By CPL Lisa Clapham
Operation Winter Fly-In (WINFLY) began with the arrival of a United States Air Force C-17 on 12 August and ran until its departure on 30 August.
The Christchurch Air Movements permanent (ESS) staff was joined by eight other NZDF personnel to form the Harewood Terminal Team (HTT). These eight were comprised of five ESS Air Movements personnel, one Army Movement Operations, and two Army Drivers. The purpose of WINFLY is to transport the necessary people, food and equipment to Scott Base and McMurdo Station, Antarctica in preparation for the main Antarctic polar season which starts in October. WINFLY also marks the first sunrise over Scott Base after four long months without sunlight. Because of the minimal daylight hours it meant the aircraft had to work within a tight timeframe.
The C-17 carried out seven missions to Antarctica offloading pallets built by the HTT. Three of these missions utilised night vision goggles (NVG) as part of their own squadron training and development. These flights are all dependent on the weather at Antarctica and unfortunately there were several flight delays.
Loading pallets
During the two week operation the HTT were kept busy sorting cargo, building pallets, loading and unloading aircraft, and processing passenger check-ins. In total we checked-in 400 passengers with 37,595 lbs of baggage and loaded 312,748 lbs of freight, 14,514 lbs of mail and 9,868 lbs of fresh food. This included 29,639 lbs of freight for the main season and exceeded the planned payload by 86,000 lbs.
Overall it was an extremely busy time for the Christchurch Air Movements (ESS) staff and the HTT. Everyone involved put in an impressive number of hours and worked hard to meet the challenging demand of the operation.
WINFLY is just the beginning of the Antarctic season for the Christchurch Air Movements (ESS) team as on 01 September a new team of NZDF personnel arrived at Christchurch Air Movements (ESS) to become the HTT for the main season. On arrival they undertook two and a half weeks of pre-deployment training which covers training in safety, vehicle driving, marshalling, pallet building, and job roles specific for the Antarctic season. More details on the Antarctic season will appear in future editions of the Air Force News.