Winter's Over
Yesterday buzzed with excitement and uncertainty. There was a plane coming, but we didn't know that it would make Halley till about 9pm.
Leaving Rothera at 23:30, the pilot estimated six hours flying time. I went to bed and grabbed some sleep, then joined the queue for a lift to the skiway. Foolishly I thought such a major event could pass without digging a load of snow, but I was wrong and soon sweating my guts out clearing a sledge to transfer luggage.
Landing an aircraft on snow takes a lot of preparation. Mark and Jim manned the fire-sledge, Mat had spent most of the night leveling the snow with a piste-groomer and Richard had a massive paramedic kit in case it all went wrong.
A week late, but spot-on time
But all went to plan and the Basla touched down at exactly 05:30.
Taxiing back to meet us
Shutting down
New faces, fruit and letter beckon...
Busy now. More later when I open my post!
Leaving Rothera at 23:30, the pilot estimated six hours flying time. I went to bed and grabbed some sleep, then joined the queue for a lift to the skiway. Foolishly I thought such a major event could pass without digging a load of snow, but I was wrong and soon sweating my guts out clearing a sledge to transfer luggage.
Landing an aircraft on snow takes a lot of preparation. Mark and Jim manned the fire-sledge, Mat had spent most of the night leveling the snow with a piste-groomer and Richard had a massive paramedic kit in case it all went wrong.
A week late, but spot-on time
But all went to plan and the Basla touched down at exactly 05:30.
Taxiing back to meet us
Shutting down
New faces, fruit and letter beckon...
Busy now. More later when I open my post!
posted by David Vaynor Evans at 12:42 pm
2 Comments:
Wow, how incredibly exciting :)
Hope you got some good mail!
Wow - Signs of human life!!
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