Groundhog Day

I’ll bet ours is not the first ANSMET blog entry with this title… When you’re in Antarctica, you can expect to get all gussied up and ready to fly, and then be left at the doorstop, day after day. This was the first day we were all really expecting to go, and in fact, even Brian had stripped his bed. So we were surprised to first be delayed, and then finally canceled, for weather. A system with strong winds came in and grounded flights in McMurdo, so that means our minds are in the field while our bodies are in town. But we are well fed and well rested, and have had a nice day full of…none of us can really remember what. The pictures today are of the three aircraft we use as ANSMET in Antarctica. The lovely Basler, a DC3 aircraft of the type many of you might remember from Casablanca, and the Twin Otter, which you may also remember from the brave midwinter South Pole rescue last June, are operated by Kenn Borek Air, a Canadian company that forms the backbone of Antarctic transport. We will be taking this very Twin Otter to the field – probably tomorrow! The last picture is a lucky shot of the LC-130 coming in to land at Willie Field yesterday. This is run by the New York Air National Guard, the same post that runs these LC-130s in flights to Greenland in the summer. They are all beautiful and capable and we are so lucky to have them. Fingers crossed for no shadow (or shadow?) tomorrow! Jani