Another Trip to Pegasus

My boss, Susie, is trying to get me out of
the office as much as possible over the next
few days as I'll pretty much be chained to
the desk for most of the season. This means
that I got to drive back out to Pegasus
Runway again today. This time, to take
people out, going north, instead of picking
people up that just arrived. I drove an
Airporter (pictured) and my friend and
roommate, Jed, got to ride shotgun!


It was a beautiful afternoon and there
were only 12 folks from McMurdo and 4
people from Scott Base headed north.
The same plane brought 107 people in
just a few minutes before my people
headed to the plane.


When you're out at the runway, you also get
to see the other side of ATO (Cargo) work.
They bring large quanties of items out, but
it seems like there are usually more things
to remove from the plane and bring into town.


This photo gives you a good idea just how big
the cargo pallettes are and how big the vehicles
that they work with are. The Cargo Handlers
climb all over these things like monkeys! They're
very agile.


As big as the loaders and cargo are, they are
still dwarfed by the C-17 itself!


I had to wait with the Airporter until the plane
actually took off; just in case the plane didn't
leave, I would have to return the passengers to
town. Since the plane did leave, I roMcMurdo, de back to
McMurdo all by myself. It's a pretty drive and
the scenery is wonderful! This is a view of
the south tip of Ross Island (where McMurdo is
located) and Observation Hill, Arrival Heights
and Castle Rock are predominant.

ACH003

I had "training" this morning on how to
drive vehicles. Of course I've driven
vehicles many times down here before, but
for some reason, we have to be re-trained
each year. So I drove an Airporter (kind of
a rental car-type van over to Scott Base and
was now "trained". Later in the afternoon,
Flight ACH003 was headed down from Christchurch
and because Ivan (the big Terra Bus that holds
the most people) was broken, I was asked to
drive a passenger van out to Pegasus Runway to
pick folks up. On this flight were my friends,
Carrie, Nathan, Tad and many others. The winds
were really whipping and the roads were
drifting heavily on the way out and we got there
just as the plane was ready to land.


I love watching the C-17 come in to park after
landing. It's huge! Plus, it was fun to be
out at the runway with the other ATO folks
(my department) including Shuttles and Cargo.


Bob...one of the shuttle drivers who was driving
one of the large passenger vehicles called a
Delta, saw me taking photos of the plane coming
in and asked if I wanted a photo of myself with
the plane. Sure...it would be good to send to
Lynn I thought...so here it is!


Driving back to town was just as windy and
mushy (road wise) due to the blowing snow,
but was fun because I now had 10 passengers
in the back of the van. That smoking mountain
in the back of the photo is Mount Erebus, the
very active volcano. There's a good chance
I'll be driving out to Pegasus later this week
so I'll hopefully take some more photos then.

Not Feeling Driven

I was asked yesterday to drive an Airporter out to Pegasus
Runway today to deliver passengers to the Kiwi C-130 for
the trip north to Christchurch. It turned out that the Terrabus,
Ivan, was repaired in time and they didn't need me as a driver.
No big deal since I was probably needed more in the office.
I think Susie probably asked me if I wanted to drive just to get
me OUT of the office...so I wouldn't kill someone. Mini-meltdowns
seem more possible these days as I've entered my last of 13 months
here with only 5 weeks off. Susie is a smart cookie and knows that
she needs to keep my mind occupied.