To fly or not to fly
NEEM camp seen from the air as the Basler approaches from drilling. The skiway is by far the most visible feature. Came with the main dome is to the right.
We prepare for an LC-130 flight tomorrow – and yet again not. It looks as if the good weather is coming to an end. The forecast we received this morning indicates that a lot of moist warm air will arrive tomorrow. We trust these forecasts, and therefore we decided to postpone the flight to Wednesday.
Otherwise, this day was fine, and again the drilling crew outdid themselves. They left at 9.15 and were back at 15.30.
Work is continuing in the drill trench. They both clean up and prepare for the coming weeks attempt to penetrate the debris laden ice and enter bedrock.
What we have done today:
1. Gathering cargo for shipping out.
2. Excavation of trench for balloon experiment 5.3 m deep. Balloon inserted and
test inflated.
3. Basler drilling mission. Drilled 31 m core at B18 (78 N, 36 23’W). 31m was
drilled in 3 hours 20 min.
4. Testing slip ring in antitorque of deep drill.
5. Packing down German drilling equipment.
Ad.2: The balloon (i.e. a 270 cubic metre gas tank) was inflated with an electrical air pump. Filling took almost 3 hours.
Ad.4: The slip ring was tested at various depths all the way down to 2530 m. Test went o.k.
Weather: Thin broken cloud cover. Temp. – 5°C to –15°C, 10 – 3 knots from S. Visibility: Unrestricted.
FL, J.P. Steffensen