Helicopter Ride - Black Island and Marble Point

November 11, 2022

I had several helicopter flights scheduled during the time I had COVID, so I had to make up for lost time quickly in my last days at McMurdo. I had a helicopter ride scheduled for Monday, but the weather was bad, and then Tuesday, but the weather was bad again, and on my last full day in McMurdo everything aligned, and I was able to ride out to see what this is all really about...quintessential Antarctica and supporting science. What an amazing way to end my tour.

My co-worker, Marc and I got to go on the ride together. Marc is a former Marine Corps and Coast Guard helicopter pilot, so he was kind enough to let me sit in the front seat for my first helicopter ride in Antarctica.

We passed over the buried Pegasus plane that you can still see the tail sticking out of the snow.

Our first stop from McMurdo was to Black Island. This is where we have a satellite receiver that was the only one before we built the RIES (Ross Island Earth Satellite) last year. Black Island is able to point to the satellite, whereas McMurdo is obscured from it and needed Black Island to bounce the signal from.

There are two people that live here and help keep things running. There are living quarters and even room for guests. These two people do not go to McMurdo and live there for the entire summer season, so about 6-7 months. They do get visitors, such as mechanical techs and computer personnel every now and then.

The satellite. All those triangular panels get quite a beating from the wind. They have spares and do have to patch the panels from time to time.

The Armed Forces Network comes through Black Island and is the tv we get in McMurdo.

One of the displays that pretty much covers the entire system status of the station, particularly the generator statuses.

The one cable that has the white tab that says "internet"... is the one cable that controls all of McMurdo's internet. Do NOT pull that cable out.....

There are 244 batteries at Black Island to support the operations. They use a combination of wind, solar, generators, and batteries for the power. The generators charge the batteries and there's an algorithm for when the generator turns on and the batteries turn off. (It's when the batteries get to 23.4 volts.)

Here are the 3 generators. In August, all 3 failed. Since it was winter, no one was manning Black Island. We had to send a traverse to go out there and fix the generators. It was similar to a sim case in Mission Control where many failures occurred that were never thought possible, and there was a time constraint to get everything fixed before the components froze. In the end, everything was fixed in time.

But the best part of the tour was Britt's chocolate chip cookies! The aroma of them baking filled the entire station. I could hardly get the other members of my helicopter flight to pull away from staying and eating all the cookies..... But I had to keep us on schedule because I only had a few hours to see everything I was supposed to see in days.

Taking off from Black Island

There were so many gorgeous views as we flew to all our locations.

Our next stop was to Marble Point (see the structures in the pic below). This is essentially a fuel stop for science teams going deeper into the field. There are 3 people that live here: the Marble Point supervisor, the "fuelie" who helps take care of the fuel and refueling, and a cook.

Here's where we park and get fuel.

Here they are refueling our helicopter.

We had a great tour, but quick due to my timing. Of course, I have to point out the toilet they use.... basically, you do your solid business in a plastic bag and dump the bag in a canister.

Again, we were treated to home baked cookies. There is a permanent chef here at Marble Point who was making dinner rolls when we arrived. The guys were NOT happy I didn't let us stay for lunch. Again, timing.... alas. Next time.