My Flight to WAIS!
Finally, I get to leave McMurdo and leave the land of "useless eaters"
and
start doing the work we were sent to Antarctica for.
Part of our drilling team. From the left, there's
Elizabeth, Patrick, Me, Lou,
and Dave not looking at the camera.
The C130 Hercules plane that took me to WAIS sitting on the ice run way
at
McMurdo. My fellow passingers let me ride on the flight
deck all the way!
The view of the ice runway as the Herc' turns on to the end of it.
We're off. A great view of Mount Erebus as the plane banks to the
left.
My view of the cockpit as we head to WAIS. For the most part,
the view out the windows was all white. Mountian ranges were
not to be seen on this trip. I did snap a picture of
Byrd camp as
we flew over it, but since it was from 20,000 feet and again mostly
white, it wasn't worth including here.
Not quite the scenic view from the cockpit, here's
the cargo deck of the C130. There were only 6
passenagers for this flight. Noise cancelling headphones
or ear plugs required!
I recorded some video as we landed at WAIS which means this is the only
picture of the landing I have. We landed very smoothly, and are
at full stop now.
Engines running constantly, inbound and outbound cargo and passengers
are unloaded and loaded quickly. Note the skis are being used,
unlike the
ice runway at McMurdo.