12/04/02
Transantarctic Mountains movie
Snowing again. Flight postponed 2 hours. Rats. After breakfast, I walked down to the generator, the holy church of 24-hour noise at McMurdo, and recorded some sounds. Back to the room in time to take a shower, and the flight is moved up! Leaving now!
Same ride in same Delta monster truck (where was a DELTA when
I got the van stuck on the beach last summer??). Skeptical when
we got on the plane, I started believing when the first motor
started. A long long long taxi, then up ! To the Pole! Every young
boy's dream!
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It's cold and noisy on the plane. But just as the hood of my parka prevents me from hearing anyone, it blocks out some, repeat some, of the plane noise. |
Another long flight, but much less crowded. I was able to go up
in the cockpit and check things out. It was a lot like the Cessnas
I used to fly, except just a little more complicated, and a flight
deck crew of 5. I also got out the contact mikes and recorded
the plane itself, and made a nice movie of the Transantarctic
Mountains I saw from the window.
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| The view out the porthole : white. But then it cleared up, and I got some fabulous mountain shots on video (see the drachen site). I also used the movie function on my still camera, and it strobes and caught not only the props, but the condensation vortices spiralling off the propeller tips. | See, the seats are goofy because they're cargo seats. They fold up & out of the way so the plane can haul cargo. But our plane to the pole was pretty empty. |
Then the pole, and we were out. First smell:
diesel exhaust from the forklift unloading the cargo. The plane
was back in the air by the time we walked inside the dome. We
had a great lunch in the galley, which was certainly more intimate
than the immense one at McMurdo. Orientation video: drink lots
of water, do little the first 2 days, be nice, drink lots of water.
And the water part is true. This is the driest place I've ever
been. I feel it in the nose & skin & eyes. And the altitude
is up above 10,000 feet, and I felt crappy, so I found Bai, from
the Bartol Research at the University of Delaware, and he helped
me find my way to my accomodation in a "Jamesway": a
temporary housing structure about a quarter mile away from the
dome, partly through a maze of under snow catwalks following pipes
and cables, then out into the bright bright bright sunlight, and
find the luggage, and collapse for a while.
Took a nap, and did computer chores, and read, and went for dinner.
Oh. It's 8:30. Dinner's over. But there were some treats out,
and I ate a few of them, and back to the Jamesway, with a free
official Pee Can in hand, because the bathrooms are 50 feet away
over snow.
Pole. Altitude. Ouch. Like getting over the flu. It will be better
tomorrow.