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I just watched Michael Palin’s (of Monty Python) 1992 documentary about his journey from the North to the South Pole, called (appropriately enough) “Michael Palin: Pole to Pole.” It was fascinating to watch! Well most of it was – I could have lived just as well not having seen Michael’s bits and pieces on-screen.
In any case, when he got to the South Pole he went into the then-fully-functioning Dome station. It was really interesting to see the Dome as a mostly-above-ice active station, rather than a buried warehouse, or dismantled geometric puzzle.
I also found it interesting that now, almost 20 years after the documentary, the same planes are still being used.
It’s available in streaming format from Netflix, and divided into episodes so you can skip Norway, Estonia, Turkey, and Africa, and head right for the Pole!
I made my first trip south on one of “those planes” and that was a bit more than twenty years ago. Flew from Andrews AFB all the way to McMurdo in a LC-130 in June of 1967….could not hear a damn thing for days after getting off the plane. 😀 😀
BT
I haven’t seen that documentary yet, although I’m certainly aware of it and need to see it someday.
I made my first trip to the ice on one of those aircraft in December 1972, 4-1/2 years after BT (and 11 years after the first of those ski LC-130’s flew south). And my most recent in November 2008.
I made my first trip on a C-141 all the way from Quonset Point, RI to … Christchurch. Then we were told the DV’s (distinguished visitors, read, the Admiral etc., got to take the 141 to McMurdo, we peons got to ride a C-130. Which boomeranged. But we were put on another one immediately. 16 hours in the air in one day to get to McMurdo…arriving 6AM on Sunday morning.
@skua77 wrote:
I made my first trip on a C-141 all the way from Quonset Point, RI to … Christchurch. Then we were told the DV’s (distinguished visitors, read, the Admiral etc., got to take the 141 to McMurdo, we peons got to ride a C-130. Which boomeranged. But we were put on another one immediately. 16 hours in the air in one day to get to McMurdo…arriving 6AM on Sunday morning.
ouch!
BT, I don’t remember the climb up the stairs being bad. What was weird was having the seats face backwards. We had windows we could look out of. I didn’t see the continent from the air again until last year when I went out on the NZ Boeing and this year coming in on the airbus.
@MightyAtlas wrote:
I flew on one of ‘those planes’ twice last month – between Baghdad and Kuwait…minus the skis.
You are a braver man than I!
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