Preparing Airfields

 There are two airfields used for McMurdo. One called Phoenix is the one I landed on a few weeks ago. It’s used for wheeled aircraft. The second runway is used for aircraft with skis. It’s called Williams Field. 

To get to the airfields you have to drive about 40 min outside of town. Right now everything is covered in snow and everywhere you look is disorientating as you drive along the plowed path where everything is white. Luckily there are flags all along the route.

As you drive out of town, you pass by the New Zealand Scott Base’s wind turbines. They add to our combined power grid and we share our power with them too.

Scott Base is much smaller than McMurdo. There’s about 70 people there. All their buildings are green.


As we drive out, there are rolls of fuel hoses that are being connected from the hardline fuel lines to Williams field. There will be about 8 miles of these lines that have to be connected each year.


This is the hardline coming down the hill to connect the fuel lines to. The flexible line is on the ground.


First we went to Phoenix, which looked very different than when I landed a few weeks ago.

They have to keep the runway packed down, so they are constantly grooming and compacting the runway with these vehicles.

The driver spends all day going in a pattern (diagonal for example), back and forth. He’ll eat his lunch out here as it takes a long time to get out and back to base. Here he is on the runway.


Williams Field is being built up now. The LC-130s won’t arrive until late October. Every season they have to reassemble the town site. This includes a galley, a restroom, and many supporting buildings, including the tower.


The only thing left out after the season are the wooden poles. Everything else has to be reconstructed or towed back in place.



I’ll be back a little later in the season to check on the operations, plus I’ll be flying to South Pole from Williams Field too.

It was a long drive today. I was glad to see the welcome to McMurdo sign upon return from our grand adventure.












Comments

  1. Mae TravelsSeptember 28, 2022 at 5:21 AM

    This is all so amazing! I told my granddaughters about your blog though I don’t know if they will check it out.

    best… mae at maefood.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete

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