Air NZ Blog #6 - Ash

The ANDRILL project continues to give me plenty of work. On Monday we brought back another seven containers to our transition area to ready them for shipping back to New Zealand. These containers were used as bunkrooms to sleep six staff. Inside there is a bit of basic storage but really not much room for anything else except putting your head down to sleep.

Under the bottom bunk is a panel which can be lifted up and used as a storage area, but it was found that when items were placed in there, they froze to the floor. The bottom mattress would always have to be left vertical when unused, as otherwise the moisture inside it would cause the mattress to turn into a large, uncomfortable block of ice.

The bunkrooms have about 100mm of polyurethane foam insulation in their walls, ceiling and floors, and were previously refrigerated shipping containers. Part of the reason they are being shipped back is to improve the underfloor insulation, as well as undergoing other upgrades. The names of the staff they housed were still written on their doors and I recognised three current Scott Base staff names. A bit of history for them, no doubt.

I had to remove the external flues and make blanking plates to waterproof them during transit. I made the sheet metal blanks in the workshop back on base and it occurred to me that this was the first time in six weeks I had actually worked inside. It seemed so easy! No sub-zero temperature or wild winds to deal with, all very civilised. Luckily enough it only took me half a day of work and once again I was outside reunited with my snow covered mountains, basking in the beauty of my surrounds.

To support the field work around the McMurdo Sound area we utilise Southern Lakes Helicopters’ two AS350-B3 Squirrels and just recently a Canadian Basler BT-67 has arrived. The Basler will be used for the movement of staff, support equipment, food and fuel to more remote locations than the range the Squirrels can cover. The four Basler crew members, who work for Kenn Borek Air in Calgary, Canada, are staying here and will be working with the programme over the next month. Their route took six days of flying via the United States, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Chile and then over the South Pole to finally get here.

The Basler is originally a Douglas DC-3, built in 1943 and converted by Basler Turbo Conversions in Oshkosh, Wisconsin in 2002. Some of the major modifications they carried out in the conversion include the installation of PT6A turboprop engines, structural strengthening of the wings, a complete flight deck avionics upgrade, metal control surfaces, ski installation and the conversion of the interior into a cargo hold. A Basler converted airframe is considered to have “zero time” with respect to inspections. Since 1990, Basler Turbo Conversions have overhauled dozens of old DC-3s. I think it is the ultimate in recycling a plane, much better than parking it up in the desert or converting it into aluminium cans. I have offered my services to the Basler crew as a trainee flight attendant / flying spanner and am awaiting their response!

On Thursday after work we joined a group trip out to the ice caves on the tongue of the Erebus glacier. Every year the location of the caves change and it took a while to find a new one this season. It was a bit like normal caving but on ice. We had a few tight squeezes and a bit of wriggling through slippery spaces to get to the grand chambers, but it was all worth it. All the normal subterranean features were there, but this time the stalagmites, stalactites, straws etc were all made from ice and snow crystals. It was magic and one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. Only about one million different shades of blue greeted the eye and it really did take my breath away.

Plenty of walks abound in the local area and recently I climbed Observation Hill. A panoramic view greets you at the top and it is a great place to get your orientation. There is a cross at the summit in memory of Captain Scott and his four companions who perished on his last expedition. It took the team two days to carry it to the top and has the following inscription on it from the poem “Ulysses” written by Tennyson: “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.” What a great way to sum up the heroics of the early Antarctica explorers.