Jim gazing out over the Marsh glacier, with favorite field team management tool in hand

Hi all,  Ralph here.    In addition to the post “ANSMET by the numbers” I got some details on the pull-out of the team, which effectively has begun.   In the simplest terms it’s a reverse of the put-in,  with the team shuttling in smaller planes (Twin Otter) back to the CTAM landing site, then taking bigger planes (usually LC-130) back to McMurdo.   But just as with the put-in,  there are issues. To quote the email I got from Jani this morning…..

“……….there are no LC-130s available to get us out of the field. No joke.”

Definitely not a joke, and I won’t speculate much as to where the problem comes from.  Suffice it to say that the US Antarctic Program has been hit very hard by the sequester with a shutdown piled on top, and of course that causes a ton of issues when trying to support someone way out on the tiny tip of the farthest branch of the logistical tree.

That said,  there’s a lovely (if a little bit less efficient)  Plan B.  Again to quote that email……

“…..they have found a Basler they are planning to send Wed of next week (we are backup for Mon)…”

Our relationship with the Basler aircraft is a long and strange one- we love that plane,  but it hasn’t really worked well for us.  It’s our airplane equivalent of that sweater you bought because it looks fantastic,  but then you never wear it because it fits wrong and it’s a little too itchy.   The Basler is a beautiful aircraft-  a re-engineered DC-3 that’s elegant, capable and frankly,  fun to fly in.  It sits in between the Twin Otter and the LC-130 in terms of cargo capacity, landing strip needs and speed, which sounds ideal.   But it means a pull-out from CTAM to McMurdo by Basler will take several more flights (maybe 4-5) than the two an LC-130 would take.  Loading the Basler is both easier and harder; the Basler door sits 6 feet off the ground and there’s no convenient cargo ramp,  but we don’t have to organize everything into military-style pallets.  As a result, we tend to form bucket brigades, long lines of folks handing hundreds of crates and boxes from one to the other up into the aircraft, both during loading and unloading.  And it’s a tail-dragger that needs a relatively smooth and long skiway for takeoffs and landings, which soon meant a need for extensive skiway grooming (we HATE grooming).    About 15 years ago we thought we’d be consistent users of the Basler,  but we quickly learned that the more robust deep-field landing capabilities of the Twin Otters more than compensated for their slower speed and much lower cargo capacity, given that all ANSMET targets seem to be in difficult places to get to.

The result of all this is that the pull-out may prove to be a tedious process.  The skiway at CTAM needs to be groomed again, there will be longer waits between aircraft (there is only one Basler),  our team and their gear will be trickling back to McMurdo over the next week or so, a bit at a time.  Things will be separated, people separated, goals diverge…..     I will try to keep you up-to-date as best I can.

For the loved ones back home (or maybe even waiting in Christchurch),  Patience is the best course.   I manage it by realizing that the field team has now taken their first steps toward home,  and that every step they take from now on is in our direction. As long as no steps are backward, it is all progress.

-posted by rph