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ANTarctica
Fourmilab South Pole Expedition
January, 2013 |
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Flight to the Pole
2013-01-08 17:03 UTC |
Click images for enlargements. |
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Away we go! Our flight to the Pole was aboard the
Basler BT-67
DC-3 conversion, which is able to make the flight and
return in about three and half hours each way without
refuelling.
Here's how they really decide if we're go for the flight
to the pole!
We're all going to die!
Hey, it's cool—I have my hot water bottle! I already have a
fine case of “Antarctic nose”. The weird lips are due
to sunscreen. The hot water bottle is for melting frost on
the windows of the DC-3, which begins to build shortly after takeoff.
This is an heroically robust airplane being operated outside its
original design margin. The DC-3 is heated but not pressurised, and
flies at a maximum altitude of 3700 metres on the flight to the Pole,
which is just 700 metres above the icepack at its highest points.
The flight gives passengers a chance to adapt to the altitude before
hiking from the landing strip at the Pole to the camp. Most people
in good health have no difficulty with the altitude at the Pole, and
none of our party had any problems.
Note that the Basler DC-3 has been fitted with glass cockpit
instrumentation. There was no security theatre paranoia on any of our
flights to and from or within Antarctica, and the flight deck remained
open to visitors on the flight to the Pole.
Within the last degree! The deviation from a pure southward
course is due to the displacement between the geographic and
magnetic south poles.
We landed on the skiway, not far from the Amundsen-Scott South Pole
Station.
We debarked onto the snow, ready to tour the station, while our
packs were hauled by a snow machine to the camp about a kilometre
away.
This document is in the public domain.