SGT Shane Drummond, Yard Supervisor HTT (and Southland supporter)
This season’s Operation Antarctica started in late August with a USAF C–17 Globemaster arriving to fly three missions for WINFLY (Winter Flying). These flights are the first contact with the outside world for the ‘Winter Overs’. The emphasis for these missions is to get people and equipment down so that they can prepare McMurdo Station and Scott Base for the main season influx of scientists. Over five days the Harewood Terminal Team (HTT) co-ordinated 296 passengers and 133,000lbs of freight to McMurdo.
Weather is the biggest enemy of success; as well as the limited usable daylight at this time of year. The C–17 only has a small time window in which to land, unload/upload and takeoff again. Fortunately this year the weather was semi-friendly and only the last flight was delayed until Saturday 25 August. As luck would have it, this delay turned out to be a saviour for an injured person (injured on 26 August) who had to be medevaced As the C–17 was still in Christchurch it was able to fly the mission and, at short notice, a 4th WINFLY flight was arranged to pick him up. The programme took the opportunity to load one of two large Case snow tractors each weighing in at 60000lbs and more fresh rations for McMurdo. The medivac flight went without a hitch and highlighted the co-operation between all contributors to the logistic pool.
Operation Antarctica is the NZDF’s ongoing commitment to provide air transport and logistical support annually to NZ Antarctic Programme (NZAP) and the NZDF contribution to the NZ/US logistic pool. NZDF support is co-ordinated through the crown entity of Antarctica NZ (Ant NZ). The US Antarctic Programme (USAP) and NZAP have a lot of science activity in Antarctica and it all needs specialist logistical support. That’s where the NZDF fits in.
This year the NZDF will deploy a Scott Base support team, a light engineering team and a ship offload team to Antarctica. No. 40 Squadron will fly six missions including support to the Italian programme and in Christchurch the HTT will see its eight permanent staff supplemented by 21 NZDF personnel; comprised of 11 RNZAF, 6 Army and 4 Navy personnel.
On September 12, the HTT team arrived in Christchurch to start their Pre-Deployment Training. Due to the team being drawn from all areas of NZDF, they received specific safety training and also training in pallet building, MHE handling, and marshalling to ensure everyone is at the same standard. The HTT’s role is to provide an ‘Air Load Team’ in support of the NZAP & USAP, and in a smaller capacity to the Italian Antarctic Programme. This involves the management of passengers and freight through Christchurch Airport facilities. By the end of the season it is expected that this team will have managed about 200 arrivals and departures and processed 6000 passengers, and close to 4 million pounds of freight would have been dispatched south.