Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Immediate report of Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Expedition 1988-89: VUWAE 33

Field Transport

Field Transport

The put-in was by helicopter Gentle 17, which also brought up the Grizzly next day from Royds, where it had been left over night. Although the Grizzly left Scott Base in a horizontal position, it arrived at Fang camp hanging vertically, and oil and battery acid had leaked on to the front cowl.

Grizzly G2 proved incapable of ascending Erebus with two on board, as required by the Field Manager, but it carried all our equipment, and much of S-081′s equipment up from Fang to the lower Erebus Hut, and together with the Yamahas stored at the hut, transported us to the telemetry equipment sites around the plateau. The gearbox continued leaking oil rapidly, until John Skilton discovered that a bolt had been left out and another not tightened after its last overhaul. It must be said that G2 was only able to do the work required because it was nursed along by Bill McIntosh of S-081. It seemed to lose and regain power in a cyclic way, and was nowhere near as good as in 1987/88.

Return to Scott Base was by helo from the lower hut for Ray, and from Fang for Kevin and John with the Grizzly.

The trip to the RTG Hut at the Windless Bight Infrasonic Array was made in the Haglund, after plans to use the Hovercraft became impossible for operational reasons.