Still waiting. Must... keep... calm...
There is talk of flying tomorrow, Sunday, a usual no-fly day. I won't believe it until I am standing next to the payload with a screwdriver in my hand. Even getting the plane off the ground here at McMurdo is no guarantee we'll end up on the ground at our destination. On the ice shelf there is often a three to six feet high fog that comes in from the ocean that completely obscures the ground. The pilot needs to see the ground to land on it, especially since it is not a runway but just ice and snow. The winds form 6-12 inch high snow humps called sastrugi, which can snap off the landing gear if gone across crossways. The pilot aligns the aircraft with the sestrugi, and the aircraft bumps and rolls when landing, but doesn't lose a ski.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment