|
Feb 26 Well I survived another season on the ice. I am back home after flying for 24 hours
from Antarctica to NZ and then on to the USA. The season ended in a flurry of activity. The week of Feb 14 the weather started
getting sketchy and temperatures at the South Pole plummeted. When it gets to -50 degrees the aircraft can not fly so the
decision was made to get everyone but the winterovers out of the pole and move everyone quickly off the ice. My flight out
was moved up to Feb 16. I was one of a lucky 60 that flew out on a commercial airliner flown by the Australian government.
It was an Airbus A319. Here is a photo of me and one of the cargo team leaders preparing to meet the aircraft to coordinate
refueling needs and cargo loading.
It took about 20 minutes to load the cargo and top off
the tanks with 810 gallons of jet fuel.
|
|
| Loading and Refueling the Airbus |
While we were loading the aircraft an Emperor Penguin wandered
onto the edge of the ramp and watched us until we took off. It was a fitting end to a very good season on the ice. 5 hours later I arrived in Christchurch NZ at 11:30 PM to the
smell of green grass and flowers and the first darkness I had seen in 4 1/2 months. After sleeping until 11 AM the next morning
I wandered downtown and enjoyed my first meal off the ice, a Burger King Double Whopper with cheese and large fries.
It was awesome !!
|
|
| An Emperor Penguin watches as the Airbus rolls to take off. |
Feb 11
The cargo ship , American Tern , came to McMurdo and for a solid week everyone worked hard to get a years worth of cargo offloaded
and a years worth of trash uploaded. Every bit of trash and junk goes back by ship to California where it is either recycled
or discarded.
|
|
| Cargo Ship American Tern with the Icebreaker Oden |
Our big excitement for the week was a vehicle fire in the fuel
pits. One of the aircraft mechanics got out of his van , entered the aircraft and the next thing we knew the
van was on fire. It seems to have been an electrical fire under the dash. Even with the quick response time of
the fire crew the van is a total loss. It will go out as junk on next years cargo ship.
One of the season's most difficult pieces of cargo moved from
Pegasus Air Field to the South Pole this week. It was a liquid Helium dewar that weighed very close to the maximum weight
an LC-130 can carry. That is bad enough but at 102 inches high it takes up all the space inside the cargo deck. It is a
very tight squeeze and always a nervous time for everyone involved in the loading.
The Liquid Helium is used at the South Pole to cool Cosmic Ray Detectors
as part of a research project on the origins of our Universe and the Big Bang. The detectors are cooled down to near
absolute zero which is approx -459 degrees F.
|
|
| Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3 Orion |
Day before yesterday we had a Royal New Zealand Air
Force P-3 Orion Spy plane stop by to refuel and spend the night. They are down here to monitor for illegal commercial
fishing and whaling. We are so used to dealing with cargo planes and it seems odd to see any other kind. Speaking of
cargo we only have 9 more flights that we need to get to the South Pole. The plan was to get 6 of those in today but the weather
is so bad they all were scratched. If we can get 3 in late tonight and 6 in tomorrow the LC-130's will begin the
long flight back to the US. We also have 4 days of C-17 flights planned to get everyone out of here except the winterovers.
the weather keeps getting a bit worse every day and we hope to have everyone that needs to leave out of here by the 18th. The
Antarctic summer is rapidly coming to and end. I do not have many more days left on the ice for this season.
Feb 1
The fuel
ship is long gone and the cargo ship is due to arrive today. Offload begins as soon as the ship docks and no one
gets a day off until it is complete. It will be a busy busy place in McMurdo while this is happening. It will be somewhat
less hectic at the air field. Our big push will be to get as much cargo sent to the South Pole. This week the last of
the field camps close down for the summer and all that cargo and people have to be flown to New Zealand. Here are a
couple photos of us uploading a helicopter into the C-17 for it's flight out of here. It was a delicate maneuver
but everything went smooth.
|
| Tight Fit |
The C-17 has a cable winch and after connecting
a chain to the skids of the helocopter the winch pulled it into the cargo deck.
|
| Helicopter in place on C-17 cargo deck |
 |
