Continued

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

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."

 

 

 

Back to Top