Bad Weather and More Test Flights

Today the weather was overcast and windy (i.e., cold) in McMurdo, but it was the bad weather on the Plateau that canceled the Twin Otter flight to the South Pole. Photo on the left shows how grey it is out there this evening. So today we did two test flight around McMurdo as a chance to look at a problem with the OH instrument. It is a strange problem that only occurs on the airplane at the higher altitudes. This also provided an opportunity for our Teacher from Atlanta (Mike P.) to get a ride on the Otter. Here is a picture of Jason, the Twin Otter mechanic that keeps the plane flying and also helped us install all the instruments and probes on the aircraft. These guys spend a lot of time away from home, so it has got to be tough for them. The other two photos below were from yesterday (30 Nov) when we flew across the mouth of the Byrd glacier looking for outflow. This was a good science flight. The winds were a bit lighter than forecast, but we still measured elevated levels of NO (in the newly fixed NO instrument). It was good to get some data again after a few days down. Now we have to try and fly almost every day to get in all the flights. It will be tough, but hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow and the Ottter will make it to the South Pole. In which case we will fly one local flight and then (after a crew rest day) fly back to McMurdo on Monday or Tuesday. While this is going on, I will be at Happy Camper School learning how to camp in the snow and how to light a camp stove and use an emergency radio. Sounds kind of silly, but this is required before you can fly on the Twin Otter. Since Otter will by flying in some remote regions. If aircraft has some problems and needs to land out in the middle of nowhere. It is good if everyone has had the proper training on what to do in an emergency and how to set up camp, cook, and call for help on the radio. yesterday on the way back from the Byrd glacier the Otter overflew the Mt. Erebus volcano again. Here is a photo of some steam coming out of the top. No surprisingly, there was quite a bit of SO2 in this plume. Since I will be out on the ice (camping) tomorrow night, Andreas is going to try to write a guest blog tomorrow. Pleas feel free to email me any questions. Take care. Barry