********************************************************* AIRPLANES, EQUIPMENT, & VEHICLES ********************************************************* ***************************************** AIRPLANES ***************************************** *************** AIRCRAFT SKIS *************** __________ QUESTION: Please describe the skis on the plane that will fly my teacher Mrs. Lloyd to the South Pole. ANSWER from Rio on December 7, 1994 The skis on the plane that Mrs. Lloyd will be riding on are very big. The two skis on the main landing gear are 20 ft long and 5 1/2 ft wide and very heavy. The nose ski is 10 ft long and 5 1/2 ft wide and also very heavy. They are made of aluminum and other metals and are hollow to allow for placement of hydraulic cylinders and other mechanical gears. __________ QUESTION: If the airplanes that land in Antarctica use skis to land, how do they land when they are not landing on ice? ANSWER from Tom Stevens on January 8, 1995 The aircraft we use are LC-130 "Hercules." The L is for the ski- equipped version. Both the landing gear and the skis on the aircraft operate independently, so the pilots can select either normal landing gear or skis depending on what type of surface they are landing on. When the pilots take off they can raise the skis so that they are very close to the aircraft, minimizing drag. The ski system is a very complicated and expensive hydraulic system and makes the LC-130 a very unique aircraft. ***************************** COLD WEATHER & AIRCRAFT ***************************** __________ QUESTION: Have the airplanes ever had any engine problems due to the cold weather? For example, does ice ever build up in the engines? ANSWER from Lt. Stevens (US Navy) on February 10, 1995 We do sometimes have problems with icing, but it is rare because this continent is so dry. We have particle separators in the engines of the helos, so the biggest concern is icing on the blades and flight controls, not the engines. The cold weather can affect the battery and fuel control and make starting difficult in extreme temperatures. __________ QUESTION: Is it ever so cold that your planes cannot fly? ANSWER from Lt. Stevens (US Navy) on February 10, 1995: There is no minimum temperature in which we may operate. Next year we will be operating helos during the winter fly-in (WINFLY), and temperatures will be a lot colder than they are now. Our main concern as pilots is icing, usually caused from low-lying clouds and ground fog. Also we are concerned about whether the heater is operational. A heater that does not work makes it tough on both the pilots and air crew. **************** STAGING BASES **************** __________ QUESTION: Why don't you fly from the tip of South America instead of New Zealand to Antarctica? ANSWER: from Craig Mundell, Antarctic Support Associates Pax Coordinator, January 16, 1995: We actually do stage one of our stations from South America. Palmer Station, which is located on the Antarctic Peninsula, is supported from Punta Arenas, Chile. However, we do not fly from there, we just take ships between the two points. The main reason we fly to McMurdo Station from Christchurch, New Zealand, and not from South America is distance. McMurdo is about 2,400 miles from Christchurch, whereas it is about 3,000 miles from Punta Arenas, Chile. So, as you can see, it is quite a bit closer for us to fly from New Zealand. ************************************************ EQUIPMENT ************************************************ ************************************* CAMERASÑPROTECTION FROM COLD ************************************* __________ QUESTION: Deane Rink said that the cameras are kept warm with a special parka. How can it be warm since it doesn't make heat the way our body does? ANSWER from Deane Rink The cameras are covered by a special parka; that parka traps what little heat the camera generates in its active mode, and gives the camera more time to make the change from its warm temperature inside to the colder outside temperatures at which we shoot our outside pieces. Also, the parka has little pockets in it, and on really cold or windy days, we drop chemical heat pads, similar to the sock warmers that are sold in ski shops in the states, into the little pockets. These chemical heat pads sometimes last for 6-8 hours, or long enough for us to do a day's worth of shooting without the video camera freezing up. __________ QUESTION: How do you protect your cameras from the cold and moisture? ANSWER from Deane Rink on December 19, 1994: We shoot with Betacam SP video cameras which we have equipped with special polar bear covers that insulate them from the cold. These covers are much like a thick parka but are specially designed to fit the specific camera we have. There is, of course, a hole where the lens peers out, and another where operators stick their fingers to manipulate the control buttons, and a third hole where the plastic grip comes out of the base so the shooter can hold and guide the camera with one hand while working the controls with the other. I came down here ten years ago to do another film, only that time we were shooting on film rather than videotape. The Arriflex 16-mm camera I used then had to undergo a different procedure. Normally, 16-mm cameras are lubricated with oil, but in -30 degrees F the oil will freeze, so we had to spend a lot of money to take all the oil out and replace it with graphite as a lubricant. Of course, we had to remove the graphite and restore the oil lubrication when we got off the ice. Video and polar bear covers are a lot easier, and less expensive! ************************************** EQUIPMENTÑPROTECTION FROM COLD ************************************** __________ QUESTION: Deane Rink said that the cameras are kept warm with a special parka. How can it be warm since it doesn't make heat the way our body does? ANSWER from Deane Rink The cameras are covered by a special parka; that parka traps what little heat the camera generates in its active mode, and gives the camera more time to make the change from its warm temperature inside to the colder outside temperatures at which we shoot our outside pieces. Also, the parka has little pockets in it, and on really cold or windy days, we drop chemical heat pads, similar to the sock warmers that are sold in ski shops in the states, into the little pockets. These chemical heat pads sometimes last for 6-8 hours, or long enough for us to do a day's worth of shooting without the video camera freezing up. __________ QUESTION: How do you protect your cameras from the cold and moisture? ANSWER from Deane Rink on December 19, 1994: We shoot with Betacam SP video cameras which we have equipped with special polar bear covers that insulate them from the cold. These covers are much like a thick parka but are specially designed to fit the specific camera we have. There is, of course, a hole where the lens peers out, and another where operators stick their fingers to manipulate the control buttons, and a third hole where the plastic grip comes out of the base so the shooter can hold and guide the camera with one hand while working the controls with the other. I came down here ten years ago to do another film, only that time we were shooting on film rather than videotape. The Arriflex 16-mm camera I used then had to undergo a different procedure. Normally, 16-mm cameras are lubricated with oil, but in -30 degrees F the oil will freeze, so we had to spend a lot of money to take all the oil out and replace it with graphite as a lubricant. Of course, we had to remove the graphite and restore the oil lubrication when we got off the ice. Video and polar bear covers are a lot easier, and less expensive! ********************************** CLIMATE'S EFFECT ON EQUIPMENT ********************************** __________ QUESTION: Does the climate of Antarctica affect the equipment used to study it? How or why not? ANSWER from Jack Dibb on December 26, 1994 Absolutely. The biggest problem is the extreme cold. Machinery does not like to start when all the lubricants are far thicker than molasses. Many electronic devices can also fail under these conditions. To get around this problem, you must figure out some way to keep the equipment warm. In many cases, operation will generate enough heat, if you can make the thing start to begin with. We built heaters into all of our gear that we used to warm the electronics up before turning them on. A similar approach is taken for all vehicles by plugging them into block and radiator heaters when they are not running. Most of the time airplanes just do not stop their engines when they are on the ground at inland sites on the ice sheet. A related problem is keeping the operators warm enough to use the instruments. Often the instruments require delicate adjustments which are difficult to make with heavy gloves or mittens on. So we generally have to work quickly with no gloves or thin liners only. If the knobs are metal and get down to the ambient temperatures, this can be fairly unpleasant. ********************* MACHINERYÑKINDS ********************* __________ QUESTION: What kinds of machinery do you have? Which are the biggest? ANSWER from Deane Rink, January 19, 1995 The biggest machinery I have seen here at McMurdo is a C-141 Starlifter airplane. This giant plane is used to transport helicopters, giant caterpillars, cranes, and other earth- and snow-moving machinery. The biggest land vehicle is probably the large crane itself, but we also have a bus that holds 60 people that is quite gigantic; it has been nicknamed "Ivan the Terra Bus." The rubber wheels on the bus are taller than I am, and I stand 6 feet 2 inches. We also have fairly large ships that come into McMurdo Harbor every late austral summer. The icebreaker "Polar Star" is 399 feet long, and the fuel tankers that it cuts a pathway for are even larger. ********************************************* VEHICLES ********************************************* ********************** EXPLORERS' VEHICLES ********************** __________ QUESTION: What kind of airplane did the British use to explore Antarctica? ANSWER from Deane Rink If Capt. Robert Falcon Scott had had an airplane, he might have met a better fate than he did. The early British expeditions of Scott and Shackleton used mostly dogs and dog sled trains to get around. Scott tried horses but they failed miserably to negotiate the slippery icy glaciers. The British also tried mechanical vehicles, but they weren't as good as the ones designed today and failed to make any progress. The first person to use airplanes to explore Antarctica was Admiral Richard E. Byrd of the U.S. Navy who showed in the 1920s what possibilities could be attained through the wise use of aircraft. ******* FUEL ******* __________ QUESTION: Do you use gasoline to power the "Sprites"? ANSWER from Tom Stevens on January 12, 1995 Yes, the "Sprites" in Antarctica run on gasoline. The military term for the gasoline in Antarctica is "Mogas." ************** ICE BREAKERS ************** __________ QUESTION: How thick is the thickest ice that an icebreaker ship can break? ANSWER from Craig Mundell on January 17, 1995 The icebreakers here (Polar Sea and Polar Star) are rated to break ice up to 20 feet thick. However, by experience, they have broken ice thicker than that. ******************* VEHICLE STORAGE ******************* __________ QUESTION: Where do you store vehicles in Antarctica? ANSWER from Mordecai-Mark Mac Low, Univ. of Chicago, on February 1, 1995: There are two things to think about in order to answer this: 1) What's the weather like? We know that the weather outside is extremely cold, and that there's a lot of blowing snow, so what sort of place would be a good one to keep the vehicle? Outside or inside? Would an open shed work? How far would it be from your living quarters? 2) What do you need to do with the vehicle? If it's a vehicle with a specialized use like runway maintenance, you might want to consider keeping it somewhere appropriate to the use, like close to the runway. A number of vehicles have already been flown into S. Pole Station for various uses like unloading cargo, transporting people to remote sites, and maintaining the vital runway.