Successful test flight

Today we finally got our Twin Otter into the sky. The test flight was a success because we passed the "smoke" test. All the instruments ran full power and none of them burned up. Most of the instruments collected data, but a few of them still need a little bit of work. Here is a photo of the ANTCI Twin Otter returning from the test flight. My instruments worked well, but Marty had a tough time lowering the sampling "periscope"that I am using on the bottom of the plane. It seems a bit tighter than in Calgary. Again this is probably due to the colder conditions here. However, we can probably try a little silicone and see if that helps in the 2nd test flight tomorrow at 2PM. Also shown are three of the sampling inlets. The large gold sampling inlet is used for the OH, HO2, and sulfuric acid instruments. The smaller inlet is for both SO2, nitric acid, and hydrocarbon sampling. Here is a photo of the ice field air traffic control tower. They control all the C-17, C-130, Twin Otter, and helicopter flights over the ice. Sounds like the last C-17 flight of the season was a few days ago. The ice is gradually getting a bit thinn and not sure they it can hold a fully erloaded C-17. We are all hoping the ice runway lasts until Dec. 2nd as originally planned. The funny looking tracked vehicle is a Tucker snow machine that will soon be transported to the WAIS Divide Ice Core site. This machine will be used to groom the snow runway at the WAIS site. Next year the ice core drill will be setup and installed at this site, and hopefully in November of 2007 they will start coring in earnest.