WINFLY is here

[Alan]

After two days' delay due to weather, the first flight of WINFLY (winter fly-in) has been sighted. It's likely on the ground by now, though I haven't heard. This one flight will almost double the population at McMurdo Station, and there are more flights coming.

Sigh. All good things must come to an end. ;-)

Also, the sun is back and there were some lovely nacreous clouds this morning. The sky looks like mother of pearl.

(Well, we haven't actually seen the sun from town yet, but it's visible from the ice shelf.)

[flighter]

I wondered, would it be possible, considering bandwidth required, some local and USAP regulations, to have a kind of panoramic web-cam and make it available online, or maybe only to members of the forum?

[Alan]

Try this:

http://www.usap.gov/videoclipsandmaps/mcmwebcam.cfm

[flighter]

Thanks!

[Paul Ward]

August and winter is over already!

One thing I am constantly reminded of is how different people's experiences of Antarctica are on different bases and at different times.

There would have been another 3 months left from my winters by August.

Hope you get lots of nice fresh stuff and welcome mail parcels.

[Alan]

Well, Pole won't open for another two months - and we'll have one last cargo flight this weekend, and then no more flights for another month.

But you're right - a big station like McMurdo is far less isolated than a small station in the interior, like Vostok, and everything is less isolated these days with satellite communications and the internet than any station would have been even 20 years ago.