Visit to Black Island

I was fortunate enough to be able to take a helicopter trip to Black Island to visit the facility and located there. It is considered a field camp and anyone who visits the location has to have completed the Snow School Course (Happy Camper School) and other USAP Environmental training.

Here is the helicopter tech wheeling out our luggage.

The first flight was early in the morning. The weather was cloudy, but there was a line of sight that the heliport could see to the Black Island facility. The green building on the left is the helicopter workshop and the small white building is the helicopter passenger terminal.

Inside the passenger terminal is where each passenger is weighed with their luggage and helmet.

As we were 700ft in the air and flying out to Black Island, we could not see Black Island and so we had to turn around.

Later that same day we were able to fly again. This time we were able to see Black Island from an altitude of 900 ft and so we were able to complete the 15 minute flight to the Black Island helicopter landing pad.

This is a photo of the Pegasus airfield. It is the shelf ice runway used after the sea ice runway is no longer able to support the weight of the large aircraft. The C-17 is shown in the middle of the top end of the photo.

 This is Black Island. The facility is just above and to the right of the snow on the bottom left of the photo.

 This is a photo of neighboring White Island.

This is the helicopter on the landing pad at Black Island.

 

This is what the shelf ice looked like. The white is snow and the blue is the ice. 

This is a view of McMurdo station as we flew back from Black Island.

This is a photo of the helicopter we rode back in three hours later. It is the New Zealand helicopter and pilot.

It was a great day!