On the Ice
I am now officially in Antarctica.
The day started at 3am when I got up and made my way to the airport for a 4am check-in. After pulling on several layers of cold weather gear I went through the "bag drag" and checked 75lbs of gear. (cold weather stuff plus my luggage)
After a quick breakfast the hundred of us getting on the flight had a 5am briefing and put our carry-on bags through the X-ray before stepping through a metal detector. (amusing when you have eleventy billion snaps and zippers on four layers of clothing.) The carry-on bags were especially important since "checked" bags are shrink-wrapped onto a cargo skid where they stay until we either make it to the ice or have to turn around three days in a row. If the plane didn't make it to the ice today all we would have for the next couple of days would be what was in those carry-ons.
We crammed ourselves into a couple of busses before being driven out to the C-17 transport jet. Just before getting on the jet I was handed a big bag of food and a pair of earplugs. There had to be enough food in the bag to last me for 10 hours in case the flight needed to turn around and head back.
The inside of the jet looked huge since there wasn't any division between the cargo and the bolted-in seats. I took a seat with my back to the airplane's outer wall and spent a good amount of the flight looking up at the wiring and ductwork clearly visible 20 feet over my head.
An interesting side-effect of not having a ceiling is there is no place for oxygen masks to drop from. A portable oxygen system was stowed under the seats in a green pouch. It was effectively an oxygen canister attached to a plastic hood. Something seemed funny to me that if I couldn't breathe the Air Force would expect me to pull a plastic bag over my head. The life jacket was a little more useful during the flight since it doubled as a lower lumbar support in my seat-back.
Landing was scary. Not because I thought the plane would crash but because I was afraid we would have to turn back. The pilot got on the intercom and told us all that the approach wasn't looking good so we would have to go around a few times or possibly boomerang back. I wasn't sure if I dreaded the idea of spending another five hours on that flight or having to get up the next day at 3 again more.
The plane touched down a couple of times before it finally landed. Without windows in the back it wasn't clear if we had landed or not. I kept hearing and feeling the wheels hit only to feel myself pushed around by the plane accelerating and climbing a few seconds later. I wasn't really able to relax until the door opened letting in a blast of sub-zero Antarctic air.
The cold air was welcome since I had been sweating in my gear. A short walk later I was on a bus heading toward McMurdo Station. A couple more briefings and lunch were all that separated me from moving in to my new home.
The day started at 3am when I got up and made my way to the airport for a 4am check-in. After pulling on several layers of cold weather gear I went through the "bag drag" and checked 75lbs of gear. (cold weather stuff plus my luggage)
After a quick breakfast the hundred of us getting on the flight had a 5am briefing and put our carry-on bags through the X-ray before stepping through a metal detector. (amusing when you have eleventy billion snaps and zippers on four layers of clothing.) The carry-on bags were especially important since "checked" bags are shrink-wrapped onto a cargo skid where they stay until we either make it to the ice or have to turn around three days in a row. If the plane didn't make it to the ice today all we would have for the next couple of days would be what was in those carry-ons.
We crammed ourselves into a couple of busses before being driven out to the C-17 transport jet. Just before getting on the jet I was handed a big bag of food and a pair of earplugs. There had to be enough food in the bag to last me for 10 hours in case the flight needed to turn around and head back.
The inside of the jet looked huge since there wasn't any division between the cargo and the bolted-in seats. I took a seat with my back to the airplane's outer wall and spent a good amount of the flight looking up at the wiring and ductwork clearly visible 20 feet over my head.
An interesting side-effect of not having a ceiling is there is no place for oxygen masks to drop from. A portable oxygen system was stowed under the seats in a green pouch. It was effectively an oxygen canister attached to a plastic hood. Something seemed funny to me that if I couldn't breathe the Air Force would expect me to pull a plastic bag over my head. The life jacket was a little more useful during the flight since it doubled as a lower lumbar support in my seat-back.
Landing was scary. Not because I thought the plane would crash but because I was afraid we would have to turn back. The pilot got on the intercom and told us all that the approach wasn't looking good so we would have to go around a few times or possibly boomerang back. I wasn't sure if I dreaded the idea of spending another five hours on that flight or having to get up the next day at 3 again more.
The plane touched down a couple of times before it finally landed. Without windows in the back it wasn't clear if we had landed or not. I kept hearing and feeling the wheels hit only to feel myself pushed around by the plane accelerating and climbing a few seconds later. I wasn't really able to relax until the door opened letting in a blast of sub-zero Antarctic air.
The cold air was welcome since I had been sweating in my gear. A short walk later I was on a bus heading toward McMurdo Station. A couple more briefings and lunch were all that separated me from moving in to my new home.
posted by Adam at 10:18 PM
1 Comments:
So cool, Adam!
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