{"id":562,"date":"2013-12-28T20:41:54","date_gmt":"2013-12-28T20:41:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artscilabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/?p=562"},"modified":"2014-11-12T16:27:54","modified_gmt":"2014-11-12T21:27:54","slug":"lifes-good-but-not-fair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/2013\/12\/28\/lifes-good-but-not-fair\/","title":{"rendered":"Life&#8217;s good but not fair"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Whoever said \u201cLife\u2019s good but not fair at all\u201d knew what he was saying. Here\u2019s the perfect example: all of us stuck at McMurdo were on a backup mission to two primary missions flying this morning. One of them got cancelled due to weather early in the morning which made us really optimistic about flying out today. So we hunkered down and waited patiently\u2026 ok, slightly impatiently, but only because we had never got such a clear chance in the last 2 weeks. When MacOps finally contacted us we were told we shouldn\u2019t get our hopes high but they were going to transport us to the runway and we were to wait there for more news. It didn\u2019t look good but we were just excited to get out of McMurdo and go someplace new. We were totally ready for them to send us back home from the terminal. When they finally said we were going to fly it seemed very surreal. So, Jim, Morgan, Alex, and I got on the Herc, it took off, and without much ado, it was 1.5 hours into the journey. When it felt like we were about to land, I allowed myself a broad grin \u2013 this was really happening, we could be at Miller Range by the end of the day\u2026. Nope \u2013 stupid, stupid me! The loadmaster sitting next to me tapped me on my shoulder in answer to my grin (that I swear, no one was supposed to see) and signaled that we were turning back. It took the four of us a few minutes to realize he wasn\u2019t kidding us. We looked out the tiny windows and there was a complete white-out over CTAM. They could not risk landing in such conditions and the plane had to turn back. I wanted to ask them if they were willing to let us parachute out\u2026 how could we go back now, we were right above CTAM!? The last 2 hours felt like a cruel joke. Not fair, right? I thought we had done our time. Within 5 hours we were back in sunny McMurdo. Oh well, we\u2019ll try again tomorrow\u2026 we are one of 3 backup flights, so it doesn\u2019t look too good but you never know!<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s Jim (photo by Alex) with a carton of fresh veggies, all smiles before he gets on the plane. Wish there was an after-photo\u2026<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/artscimedia.case.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/111\/2013\/12\/14204926\/plane-loading.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-563 size-full\" title=\"plane loading\" src=\"https:\/\/artscimedia.case.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/111\/2013\/12\/14204926\/plane-loading.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"468\" height=\"264\" srcset=\"https:\/\/artscimedia.case.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/111\/2013\/12\/14204926\/plane-loading.jpg 468w, https:\/\/artscimedia.case.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/111\/2013\/12\/14204926\/plane-loading-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This is what it looked like halfway through the journey\u2026 how could this glorious weather not follow us to CTAM?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/artscimedia.case.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/111\/2013\/12\/14204925\/Transantarctics-clear.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-566 size-full\" title=\"Transantarctics clear\" src=\"https:\/\/artscimedia.case.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/111\/2013\/12\/14204925\/Transantarctics-clear.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"246\" height=\"193\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>It betrayed us over CTAM &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/artscimedia.case.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/111\/2013\/12\/14204926\/blowing-at-CTAM.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-564 size-full\" title=\"blowing at CTAM\" src=\"https:\/\/artscimedia.case.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/111\/2013\/12\/14204926\/blowing-at-CTAM.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"246\" height=\"179\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Our cargo blew my mind when I saw it all palletized on the plane. This is what the 4 of us need to survive in the field. I now appreciate how complicated the logistics of these flights might be..<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/artscimedia.case.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/111\/2013\/12\/14204926\/in-the-LC-1301.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-565 size-full\" title=\"in the LC-130\" src=\"https:\/\/artscimedia.case.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/111\/2013\/12\/14204926\/in-the-LC-1301.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"246\" height=\"178\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Finally, the highlight of our day\u2026 a lone emperor penguin by the roadside, on the way to Pegasus runway.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/artscimedia.case.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/111\/2013\/12\/14204925\/emperor1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-567 size-full\" title=\"emperor\" src=\"https:\/\/artscimedia.case.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/111\/2013\/12\/14204925\/emperor1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"208\" height=\"343\" srcset=\"https:\/\/artscimedia.case.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/111\/2013\/12\/14204925\/emperor1.jpg 208w, https:\/\/artscimedia.case.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/111\/2013\/12\/14204925\/emperor1-182x300.jpg 182w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 208px) 100vw, 208px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>-posted by Manavi from (regretably) McMurdo \u00a0(edited by rph)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Whoever said \u201cLife\u2019s good but not fair at all\u201d knew what he was saying. Here\u2019s the perfect example: all of us stuck at McMurdo were on a backup mission to two primary missions flying this morning. One of them got cancelled due to weather early in the morning which made us really optimistic about flying out today. So we hunkered down and waited patiently\u2026 ok, slightly impatiently, but only because we had never got such a clear chance in the last 2 weeks. When MacOps finally contacted us we were told we shouldn\u2019t get our hopes high but they were going to transport us to the runway and we were to wait there for more news.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/2013\/12\/28\/lifes-good-but-not-fair\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading&#8230; <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Life&#8217;s good but not fair<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[7,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1455,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562\/revisions\/1455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}