Oct 24th – Day 19 of “The Commute”

I’ve been messing up my days apparently (my computer is on EDT , so if I look at the date in the bottom corner, it’s a day behind).

Anyway, it’s October 24th here in NZ and I had my final nasal swab yesterday (ouch! that one was rough… I think the nurse might’ve gotten some brain on that one!).

I haven’t gotten the results, but I haven’t left my room except to put my trash out in the hallway bin, so I can’t imagine I would be positive at this point. I wouldn’t believe it if I was! 🙂

Tomorrow we leave this NZDF managed isolation and move on to a new hotel. We leave at 0730 , but are required to have a health checkup 3 hours prior to departure… so that means a 0430 screening tomorrow morning. The screening just consists of the nurse asking if we have any COVID symptoms and taking our temp, so it’s not a big hassle or anything, but means I’ll be getting up dark and early for that – then I’ll have to decide if I want to go back to sleep for 2 hours before getting ready to leave.

At 0730 we will be escorted to the lobby by NZDF, where we will be “released” by the NZ govt, and then subsequently shuttled off to the USAP managed isolation hotel (The Breakfree). Once settled in there, I think the idea is that the hotel becomes a bubble for us USAPers , although we’ll still need to social distance, wear masks, etc (and in fact, will have to continue that for at least 1 week in McMurdo).

Around noon I’ll be heading to the clothing distribution center (CDC) to pick up my “extreme cold weather” gear , or ECW and dropping off my checked bag that I will hopefully not need anything out of until I get to Pole. I only have 1 large bag, so I’ll have to do some reshuffling with the bag(s) they give us, and set up my “boomerang bag” , my carry-on bag and my checked bag. In the event of a “boomerang” – where the plane has to return to Christchurch due to weather in McMurdo – I will not get back my checked bag, so the “boomerang bag” has to contain several days of clothes/toiletries/ medications etc. The checked bag is also flying down separately (on a C17) due to cargo restrictions on the 757 that I’m taking down… so there’s always the chance that that bag doesn’t make it to McMurdo anytime soon. — Are you following everything? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. This process can be very confusing to newcomers to the program and indeed is one of those things that can change at any moment.

So it’s possible I will be flying to the Ice on Tuesday morning (NZ time) , arriving mid afternoonish.

Until then, I’m enjoying some of the last few sunrises and sunsets I’ll see for a few months.

I’ve also started getting some update emails from the South Pole area manager, which I can share here for those interested (I’m in Cohort 3, so most of the early travel information is not pertinent to me):

2021-22 SEASON FLIGHTS OPS/TRAVERSE PLAN

For this season, we will be using the Basler aircraft again for our passenger (pax) movements to South Pole. We currently have 24 Basler flights scheduled throughout the season and 2 LC-130 flights mid-season to assist with moving cargo.

The South Pole Overland Traverse (SPoT) will make 3 runs to Pole bringing us 100% of our fuel required for the next year (463,000 gallons) and the bulk of our cargo.

The Basler capacity is ~14 pax from McMurdo to Pole and ~6 pax from South Pole to McMurdo (the reduction in the northbound capacity is due to the altitude of South Pole which requires that the Basler have a lighter load on takeoffs from Pole). This means it takes a long time to move everyone back and forth. Redeployments will have to begin at the very end of January in order for us to be able to get all of the summer crew north so don’t be surprised if you end up redeploying just a bit earlier than normal.

CURRENT OPENING PLAN

Our Basler (tail MKB), arrived at Rothera Station yesterday and is hoping to fly Rothera-South Pole-McMurdo tomorrow. Due to COVID concerns, everyone going to South Pole has to have a 7-day hold period upon arrival in McMurdo before they can go to South Pole. This extends to the pilots and has an impact on us. Their 7-day hold period begins when they are wheels up from Chile as their last possible point of COVID exposure. We cannot fly any passengers to Pole with them until they have completed their 7-day hold. Pax can come out of Pole with them, but not in to Pole. Based on their departure from Chile, the earliest we can send passengers in to South Pole will be Oct 29. If MKB reaches McMurdo tomorrow, then we will try to execute this flight plan:

[redacted, since it’s not pertinent to me]

We will finalize the Cohort 3 flight dates once Cohort 3 arrives in McMurdo and we know when the 7-day hold period ends for those pax. Once Cohort 3 can fly, we will prioritize many of the winterovers so that we can begin job and ERT turnovers with the outgoing winterovers. It’s going to take us a while to get everyone in to South Pole so relax, get some hikes in and enjoy the views from McMurdo. We’ll get you to Pole as soon as we can.

It is very very normal for our flight schedule to change almost daily based on weather, mechanical or other delays. Do not get too tied to a specific date or flight in your mind because it will likely change and probably more than once. We often have to shuffle pax around as the flight schedule and our priorities change. That is perfectly normal for Antarctic flight operations.

BAGGAGE

In order to maximize the pax that we can send to Pole, we need to keep the baggage weights down on the pax flights. There is a very good chance that if you have more than 1 checked bag or your bags weigh over an as-yet-to-be-determined weight, that we will need to send some bags on a later flight. So when you are packing, try to pack things you might not need for a week or so after arriving at Pole in one bag and things you will need right away in the other. We’ll send you more details on this in the next few days.

Update this morning 10/24

The KBA flights have departed Rothera for South Pole this morning so that bodes well for possible flights in to Pole later this week with cargo & passengers. We expect the Basler to arrive in McMurdo around 7pm tonight. The Twin Otters will follow tomorrow if weather is good.