Packing Down the Runway

There's a (not so) little runway about 70km to the South East of Casey called Wilkins. At the end of the flying season each year it has to be packed down and made ready for the winter, then set up again around the beginning of November. A couple of weeks ago I travelled up there with Jukka the communications (radio) technician and we assisted each other with sorting out our various bits of equipment.

I'm not sure how interested all of you out there are in knowing about the job, but all I had to do was remove two rather expensive pieces of equipment: a ceilometer, which is used to measure how high the cloud is; and a vismeter, which tells us how far we should be able to see (in a horizontal line)... This particular instrument is generally used at remote sites where there's no personnel, but also at airports (which are manned) although I can't remember the reasoning behind doing so.

That evening Ben M, Tim, Andy and Matt, who were up at the runway packing down the buildings and dragging them to the burn, put on a fantastic roast for us and for the movie we had to implement the "rom com rule". If people don't like the movie within the first 10 minutes, the movie is canned and a we watch a rom com. I can't remember what we had started watching, but instead of a rom com we ended up with This Must Be The Place, starring Sean Penn as an old rocker who still got around in his make up. Brilliant movie for those looking for something a little different.

A Hagglund and weather station with the camp in the background

One of the difficulties of getting around here, especially when travelling long distances, is that everything is white. And on those days where the ground is white, the cloud is white and the angle of the sun and height of the cloud match up to create this diffuse effect that takes away all surface definition (no shadows) and horizon definition (no sky), all of a sudden we get what's known as a "white out". The best way I can think of describing this for those out there is in the scene in The Matrix where they're in that white room. Only it's a helluva lot colder here and generally we have snow too.

All the buildings being lined up for winter. By being put in lines like this and facing the prevailing wind, any snow accumulation after a blizzard (known as a blizz tail) will drop down the back of the burn making life much easier when setting up at the beginning of the season.

Buildings almost floating - there's just enough of a horizon to see where the sky is.

The camera picks up the shadows better than the eye can.

I'm sure you can imagine that it'd be difficult enough to work in these conditions, but driving in them - especially when the snow comes in - is, well, odd. It's impossible to see the bumps and dips in the non-existent road and the canes marking the path suddenly appear out of nowhere.

Where's that cane?