I would like to start this blog entry with a quick note to Heather. "I hope everything will be okay and really hope you make it back to the ice". Heather was my sledding partner a few weeks back and is now in CHCH for medical treatment. I guess things still aren't right (I mean internally, we already knew mentally she was a little screwy to hit the jump in the first place) and the medical team here is worried about her. I really hope Heather and our sledding privileges will be okay.
For exciting news, we had our big Halloween party a week ago (or a week and a half ago). As expected it was a ton of fun and I got to hang out with lots of new and old friends. At first I thought I would miss out on some of the festivities as I volunteered to help fuel a medivac flight for Davis Camp (Australian camp with a guy in really rough shape). However the flight was delayed until Tuesday night so I got to thoroughly enjoy Halloween.
My costume was a little lame, but I went as "Dancing with the Stars." I also had a few other bad puns in there but most of which are not appropriate. Jack, the pregnant bride, is one of my roommates. I have to say Jack and I had a good time that night but those stories must be saved for latter. Jack is a Firefighter and it is his first year down. 
Last week and this week I've been assigned to AM pit duty at Willy. This means that I wake up at 4:45 and get dressed. By 5:00 I am in the galley half awake and eating breakfast. At 5:30 I am sitting on Ivan the Terra Bus for a 45 minute trip out to Williams Air Field (for skied aircraft). The picture above is of Willy Town. This is were Air Traffic Control, Galley, Ground Support, Cargo... is located. Not a very nice looking town but hey it has what we need. After we arrive there (me and a co-worker), I struggle to get the snow machine running and warmed up. By 6:30 we are over at the fuel pits located on the opposite side of the apron (Plane Parking)from Willy Town. Once there we rush (wait, we don't rush, it's a safety concern) to get the fuel pumps heated up and started. Once started we recirc fuel and collect samples to be tested. By 7:00 we are usually filling our first LC-130 with about 7,000 gallons of fuel. The crew tells us how much they need in lbs and we convert it to gallons and kick off the pumps. This normally takes about 20-30 minutes. We also fuel the Basler and the Twin Otters (Canadians fly these two types of planes).
One good thing about the pits is we have a great view of the Royal Society Range. This picture is of the pits. The pump house to the center of the picture has a primary and backup pump for Pits 3 and 4. The Building to the right is our warm up hut and the 11 (20,000 gallon) tanks are in the background. You can't really see the other pump house in this pic. It should also be noted that this is on the McM Ice Shelf. The Ice Shelf is about 200 feet thick and floats on about 1,800 feet of water. I could be way off on these numbers but don't really feel like doing the research to get them correct.
To the other side we have a great view of Mt Erebus. Erebus is our smoking volcano. Some days she is smoking away like in the picture above, while other days he only has a couple puffs coming out.
So this is were I work. To some it may seem interesting while others it may seem mundane. Personally I love the job. I may not like getting up at 4:45, but there is a huge bonus that I get to ski back home at the end of the day. The ski trip is about 5 miles (to where I get picked up) and if the wind is at my back is fun.
One thing I should note, is that not every day is nice and sunny. This picture was taken at Pegasus Air Field while I was waiting to fuel the C-17. The funny thing is that you could hardly see the plane when is showed up. But hey, it can't always be sunshine and lollipops. Until next time I hope everyone enjoys the pics. I must get to bed now so I can get up at the break of dawn (wait that was a couple weeks ago).
Cheers,
Skippy
No comments:
Post a Comment