smooth skies ... but shutdown looms

Apr. 7
Kanger

Flight hours:  10
Latitude achieved:  76 degrees North (new PR!)
Favorite words on my milk carton:  'assigiiaaqqissaarneqarsimasuuvoq' and 'ullullu'
(Which might mean: 'homogenized' and 'use')


Had a great flight today.  Just fabulous.  After skipping yesterday's makeup flight to Jakobshaven (I know, I know) in order to finish a video and try and avert a total shutdown of my nasal passages, I got on board a much more scenic flight today where we transected a bunch of glaciers over and over.  Like this:

 A view from the cockpit:

And another:

And one more:

Felt pretty good all flight and was congratulating myself on skipping the less interesting one yesterday in order to gain strength for today's, but then arrived back at the base and just crashed.  Head stuffy, nose in pain, wits dulled, keep feeling like I'm falling, or in a plane that hit a low pressure zone.  Bought a vial of inky brown medicine the kid behind the counter said was for colds.  "Are you cold or [sniff sniff]?" he asked.  I took a swig on the way out the door and it was so nasty I literally wasn't sure for a few minutes it was meant for internal use. 

Feeling slightly better now, but weighing my physiological shutdown against the potential that tomorrow's flight could be the last if the government shuts down.  All civil servants and closely-affiliated crew are to cease work and head home if that happens.  Given the amount of time, planning, and money, not to mention scientific-data-set hopes and dreams, that went into getting the 28 of us all up here, it's a disheartening possibility.  They attempted to have us declared 'essential personnel' but in vain.  Our project lead though had encouraging words, to the effect that the mission will resume when the government gets back in gear, and the scope of our mission always fluctuates due to factors out of our control.  If we only get 80% of our goal this year, we'll get 120% the next.

So the plan is to fly tomorrow, use Saturday as a packing day, take advantage of the fact that Sunday the airport is closed, and if they still haven't reached a consensus back in the District by Monday, twenty-four members of the crew pile into the available seats on the P-3 and fly back to Virginia, while the remaining four of us are left to return home on our commercial flights (for me next Thursday), or rebook them, or see if the New York Air National Guard 109th Airlift Wing will squeeze us on a flight back to Schenectady.  Stay tuned.

Ok, four random crew shots to cheer us up: