships. This is right through where our sea ice runway used to sit. The fuel ship will arrive late this week and unload a years supply of gasoline , jet fuel and diesel. When that is complete a cargo ship will arrive with all the cargo that is too large or heavy to fly on the C-17. It will take about one week to get the ship offloaded and the cargo put away. When that is finished we all begin flying home. Every other day a C-17 will depart with a load of workers going home. I am scheduled to depart McMurdo on Feb 20. I will spend 3 days working in Christchurch then fly back home Feb 24th. The end is in sight !!!!

Yesterday we also had 10 Adelie Penguins come walking across the air field just as we were waiting for the C-17 to arrive from New Zealand. They must really wonder what all this activity is on their ice sheet. I did not have my camera with me to get the Adelies but I am hoping they come back.
Let me tell you a little about Pegasus Air Field. It is located an hour drive ,about 18 miles, from McMurdo on the Ross Ice Shelf. It is built on 110 feet thick glacier ice that is resting on the ocean bottom. There is 3-6 feet of compacted snow on top the ice. For the C-17 runway the snow is scraped off down to bare white ice. The LC-130s skiway is compacted and graded snow since they land on skis. Both the white ice runway and the skiway are 10,000 feet long. Here is a photo of the C-17 arriving. I am on the right. In the center is my boss and on the left is the Air Field Manager. Meeting the C-17 is always fun since it brings new people and lots of cargo. Included in the 100,000 pounds of cargo on this flight was 10,000 pounds of mail and 15,000 pounds of fresh food. We once again have bananas ,strawberries , pineapple ,other fresh fruit and salad.

Jan 2
      Happy New Year !!! We are celebrating New Year down here on Jan 2 and 3rd. I had looked forward to having 2 days off to catch up on my sleep again. That did not quite work out. There was a serious medical emergency at the South Pole and we have a medevac flight going there. Being the Air Field Supervisor I had to come out and support the aircraft with a skeleton crew. The plan is to pick the guy up from the pole, fly back to McMurdo , refuel then head to Christchurch. I hope the guy does OK.
      The last week we have had very warm and snowy weather. Our temps have been in the 30's which to us is shirtsleeve weather. The bad part of the warmth is that the snow covering our LC-130 skiway has some very soft spots. Here are some photos of one of the planes that sunk in , got stuck and had to be dug out. It was lots of hard work.