L1 flight as high on the agenda today… but kept getting pushed back. Including by a bear visit, which closed down most operations. But finally in the afternoon we were able to hit the air. Loaded our gear on the helicopter….. sled, ladder, shovel, feather duster (great for instrument cleaning), tool box, numerous safety bags, rifle for the bear guard and a spare, personal kits (need those spare gloves), and most importantly our replacement power systems. It is about 280 lbs…. two big batteries and a fuel cell, all set up in a box. We fired it up for about an hour before the flight to get it all toastly warm inside. Then shut it down, closed the box, and loaded it on the helicopter. On site the plan is to quickly get it over to the flux station, plug it into a fuel cartridge, and fire it up again, to stay warm while we prepare the station for the power system transplant. Such a great plan…… but unfortunately the remote controlled helicopter landing lights at the remote station did not work, so we flew around for 1.5 hour looking for it. So tough to find as everything is white (and snow covered) but it is totally dark out. Part of the challenge is that GPS coordinates quickly become outdated due to the ice drift. We get a reading from a buoy from ½ hour before but the whole pack has moved. This unsuccessful search had me really bummed and wondering if/when we would find this site.
After a long time without any polar bear around the camp, a single young bear came to visit our ice floe. After polar bear guard Hans Honold scared it away with signal pistols, the bear walked away. Per safety procedure, most work on ice was cancelled for the rest of the day and the bear was monitored from the bridge with the infrared camera. Alfred-Wegener-Institut / Marcel Nicolaus (CC-BY 4.0)
