Pictures!

This is the view from my hotel in Christ Church.

More Christ Church.Sumner Beach

On the way back from Sumner beach I ran into this odd statue. 3 big naked guys head butting a fourth naked guy in the butt. The head buttee had a very agonizing look on his face.

Ice Flows

This is the view out of one of the small windows in the C-17 we took down. This was about 4 hours into the flight as we got over Ross Island.

Me on the way down Inside the C-17 looking forward
Inside the C-17 looking aft
Arrival in McMurdo

View from my dorm room


Today and yesterday the weather got to be a little more like Antarctic. -25 out but with 30 kt winds the wind chill got to be more like -50F. I have two roomates and the living is alot like a college dorm except the average age in more like 35. The food is also great, made by professional chefs, so I haven't had a bad meal yet. Tomarrow is a normal work day but Saturday is sea ice training. I get to take a ride several miles out onto the sea ice and do a mini survival training for a day. It's possible I might get to do 'happy camper school' where you actually over night out on the ice shelf.

Longer stay in CHC

No news on my bags, still living with what I had in my carry on. Good news though, the airplane we were supposed to take down to the ice broke and the back up is not here so we are in Christ Church until at least tomorrow and maybe the next day. I tried on all my cold weather gear today. Afterwards I rode the bus out to Sumner and walked the beach a while. I will put up some pictures as soon as I can get to a computer that I'm allowed to hook my camera up to. Tomorrow I'm not sure what my plans are. The weather might be a bit cool and rainy here. I looked at surfing here but the waves are nothing spectacular and the water is quite cold. I may rent a motorcycle and head over the mountains just a couple hours away. The weather is supposed to be dry there. The bikes here are cheap to rent, just about $60NZ per day for a high end motorcycle.

In New Zealand

Well, I made it safe to New Zealand but my bag is still out wandering the south Pacific. Raytheon decided to change my travel itinerary without letting me know so I went one place and my bag another. I'm hoping my bag made it to Auckland, thats what the airline thinks happened. I hope it shows up. Im off to wander around Christ Church.

I'm hireable as a pilot, sort of...

In the past week I finnished up my instrument, commercial single engine and commercial multi engine tickets. Three check rides in 6 days and alot of studying.
The multi engine part was done in a 50+ year old aircraft called the Travel Air.

Wakeboarding

Went wake boarding with my uncle, Marty. I'm still very new to this but every one says I look natural on the water. It really reminds of snowboarding. Just that you are getting towed behind a boat and the medium is different. Actually, last winter at work we started towing each other on a snow board behind a golf cart when it snowed, good practice right?

Motorcyce Trip

Friday afternoon on a whim James and I decided to head west on our bikes for the weekend. We didn't even have our first stop in mind until about 10 minutes before we left. We spent the first nigh in Buena Vista, next moring we made Leadville and had breakfast there.
We spent the rest of the morning cruising around Turquiose lake and the surrounding area. I think we got up near 12 thousand feet at one point. Very rough roads and the bikes were getting anemic.

After that we shot across Tennessee pass on the way to Glenwood Springs.

We went rafting this morning and then shot home. 500 total miles in 2.5 days. Aside from James almost losing a muffler (he wanted it to fall off) we had no mechanical snags and only a few wrong turns. Great little weekend road trip.

October 11

I know for sure now that I'm going to be setting foot on Antarctica October 11. That means a couple days of training and orientation before and the flight so my departure from Denver looks like it will happen towards the first week in October. Thats good. I'm going to be finished with the instrument rating here in a week, then down to Kingman, Arizona to get the commercial single and multi engine licenses. Alot of flying to do and alot of money to spend but worth every bit. I've been eyeing job posting in Alaska and it seems if I can just get a minimum amount of experience flying then I will be hireable there. There have been numerous job posting for C206 and C207 pilots with an opportunity to move on to something turbine powered.

Just finnished reading Into the Wild. Its the story of a young guy that finishes college and goes out to live on the road with the very least amount of belongings. In the end he heads for Alaska in a attempt to live of the land for an indefinite period of time. He takes no map, compass, and only a 10 pound bag of rice for food. In the end he lasts over 100 days living in an abandoned bus in the middle of the bush before his own mistakes and lack of preparedness get him killed. True story and a very good book.

Good news

Well, as of right now October is a sure thing so thats great news. I could leave in a week but that is up in the air and to be honest I could go either way. More time gives me the opportunity to get some things accomplished. I can do some flying, enjoy the rest of the summer and just get more of my ducks in a row. But leaving earlier means more money.

The mountain flight went great! Wish I had brought a camera, oh well. We went to Leadville, then Kremling, Grandby and home. We burned up about 3500 feet of runway getting off at Leadville. The airplane normally takes only about 1500 feet at home. The take of was a little hairy, the airplane lifted off, got about 6 inches up, then plopped back down. But in the end we got up and actually got about 3-4 hundred feet per minute of climb. That is stellar for an old Cessna taking off at 10 thousand feet.

Winfly, maybe

After a string a maybes I've been given yet another one. I'm told that I will hear for sure on the 10th, for deployment on the 20th. Not much time. Some good news today, the truck sold. That was one of the major variable I was worried about. So now I have a half wrecked motorcycle and a bike to get around on, for the next two weeks, or month, maybe. The dirt bike has been put on consignment and the shop owner thinks it will sell, I hope. The guns are selling too which puts some nice cash in the pocket and makes for less stuff to move. Buddy has a good home with my co-worker Sean Nelson. So things are starting to shape up. Now I just need a plane ticket.

Winfly

So this is the start of my Anarctif adventures. I have been told to expect winfly. More to come.