Ice Runway Open House

Last month the airport was opened up for people to come visit.  We were allowed to see inside the Air Traffic Control Tower, talk to pilots, and see some of the airplanes.  It was a really nice day - I wish you could have gone with me.  I think we should all go to an airshow together!

The wind was blowing, creating this big, wavy, cloud over the mountains.

Can you guess how the clouds form over the mountains like that?

This is our Air Traffic Control Tower.  It is where the Controllers talk to the pilots to help them safely find the airport.  That's a very interesting building, don't you think?  Do you know what all of those antennas are for?  And why do you think they painted it like that? 

This is the inside where the Air Traffic Controllers and Weather Observers work.

These computers show the radios frequencies they are using and the current weather.  It is very important for the pilots to know what the weather is like before they leave - and when they come back!

This is a map of Antarctica and all the routes that the airplanes fly along to all the different places they may go!

Grey and Joleigh, do you think Mommy can you tell what this screen is saying?  I bet she can!

These are very special instructions that tell pilots (and Dispatchers) how to land at an airport when there is bad weather and lots of moutains!

These are our LC-130 Hercules cargo planes.  They have bright orange tails to help people see them in the white snow.

They are nickenamed "Skiers" because the have great, big skis under their wheels to help them land on snow and ice - just like the one I showed you from Christchurch!

On the very back of the main wheels, you can see four black, horizontal rails - that is where the rockets go!  Sometimes if they land someplace and they think it will be hard for them to get back out because of a short runway, or deep snow, the pilots will put rockets on the back of the airplane to help push them off the ground faster!

This airplane had a neat thing sticking out of the side.  It is called a Crevasse Detection Radar (or CDR).  They would fly up and down the ice and glaciers, and this machine would help look for big holes and cracks called crevasses, and then make a map of them.  This would help all the tractor drivers going to the South Pole to know where all the trouble spots were!

Can you find the CDR on the airplane?

This is a picture painted on one of the LC-130's.  Pictures like this on airplanes is called "Nose Art", because they are painted on the front end, or "nose", of the airplane.

The Hercules have funny-looking noses, don't they?

We have lots of helicopters here, too!  They get to fly to lots of neat places that airplanes can't get to!

The two airplanes on the right are called Baslers, and they are just as old as Bobbie and Pop Pop!  They are DC-3 cargo planes from World War II.  They have skies on their feet, too!  They carry people and cargo to lots of places too small for the LC-130 to go to.

This airplane is called a Twin Otter.  It is smaller than the Baslers and can get in and out of even smaller places!  The pilots fly their Twin Otters and Baslers all the way to Antarctica from Calgary, Canada.  That's a LONG WAY!!  They even stop in Amarillo along the way!  Isn't that neat?  Maybe sometime we will see them there!

They are very pretty airplanes, aren't they?  I like them a lot!

This is what the inside of the cockpit looks like.  It is very small.

Storm clouds were building up over the mountains.  It started to get COLD and WINDY!!

This one looks like it wants to go fly, doesn't it?

I like this picture a whole lot!  It is one of my favorites.

And this picture, too!