Images of

ANTARCTICA

THE LAST FLIGHT OUT

Photos © 2002 Seth White

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So.....Sunday March 9 came, and the last flight of the summer season finally left McMurdo station. A long time coming. The station was finally closed. The fuel tanker offload delayed station closing by nearly 2 weeks, so some people were a bit antsy in anticipation of this event. Including me. The summer tourists were now officially and completely gone. Back to the RPSC office in Denver. Back to the NSF offices, wherever they are located. Back to the USA somewhere. There was a real sense of comraderie this day. So much so that the winter-overs held a little party on the steps of the NSF chalet to bid the flight adieu. This picture doesn't really show that much. It's the view out of the Crary lab window looking towards the Pegasus runway, where the last flight took off from. The black dots directly in the middle of the picture are Pegasus.

So, people gathered on the deck of the NSF chalet with champagne to send the last summer people off. But I decided that instead of standing out in the cold waiting for the last flight to leave, I would scope out the happenings out at Pegasus field from the telescope in the lounge area of the upper level of the Crary building. The whole process of unloading cargo and loading passengers takes a while. Anyway, in preparation of people arriving on the deck of the chalet, a couple guys came out and shoveled snow off the deck. Safety first.... So here they are, as seen from Crary.
Here is the view from the Crary telescope. The plane is a Kiwi C-130 that was 'hired' to do this last flight back to Christchurch. Note the layer of distortion above the ground caused by variations in air temperature. Mirages are common around here when looking out over the sea ice towards the mountains beyond. Incidentally, there is a newspaper clipping posted in one of the buildings on station from a NZ rag. It states that this as an 'emergency' flight that was done to evacuate a bunch of 'stranded' Americans just before the onset of total darkness. Well, uh, not really. This flight was a mere two weeks after the last scheduled flight, and was not exactly impromptu. It was planned. And I'm writing the text for this webpage a full three weeks after this flight left, and we could easily land a plane at Pegasus tomorrow if we had to. There is plenty of light, the temperatures are OK, and the Pegasus runway could be made passable in no time. Puh-lease.
The actual view from the Crary telescope. On the left is the Pegasus complex and passenger terminal. The plane is parked off to the right.
A closer-in view from the telescope.
The celebration on the patio of the NSF chalet as people started to gather.
And another.
So I decided to head down to the chalet for a bit to socialize. Hey, free champange! Here's a pic.
Here's me, with a plastic cup of champagne. Good times, good times. Note two things: a) I need a haircut, and b) there is a little green and white thing hanging from the zipper on my RED PARKA. This thing is a 'zipper pull', made by Commander, a local McMurdo legend. His real name is Mark, but he got the nickname commander during his first years on the ice in the late 70's. Yeah, he's been here a while. Seems like a good guy to me. He has gotten in the habit of making these little woven zipper pulls, which he will foist upon the unsuspecting. Being a newbie here, I had to get one. So at dinner one night I told this fellow that I was in dire need of a zipper pull. Boom, out comes his keyring with a slew of zipper pulls. I picked this one, and have used it ever since. You haven't really been to McMurdo unless you get one of Commander's zipper pulls. I insisted that Mike, one of the South Pole science techs, get one of these when he was here during his short visit to McMurdo. So he did. He, consequently, has also officially been to McMurdo.
Some people congregated on the chalet patio, with Crary lab in the background. Note the champagne *on ice* in the middle of the picture. Today was cold! Literally, the ice was warming the champagne up........
My cup of champagne (twice refilled). They put out these little Antarctica cups with penguins on them. Pretty nice. I plan to steal a bunch of these to bring back for my buddy Matt's basement bar....
I left the party after a bit and headed back to Crary to watch the last flight from this nice, warm, telescope-equipped vantage point. After a while, the plane started to taxi toward the runway. Like this...
And so on, it continued towards the runway.
More of the taxiing affair. It was really nice to watch the plane move toward takeoff, off in the distance from McMurdo. I was the only one in this part of the Crary lab, so it was very peaceful.
The C-130 finally took off. Here it is, as seen through the telescope.
Another image of the plane leaving. The very last flight off station for 5 months.....whoa. Actually, no big deal. I didn't really get philosophical or worrisome when this plane took off. The main sensation I experienced was elation. Pure and simple. This, and relief. The summer at McMurdo is a trying time, where everything happens all at once, all the time. It's quite the center of activity, and it's amazing how much gets done here. I got through the summer very well, had a great many wonderful experiences, and met many interesting people. But it was a demanding and intense time. I am relieved that winter is here. It has turned out to be a much different atmosphere, and much more to my liking. More relaxed (well, in most ways...the bureaucracy never really goes away).
This is the C-130 approaching McMurdo. There was a rumor that since it was a Kiwi flight (and they don't have to worry about the same rules we do), that they might buzz the station. Well sure enough, the pilot decided to do a nice low pass over the station. This was great. The Herc came in pretty low and really gave us an earful as it passed by. Awesome. Thank you.
Here's the herc flying overhead, as seen from the Crary lab. I wish I would have run outside, so I could hear and feel the plane fly by. But it was still very impressive from inside Crary. And so, so cool. Thanks, Kiwi pilots.
This is a little movie file that I took through the telescope as the last flight took off. A little spontaneous commentary at the end. I felt a mix of emotions here, but the dominating ones were a) relief, b) satisfaction, and c) anticipation. Quite the thing....