My Last Day...on Days

Today was my last day. Wait, let me clarify
that. For one thing, it's always day here this
time of year. The sun never sets. I also don't
have an illness so it's not THE last day. It's
just my last day on "days". My last day on the
6am to 6pm shift. After 72 hours of transitioning,
(adjusting my sleep patterns 180 degrees) I will
be working from 6pm to 6am. Effectively working
"nights". I enjoy working the night shift as
there are a lot fewer people around and it almost
feels like a winter season here. However, I will
miss working with several people in the office who
are not moving to nights...most notably Kristan,
Nichole and Jane in the field camp cargo office,
Bill and Pete down the hall and of course, my
boss, Susie. They stay on the day shift all season.
All my other shift-mates will be making the
move to the night shift as well, including Kaska,
but it will have a different feeling. It may take
a few weeks to adjust. However, with only eight
plus weeks left in the season and the very busy
redeployment season coming up, it is sure to fly by.

Safety Stand-Down

The weather has been rather odd the past few days.
Yesterday, we were surrounded by pogonip and it
continued through this morning. However, around
lunchtime, the wind started to pick up and it got
really nasty out. One of those days where you don't
know if it's easier to walk with the wind or against it.
Condition 1 (the worst weather category) was called
for everywhere but McMurdo and the weather here was
iffy at best. Visibility was ok, but the gusts were bad.
It was starting to get dangerous for the cargo handlers
to be outside since pieces of wood were flying about
from the waste dump. Since much of our department
does work outside, my boss's boss, Pete, called for
a safety stand-down. Everyone was gathered in the
front of the building and we talked about what to do
during bad weather, what we should and should not
do during this particular storm and what we should
do tomorrow if the storm worsens. Then he sent
us all home. Even those of us that work inside. No
sense taking chances with people's safety when you
don't have to. All of the flights today were cancelled
because of the weather so we had spent most of the
afternoon training and going over expectations for
the upcoming season, so we didn't have any air traffic
to track anyway. As far as I could tell, we were the
only department to be let loose early. That's one of
the things I like about ATO and keeps me coming
back. Not the fact that we got time off. That our
supervisors care enough to say, Hey...it's not so
important that someone gets hurt. Step away from it
and be safe. It's lip service to some, but I feel my
supervisors actually mean it.

First Day For the Ice Runway

As an Air Services Rep, one of my jobs is to give
tours to the crews of the C-17s that land on the
Ice Runway. Today was the opening of the Annual
Sea Ice Runway so, a crew tour was set up and I
was to lead it. However, when I arrived at the
Ice Runway, I was told that the crew had cancelled
their tour. I'm not sure why, but the store was
closed today so that wasn't an option for them to
visit it. This left me with a few minutes of extra
time before I had to head back to McMurdo so I was
able to snap a few photos. There is a small "town"
set up at the Ice Runway to service the runway.
This includes a terminal, control tower, service
buildings etc. It's kind of a neat place and early
in the season, very orderly and tidy.


It only takes about ten minutes to drive to the
Ice Runway from McMurdo versus the minimum 30
minutes to Pegasus Runway via the shortcut road.
As a result, it's basically in McMurdo's front
yard. Even a big plane like the C-17 looks small
in comparison to it's surroundings.


Speaking of big though, the C-17 is just a monster
of a plane. My boss's boss, Pete is on the right
and my friend Neel is on the left. Neel is something
like 6'8" tall and he looks miniature next to the
plane.


Parked right on the edge of the Ice Town is the
Basler. The Basler is run by Ken Borek Air out
of Canada and is specially fitted to operate in
very cold temperatures. The first flight to the
South Pole is scheduled for tomorrow and it will
be a Basler that takes 16 people there. As I
type this, the flight is looking iffy because of
weather, so we'll see if it leaves or not.


From the runway, you get a fantastic view of
Mount Erebus, our active volcano. It's kind of
disconcerting to know that it is active, but
kind of fascinating at the same time. Maybe
that's morbid fascination...


This is my favorite view of McMurdo. From out
on the Sea Ice. It looks very clean and
orderly from here. It also gives you a
good idea of how big and spread out it is.

Friends Far Away

A group of our friends recently got together in Madison,
Wisconsin. Although it's great to see their smiling
faces...very tan and very happy looking, it's a little
sad at the same time. One of the bad things about
working down here is that you can go many months, even
years, without seeing people you care about. On the
other hand, each one of these happy friends would not
have been in our lives if we hadn't come down here in
the first place. Tony and Tad will be back this summer.
As for Carrie, Erika and Pete...we will see them as soon
as we can.