Last Flight

2/24/2007

Well the day finally arrived when the last of the summer crew departed, and the winter crew officially took over. The South Pole closed down a few days before on Sunday. It seemed like yesterday when I was there watching the LC-130 take off and buzz the station.

USAF C-17 Globemaster III from McCord AFB at Pegasus Runway

This time I was helping out at Pegasus by driving the last passengers out there while the rest of the community hung out at the NSF Chalet sipping champagne waiting to toast the last flight. The weather was very overcast, and the flight crew didn't think they'd be able to perform a 'fly-by', but the visibility near Ob Hill was clearer so they obliged.

All the runways down here are on ice so in order to get to them roads are groomed. When snow drifts flow in it can make for an interesting driving test. I'd done plenty of driving on ice before, but how many people can say they did it on a glacier. It was quite a drive back trying to follow the tracks of the vehicle in front and stay out of the drifts.

Here's me by 'Ivan' the Terra Bus. No I didn't drive this. It's a "all-wheel drive, three axle, 56-passenger, off-road bus" made by a Canadian company called Foremost.