WAIS Boomerang

A "boomerang" flight is a flight that leaves for its destination and then returns back to where you started. Naturally, boomerang flights are never fun because you spend hours in a plane only to have made no progress. Earlier today, on my initial attempt for transport to the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) camp, I had a boomerang flight.

The day started by getting up at 5:15 AM, with a short night of sleep after trying to get as much done as possible before leaving. I fit in a shower, small packing, and breakfast to check-in at transit by 6:15 AM. I checked in and they said our flight was good to go but we now had a new check-in at 8:15 AM. Then it was back to the room for an hour and a half. We were transported by Shuttle to Willie Field, which is where the LC-130 (ski-equipped 'hercules' cargo aircraft) take-off and land. We spent about 45 minutes at the Willie Field Galley waiting for our flight and then we were transported to the 'herc', boarded the plane, and we were ready to go. We took off nearly right on time at 10:00 AM.

The seating on the LC-130 is that of a cargo plane where it is simple canvas seats. The LC-130 is loud enough that most of the flight is spent in silence either reading or napping.

Our boomerang flight to WAIS had five passengers and the rest of was filled with cargo. This pallet of SkiDoos was more towards the back of the plane.

About 20 minutes into the flight, the load master sitting next to me tells me that the latest weather observations at WAIS were below their minimums for landing and trending worse. The flight crew was talking with Mac Weather to make a decision on continuing or not. Eventually, after a little reading, I fell asleep and by the time I woke up we were two hours into about a 3 1/2 hour flight. That told me that the decision was made to keep going to WAIS. At three hours and 15 minutes I felt the plane banking but nobody was making preparations for landing. That told me that things were not looking good.  After about 20 minutes of circling, we got the thumbs-down signal from the load masters indicating that we were heading back to McMurdo Station. Apparently, the visibility and cloud ceiling conditions were nowhere near good enough to land.

The "herc" on the ground at Willie Field after completing the WAIS boomerang flight.

We made it back to Willie Field by 4:30 PM, which meant a 6 1/2 hour roundtrip flight without accomplishing anything. We arrived back at McMurdo by 5:00 PM, about 12 hours after the day started. We are on the schedule again for a 6:15 AM for tomorrow (Friday). Currently, the weather is looking more iffy for this flight but things are marginal enough that it would not take much to change to the positive. I am a little worn out but that is how it goes sometimes. If you don't hear from me in the next 24 hours then that means I'll have made it to WAIS. Otherwise, I will be in McMurdo for Thanksgiving and the two-day weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving!