Update: Ready to Fly!

[Paul Summers]

Hello again!

Another mid-week update from McMurdo, but this time I'll have to keep it a little short and sweet. The weather has been particularly good at WAIS and they have made great progress setting up camp, so I am scheduled to fly tomorrow with 3 other team members, 2 from TIME and 1 from our sister project GHOST. Somehow even though we are delayed weeks, the final few hours are always a rush to get everything ready. 

First to recap the week, Danny and I were able to get 2 final days of radar calibration testing on Monday and Tuesday. Monday was a storm day with low clouds, blowing fresh wet snow, but relatively warm temps in the upper 20s. This made driving around and getting our work done a little more interesting, but overall was good practice for us. After that, this week has been very warm and calm, so much so that many people walked around in shorts and t-shirts comfortably outside! 

That did even include me, who found it quite refreshing to walk around in shorts and short sleeves! It was 36F, which sounds cold for shorts, but here it's high summer! You can also see the crane constructing a new dorm here, it is quite fun to watch work.

Danny and I also realized this week that there are a few odd things that would be very nice to have as backups, like little coin batteries for our thermometers that monitor the temperature of our radar devices, cable adapters that enable us to use another type of radar antenna we have access to, and other various bits and bobs that we don't need but could be nice to have. This led us to talk to Central Supply, who sent us to Electrical Supply, who sent us to IT supply, who walked us around a massive warehouse filled with every type of gadget.

We were both very impressed by the variety and quantity of items warehoused here, they certainly stock lots of spares for every occasion! We ended up picking up most of what we were after, which helps us feel a bit more prepared heading out.

The final thing left for me now is to pack my bags and check them in with transportation. They call this a "bag drag" as you drag your bags up the hill to check them in. This is very similar to checking bags for a commercial flight. The main difference is that they weigh your bags, but they also weigh you! We also must be dressed in our full extreme cold weather clothing (ECW) for this weigh in, as that is what we're required to wear on the flight. The final catch to all this is that we must bag drag the night before our flight. So we basically pack everything up, check in at the airport, drop our bags, then go home for the night and do it all again tomorrow morning. Thankfully the building we check our bags at is a short walk, so it is not too much of a hassle. 

Pete was excited to help pack, and even more excited when he realized he got to be carried on with me and he wasn't confined to a duffle for an extra night outside in the cold. The outlook for our flight tomorrow is very optimistic, with good weather both here and in WAIS camp, but as with any flight down here, there is no guarantee we'll make it on the first try. As I mentioned before, I will not have internet in WAIS, so I'll be switching to my garmin to send (very) short little updates with my location and how things are going! I detail all that in Update 7, so look there if you missed it!

With that, hopefully I will fly tomorrow, and email you all again in the new year! Sending you all the best this holiday season, I hope your holidays are filled with family, food and good cheer! I will miss you all, but hopefully everything goes well here and I can enjoy a new favorite christmas pastime: napping on a snowmobile.

Best,

Paul