Official Summer

Yesterday afternoon the wheels of the first summer flight touched on the new Ice Runway and summer season officially began on station. The weather was beautiful and clear while the plane was landing. Four hours after it took back off we were in a condition 2 blizzard. McMurdo Station has three runways. The Ice Runway was built over the past six weeks by a crew that came in with me during WINFLY. (Winter Flights) The Ice Runway is for wheeled aircraft to use from October until November when the ice melts. At that point all of the wheeled aircraft (and all the lights and the control tower) are moved out to Pegasus Field. Pegasus (where I flew in) is on glacial ice that never melts but it’s an hour drive from the station.
The third runway is called Williams (Willie) Field and it is a "skiway" for the planes with skis that fly in and out of South Pole station. South pole can't support aircraft with wheels because the heavy equipment needed to build a hard-surface runway don’t fit into the planes with skis on them. Last winter, however, a convoy of Caterpillar tractors made a round trip between pole and McMurdo. This was the first "overland traverse" to ever make it back to McMurdo: the last attempt was Capt. R.F. Scott back in 1912 whose party froze/starved on the way back. With traverses running the needed equipment could drive to Pole and there may be a hard-surface runway for wheeled aircraft in the near future.

Combine a hard-surface runway at Pole with the new C-17's that can make it all the way from New Zealand to Pole and back to New Zealand without refueling and McMurdo may have a lot less air traffic in the future. (One of the favorite pass-times at McMurdo is speculation and rumors, this is a good example) For the moment it’s a little exciting to see 125 new people on station, though it’s getting harder to find a seat in the galley at dinner time. The winter-overs are much more excited by the prospect of going home than by new faces. I'll be excited when the plane comes in with 8000lbs of "freshies" I don't think I've ever been this excited by fresh fruit and salid in my life.

Note: The picture is from a friend who was out on the sea ice during the landing. I was technically “at work” so I couldn’t stray too far from the power plant.