The Long Road Home...
After 10 weeks on the ice, it was time for me to catch my ride home on Thursday. This season, our LC-130s have had a rough go of it. We have barely had any flying because of maintenance issues. So, I knew going into the departure day there would be a chance that something would happen. We had expected two more LC's on the ice the day before, however they were delayed due to weather in Christchurch. So.... we only had the 1 LC-130 that was to fly me out. We boarded the plane at 11am and took off about 11:30am. Although I had been in an LC to the Pole, that was only a 3 hour flight and I got to sit in the cockpit most of that time. This flight would be 8-9 hours and packed with people. Here we all are waiting to take off. Those in black/orange jackets were from the NZ base. There were only 5 American passengers onboard and 20 NZ passengers. 30 minutes into the flight, there was a mechanical issue with the nose ski. We had to turn back. Turning back to McMurdo is not common. (I