Takeoffs and Landings

First off, Merry Christmas from Antarctica! Last night the station had its annual Christmas dinner, and it did not disappoint. There were so many choices for food, it would be impossible to try them all in a single sitting (maybe if you had a week). The highlights included lobster tail, prime rib, duck, some amazing mashed potatoes, and a medley of vegetables that included squash. In addition, there was a whole area of the dining hall dedicated to desserts! I’m still full from the feast and debating whether I want to go to brunch this morning.

Final preparation of Meridian before the flight

We were finally able to get off the first flight of the Meridian. After being associated with this project for almost five years (rather loosely the past three), I was incredibly excited to see Meridian fly for the first time with my own eyes. I’m sure during takeoff my heart rate would qualify as aerobic, but once in the air and after a couple of laps by the pilot it finally returned to resting. Our flight test plan goes as follows: a pilot takesoff, does a lap or two, and then we switch on our autopilot. In autopilot mode, the aircraft initially goes into a “home orbit”, which just means it will fly a circle about a point that we define until we tell it to do something else. That something else could include flying a different pattern or flying through specified points called “way points” (hence the term way point navigation).

It was so spectacular to see the bird fly, especially in autopilot mode. In the home orbit, our flight test lead would call out speeds and altitudes, and as the Meridian flew through the same points of the circle, the speeds and altitudes were always the same (they didn’t even differ by one knot or meter!). This is incredibly impressive, and the plane’s flight was so smooth. I should also mention we were seeing 50 kt. head winds during portions of our orbit!

After several orbits, we moved on to some way point navigation and then to system ID. For a system ID the pilot will put in a single command (say five degrees of aileron to roll the aircraft), and then you wait for the response of the aircraft to die out until it’s fly straight and level again. By doing the maneuvers like this you can quantify the dynamics of the aircraft. Without going into too much detail, this information is necessary for the autopilot to be able to fly the plane. We went through a series of maneuvers, and the Meridian continued to fly just beautifully.

Snow covered hangar (ours is the blue) after it went Condition 1 at the airfield

After the system ID portion of the flight, it was time to land so we could analyze the data and verify the system before we sent the plane over the horizon for the first time. Unfortunately, Meridian will not see another flight during this field season. During the landing the plane suffered structural damage that prevents us from completing more flights. And just like that, the field season is done. It’s hard to express how deflating it is that we won’t get the opportunity to fly the Meridian anymore this season, especially after such a perfect first flight. After we saw Meridian’s performance with the autopilot on, all of us were thinking about the upcoming science flights and how awesome it will be to see the plane fly off over the horizon.

With us grounded for the rest of the season, the only things left to do is pack up and wait for a flight off the ice. We’ve got the majority of our stuff already put away, and from what I understand if the weather stays nice we’ll be out of here by Tuesday. None of us expected our field season to end so abruptly, and I hope the accomplishments of our time here aren’t overshadowed by the disappointment of heading home early. Our flight was the best flight in the history of the whole program (minus the season ending damage). It was also the longest flight of the Meridian, at 50 minutes (although with the excitement of watching it fly for the first time, it felt like 5 minutes). We have two more planes waiting back home to be assembled, and I expect them to be back for the next scheduled field season to Antarctica.

With today being Christmas, we have the day off. If the weather stays nice, I’m hoping to get out of the station and go for a nine mile hike. Although we are already somewhat isolated from the rest of the world just by being in Antarctica, will be nice to get out of town for a while and see the sights with what time I have left here.

Awaken Your Shackleton

Expeditions of Antartica began in the early 20^th century, and if you decide to look into its history you will no doubt run into the names Shackelton, Admundsen, and Scott. Shackelton was the first to get within 100 miles of the pole, and he later led the first expeditions up Mt. Erebus (the most active volcano on the continent) and discovered the approximate location of the magnetic South Pole. Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian explorer was the first to reach the South Pole. His party beat the British exploration party, led by Robert Falcon Scott, by one month. As if that wasn’t bad enough for Scott and his party, all of the men perished on the way back. A quote from the book, “Worst Journey in the World”, caught my eye, and probably best describes these heroic explorers. While describing different situations under which the speaker would like to serve under the three men, he says, “Scott for scientific method, Amundsen for speed and efficiency but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton.”

At campsite, with gear in cargo line

While my experiences the past few days pale in comparison, I will admit I have totally gotten swept up into the adventure of this trip. To begin, on Friday and Saturday we had to go through a well know training known here as “Happy Camper”. Anyone who travels off base, especially those who go to field camps, are required to take the training and its purpose is to teach you skills to set up a snow camp and in case you find yourself stuck in the vast white.

Since you only need to take the training every two years, only four people from my team went. To begin the training, we were taken out on the ice shelf and dropped off about five miles outside of town. We then had to walk somewhere between 1.5-2 miles carrying all of our ECW gear to our campsite. There were about 18 people in the class, and we were tasked with setting up a “typical” camp.

View of the kitchen with tents in the background

We set up two Scott tents (which look a lot like teepees), six mountain tents (regular camping tents), and dug a kitchen and trenches. Digging the trenches (or snow fort as I like to call them) was the part I’ve been look forward to every since I was asked to go on this trip. Although I am somewhat biased, I’d say my Snow Chateau was by far the best. Most people just dug a hole in the ground, while my included a cold sink with an elevated bed.

I will admit, about half way through I realized how ambitious my concept for a snow fort was. At that point I figured I was either digging my grave or my shelter for the night. I knew digging out the shelter was going to be the easy part and finding a way to put a roof on was going to be the hard part. Our instructor recommended using one of our sleds to cover the shelter, which I used, but it wasn’t big enough. I assessed my assets (which wasn’t much) and decided on using some extra flag poles and the bag my sleeping supplies came in to cover the rest of my roof. After all that digging, I was wiped, so I set up my sleeping bag and got a really good night’s sleep.

Beginning of trench building

Getting deeper....

Inside look at the bedroom of Snow Chateau

Welcome to the Snow Chateau

The downside of digging a shelter is that you have to fill what you dig. Luckily some of my fellow campers helped me fill, but I also had to help fill the hole our massive kitchen made, as well as break down the tents.

On the second day of Happy Camper we did a couple more exercises that included simulating a plane crash in the great white and setting up an emergency camp while dealing with injuries. We also simulated trying to find one of our “lost” camp buddies in a Condition 1 situation. Weather in Antarctica is classified in 3 conditions based and wind speed, temperature, and visibility. Condition 1 is the worst and can include gusts up to 100 mph with visibility so bad you can’t see your hand in front of your face. To simulate the visibility we had to put 5 gallon buckets on our heads and go outside our hut to find the lost camper. I’m sorry to say our camp buddy died, as we weren’t even close to finding her.

It’s an understatement to say that Happy Camper is an experience I won’t soon forget.

The other day I had to take snow mobile training. I’ve never driven a snow mobile before, so the thought that they were going to just hand one over to me was intimidating and exciting at the same time. After an hour long lecture, our instructor drove us out into the great white where he had set up an obstacle course. I was having so much fun driving through the course I couldn’t stop laughing and hollering. It’s good the snow mobiles were so loud otherwise the other riders would have thought I’d gone mad.

I’ve never been a huge fan of snow or cold, but between the camping and the snow mobiling I think my attitude has changed.

My team members hiking up Ob Hill with McMurdo in the background

Since we are trying to avoid airspace conflict between our aircraft and the constant incoming air traffic, we have to work the night shift. The last couple of days we have been trying to make the transition to the new schedule so the night after snow mobile training we deciding to hike up Observation Hill just outside of McMurdo so we wouldn’t go to bed early. It was a steep hike to the top, but visibility was clear so we could see everything around us. On the top of Ob Hill is a cross in memory of Robert Scott that was built in 1912. After about 25 minutes of taking in the view and taking pictures we got cold so we headed back to town for the night.

On top of Ob Hill

Since we are here on a mission……

We’ve now fully transitioned to the night schedule, and yesterday we had our first flights of our smaller Remote Controlled (RC) aircraft, the Yak. After the slow week of training, we broke out the gates with two flights. The first was roughly 15 minutes long and was a pseudo-over the horizon flight. Over the horizon flights are a big deal since we have only done one before, and we just whipped one out on our first flight. I call it “pseudo” because it wasn’t truly over the horizon, but it was so far away I couldn’t see it, so I’ll count it. The second flight was much less eventful as we just practiced takeoffs, landings, and transitioning between autopilot and manual mode. The purpose of this flight wasn't to practice that list of items, but to get comfortable with our communications. I’m new to the team, and my position is the liaison between the pilot and the ground station crew.

Today we hope to get ground and taxi testing completed with the Meridian. If everything goes well, we’re looking at flights by the end of the week. I’m very optimistic, and I’m excited to see the Meridian fly with my own eyes for the first time!

I would tell you to stay warm until next time, but it sounds like the Kansas weather is taking care of that for you.

The Arrival

Today I think I experienced a fraction of what Neil Armstrong felt when he opened the door to the lunar lander and first set on eyes on a “new” world.

Our flight was scheduled to leave Christchurch airport at about 5:00 am NZ time. That meant the shuttle picked us up from our hotel at 2:00 am, and I unfortunately went to bed at about 10:00 pm. Our shuttle took us to the clothing center where we had to equip ourselves with our cold weather gear before we were allowed to enter the terminal. The US military was our chauffer and a C-17 was our ride, so we arrived in style in just under five hours.

 

As I walked out of the aircraft today, the view didn’t seem Earthly. I felt as if I had just been transplanted to another planet—it was all very surreal. The simplicity of the flat, barren, and white landscape was somewhat unnerving. With its unpredictable weather, you can only come to Antarctica if she lets you. Lucky for us our call was answered. It’s very common for flights to get turned back halfway through because of weather, making a five hour flight to Antarctica a seven hour flight only to end up where you begin. The record number of turnarounds for a single group is seven (that would be like flying back and forth between Europe for a week).

After we unboarded the plane we were herded into a terra bus, which is a specialized bus with tank like tracks instead of wheel. It was about an hour’s ride to McMurdo station—the American base at which we are stationed. I will have to make this trip twice a day once we get going. While we are stationed at McMurdo, most of our work will be carried out at the airfield. Once we arrived we had several briefings, given room assignments, and checked out our linens. While I don’t consider myself to be very high maintenance, I’m still trying to get use to wearing long under wear and sleeping in sheets that other people have used.

Tomorrow we will officially begin our training. Plus it sounds like we’ve been given special permission to go to the airfield and unpack the plane (technically you are not supposed to leave the base until you complete all training). I’ll looking forward to Friday which will include Happy Camper training. For this exercise they take you a little ways outside base, and you have to build a snow fort and sleep in it for the night. Time to try to get some shut eye, even though it is bright as day outside.

Kansan to Kiwi in a Little Over 30

               After over 30 hours of travel, I’m finally sitting in my hotel room in Christchurch, New Zealand. The trip started a little rough. I made the mistake of not starting my packing until 8:00 pm the night before I left. On top of that, I was having some laptop issues that caused me to stay up until 3:30 am. As if that wasn’t bad enough, when I finally made it to the airport the lady sitting next to me while I was waiting in my gate was eating tuna. There are only two things I find more disgusting than tuna—large birds (like pigeons and doves) and gum.

               While the rest of my team flew KC to Dallas, for some reason my tickets took me through Chicago. As I was racing through the Chicago airport to make my next flight, I suddenly found myself surrounded by the Baylor men’s basketball team. It was quite difficult to find a way out amidst the tall trees, but I persevered. Although the flight from LAX to Auckland, New Zealand was 13.5 hours, it was quite pleasant. I somehow lucked out and had nobody sitting next to me, which meant double pillow, double blanket, and double seat—I might as well have been in business class!!

               New Zealand (and Antarctica for that matter) is 19 hours ahead of central standard time, but I find it easier to think 5 hours behind and a day ahead. For those of you who lack a mighty math muscle: when it’s 6pm in KS on Tuesday, it’s 1pm on Wednesday in NZ. From Auckland, we flew to our final New Zealand destination, Christchurch.  Since I am 19 hours in the future from everyone, if there are any big world news stories I will make sure to let you know so you can prepare accordingly. =)

               After dinner tonight I decided to walk a bit around Christchurch, and it was somewhat depressing. For those of you that don’t know, Christchurch was hit with a major earthquake in fall 2010. It has since also braced itself for several severe aftershocks since. The quake and subsequent aftershocks have absolutely crippled the city, especially the downtown area. As I walked through the city tonight I saw tall business buildings with windows still smashed out and a church whose steeple fell off among other serious damage. Both of the hotels I was told to request for my stay here have either been torn down or are scheduled to be torn down. The farther I walked, it was very obvious that I was only seeing a ghost of a once vibrant city. If only there were zombies running around, I would have felt that I had somehow landed in a post-apocalyptic world flick.

               Well, I’m completely beat. I don’t even have the energy to reread through this post and correct errors, so please forgive all my typos and rambling just this once. Tomorrow we will travel to the Clothing Distribution Center to check out our Extreme Cold Weather gear. Until next time, stay warm my friends.  

The Backstory

               

NOTE: So this first post is a little dry, but I’m sure many people are wondering why I’m leaving my husband for six weeks to go to one of the most remote places on Earth. Here’s the backstory.

The Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) is one of only a handful of Science and Technology Centers (STCs) funded by the National Science Foundation, and it’s mission “is to measure and predict the response of sea level change to the mass balance of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica.” In a nut shell that means we take depth measurements of ice sheets to see how much they are changing in depth and mass over a period of time. We can then use this information to predict how much sea level will rise.

So you might be wondering how a person with an aerospace engineering degree might fit into this picture. Most of our sensors that we use to take measurements of the ice sheets are flown on aircraft. Except for the Meridian Unmanned Aerial Vehical (UAV), all of the aircraft we use are manned aircraft. A UAV is essentially a large remote controlled aircraft for which you don’t need a pilot. You often hear the news refer to military UAVs as “drones”. The University of Kansas’s Aerospace Engineering department developed the Meridian specifically for the purpose of remote sensing of ice sheets. I’m often asked why we developed our own expensive UAV when we can just used manned aircraft. UAV’s are prime candidates for missions that fit in the three D’s category--dull, dangerous, and dirty. As you can imagine, flying in remote areas such as Antarctica and Greenland definitely fits in this category. Also the Meridian will allow us to survey areas that we can’t easily reach with manned planes.

I have been working as a research assistant at CReSIS since the summer of 2007.  When I first started I was just a lab rat in my advisor’s composites manufacturing lab. During that time I got the opportunity to build aircraft parts for the Meridian. Since I graduated with my B.S. in 2009 I moved on to work on other major CReSIS projects and have had very little connection with the Meridian project.

I never thought I would get the opportunity to go to the field since my skill set isn’t really needed there. But this last spring when my advisor asked me whether I would want to go to Antarctica for this year’s field season, you better believe I jumped at the chance. Since we are still in the developmental stage of the Meridian, the reason for our trip is to flight test the Meridian. The purpose of flight testing is to come up with a mathematical model of how the aircraft flies and to verify the plane’s performance. A mathematical model of the aircraft is required in order for the auto-pilot to accurately control the plane.

For this mission I am serving in the role of pilot’s assistant, and my duties include being the liaison between the pilot and the rest of the flight test team. I will filter the flight data that is being relayed to the pilot, and I’ll be the one to radio back to the team when the pilot has a question. All in all, serving on a flight test team is something radically different that what I normally do at CReSIS. Regardless, I’m so excited about the opportunity to travel to Antarctica and to take part in this milestone mission of not only the Meridian, but CReSIS as well.