Continued |
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November 10th found the Slide III crew idly standing by at
Christchurch. At that point Major Fitzwater made radio contact with Navy
Captain Munson, VX-6 Commander at McMurdo Sound. The major again stated the
test support requirements which had previously been agreed upon as far back
as November 1959. At that. Captain Munson recommended that four members of
the Task Force make a flight to McMurdo for another coordination meeting.
Consequently, Fitzwater, Lt. Commander Potter (VX-6), Mr. Gillich (Lockheed),
and Mr. Dees (Lockheed) departed Christchurch at 2230 hours aboard a USAF
C-124 and arrived at McMurdo at 1030 hours on November 11. |
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Upon arrival, a tour was made of the base camp and landing strip
and. conditions were found to be as stated-extremely overcrowded with no hope
of improvement until a USAF C-124 squadron departed approximately as late as
December 10. Upon that organization's departure, adequate quarters and
support equipment would be available for the Task Force and a three-month
period would still be available for completion of the C-130BL testing before
McMurdo Sound closed for the winter season.
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A conference with Captain Munson and Rear Admiral Tyree, senior
Navy officer in Antarctica, and the Task Force representatives, led to the
agreement that VX-6 was willing to comply with provisions of the Joint Task
Directive 59-155, but that Captain Munson would retain reporting custody of
the test aircraft and the Air Force would, however, be accountable for any
accident responsibilities. Also during the conference, Admiral Tyree
emphasized that he did not want any ballast at McMurdo in the form of
practice bombs due to international implications. Major Fitzwater passed
Admiral Tyree's remarks concerning the practice bombs on to the Navy at
Christchurch; however, the bombs were shipped by air to McMurdo the next day.
Major Fitzwater and party returned to Christchurch on November 12. |
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For the remainder of November and the first week of December,
Fitzwater kept the Slide III crew occupied performing minor maintenance and
repairs on the C-l30BL and checking the test instrumentation. Two local
shakedown flights were completed at Christchurch during the period and the
aircraft remained in excellent condition. |
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Finally after all of the delays, which then included weather,
the test aircraft and crew arrived at Williams Field in Antarctica on the 9th
of December after 7-1/2 hours of flight. After settling in their assigned
barracks, the crew spent several days erecting the Jamesway Huts (which had
been flown in on other Navy aircraft) to house a photo processing lab and
data reduction personnel at the test site, and recalibrated the test
instrumentation. Other team members completed a 50-hour post flight inspection
of the test aircraft. |
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A 1
hour and 10 minute local flight was made on December 14 to become familiar
with the area and to check the test instrumentation in flight. Upon landing
the oscillograph data was processed and it was evident that adjustments were
required. After that was
accomplished, unfavorable weather prevented a second shakedown flight until
December 19. Fitzwater commented in
his activity report that the aircraft and instrumentation appeared "...
to be in surprisingly good condition considering the aircraft had not been
hangared since its departure from Marietta." |
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