Transport Time

The C-17 flight from CHC to MCM has taken off. We received notice about our transport times. 1300. The flight will land around 1430 in McMurdo. With a turn around time of about 1 hr we might be leaving for  New Zealand around 1530. We can track the progress of the C-17 flight to Antarctica on the USAP site. Very cool!

Another Boomerang

It is departure day at the Pole. Everyone is anxious to leave. You settle in to station life quickly and adapt well to the daily routine at Pole. But once your departure day has come everyone is anxious to leave. We are watching the flight schedule, the departure times from MCM, as well as the estimated arrival times at Pole. The first flight to Pole is usually the PAX in/out (passenger in and out flight).
We go outside waiting for the plane to land.  Far in the distance we can see the plane appear in the sky. It is the reflection of the Sun that you first notice. The plane is a Hercules C-130. The propellers leave a white trail behind. We notice that the plane is still unusually high. Is it our perception? After a few more minutes it becomes clear that the plane is maintaining altitude. It turns, makes a loop over the airstrip and heads back into the direction it came from.
Communciation tells us that the skis didn't deploy. Mechanical problems. Like yesterday. We go inside and wait for the next flight.
Luckily another flight will be coming in later in the afternoon.
We end up leaving Pole in the afternoon, arriving at Pegasus airfield near MCM in the evening. With temperatures just below freezing it feels warm at MCM.

Transantarctic Traverse

Every year there are some groups traversing Antarctica. To deliver supplies and fuel to the stations around the continent, to test new vehicles and methods of transportation, or to push the limits of human endurance. This year a supply caravan went from McMurdo to the South Pole. The round trip takes about 5 weeks. Three weeks in (with fuel) and 2 weeks out. Snowcats and tractors are used to pull bladders of fuel. Bladders turn out to have much less resistance than fuel containers on skis or sleds. They plan to develop GPS-guided machines and robots that can make this traverse...

Unrestricted visibility

Today we have blue skies and unrestricted visibility. It is a clear day with -30 deg C (-44 with windchill).  It is amazing how far one can see.  The South Pole is a very flat and large place. STP, ICL, Viper, and the clean air lab now all appear so close to the station. I see for the first time how far the horizon extends behind these buildings. A seemingly endless desert of snow and ice.

It is tourist day. A plane with a handful of tourists just landed. They land on the same air strip next to the station but then taxi all the way to the Pole. I guess for about $40,000 per person you can expect to be "driven" all the way to the Pole.