Going to School

We went to class at the USAP hangers at the airport.  We had instructors from the United States Air Force teach us about some of their cargo planes, and how to build pallets of cargo and load them onto the airplanes.

The USAP has a hanger at the airport where they have offices and classrooms, and space to store cargo and work on airplanes.

It is a very big hanger!

The New Zealand Air Force isn't very big, but they are very good friends of ours and they do lots of things to help our Air Force and our Antarctic Program.  There is a bird that lives in New Zealand and no where else - it is called the Kiwi!  The New Zealanders call themselves the Kiwis and their Air Force uses it as their symbol.  It's a very funny looking animal!

This airplane is the C-130 Hercules.  It is a big airplane and can carry lots of people or cargo.  It can also carry small trucks!  The C-130 is used a LOT in Antarctica because it can land on very bad, short runways.  Sometimes, it doesn't even need much of a runway at all to land on!  And if it's REALLY bad on the ground, they can just push the cargo out their back door and let it all come down on parachutes!  There isn't a very big runway at the South Pole, so they fly this airplane between McMurdo Station, where I will be, to the South Pole because it is a very good airplane for that.  We will see lots and LOTS of these airplanes in Antarctica!!

If Antarctica has lots of snow and ice, and not very many runways, how do you think it lands?

It lands on VERY big skis!!

The C-130 also has very big propellers to help it carry all that weight inside!

This is the inside where the pilots sit.  There's lots of instruments and gauges that they have to pay attention to!

This is the back of the airplane where all the cargo and passengers go.  It is very big.  What do you think can fit inside a C-130?

These are some pallets of cargo that might be going down to Antarctica.  Lots and lots of boxes, and even some gym equipment!

It also has a big tail that's painted bright red, so people can see it in the middle of all the ice and snow.

This is all the different layers of clothes a person has to wear in Antarctica to stay warm because Antarctica is the coldest, coldest, coldest place on Earth!  That's a LOT of clothes, huh?!  This is called our Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) gear.  We have a great, big parka that goes on the outside of all of our clothes - we call it Big Red!  Underneath Big Red, we have insulated coveralls, a fleece jacket and pants, maybe another windbreaker, thermal underwear, a fleece gator to put around our neck, a balacava to cover our entire head and face, a fleece cap to wear on top of our balacava, ski googles to protect our eyes, thick wool socks, two pairs of gloves, and big, heavy boots with extra liners to keep our feet warm!  All of our clothes together weighs about 35 lbs!

This is what a person looks like when they have all their ECW gear on.  When I have all of my ECW on, I'll send you a picture of what I look like!!