Bag Drag / Transport

A major part of my job is to conduct
Bag Drags and Transports for flights.
When people fly back to New Zealand, out
to Field Camps, or down to South Pole,
they have to come through us at Air
Services for their transport needs.
This means that up to a day before their
flight, they need to Bag Drag. In other
words, they have to bring everything they're
taking to their destination with them to be
weighed and prepared for flight. There is a
whole checklist of procedures that folks must
follow in order to prepare for their flight.


Anywhere from 4 hours to several days,
depending on flights, weather, etc.
passengers then prepare to leave McMurdo
for their flights. To do this, they must
Transport through Building 140 (Movement
Control Center (MCC)). This is where we
Air Service Reps register their readiness
for the flight, read them a litany of rules
and then send them on a vehicle to the
runway, where they catch their flight.
It can either be fun or stressful, depending
on the group mostly. Today, I did my first
Bag Drag and Transports of the season. Both
went very smoothly. Hopefully the harbinger
of a good season.