With that, the plane was set up for a landing. The NAVRAD scope clearly showed the site now on the thirty mile band. The plane descended into the stratus layer. Boop turned to Dave and said, “This is why we get the big bucks and get to wear these nice flight suits.” The windscreen turned milky white and he had flashbacks to his first chopper flight back at Little Rock. But he kept his cool. The copilot started calling off the pre-landing checklist. The flaps were lowered, the throttle adjusted, and the nose tilted downward. The NAVRAD scope was now pinging the DYE site clearly. They were six miles out and 2,500 feet above ground level (AGL). There was still no visibility. The poles along the skiway started to light up on the scope at five miles out. Dave was amazed. The scope truly did look like follow the dots with a V-shaped taper towards the top. At three miles and 1,500 feet AGL the plane broke through the stratus. What he saw in front of him was a magnificent black mega structure sitting on eight massive columns with what looked like the world’s biggest golf ball sitting on top.
The plane slid in for a landing smoother than snot on a glass doorknob.
Boop turned to Dave and said, “Welcome to Hoth on Earth.” Dave smiled and nodded. He got the joke. This was a clear reference to the ice planet in The Empire Strikes Back movie.
The plane taxied back to the ice apron adjacent to the massive complex. Boop hit the intercom again, “Everyone, it is twenty five below zero outside. Bundle up. The wind chill factor will be fifty below in the prop wash.”
Sergeant Dylan Sheppard lowered the ramp. Dave was surprised to see a tracked vehicle pushing a large sled up to the aircraft for off loading the drilling pipe and equipment. Carl opened the aft side crew door and lowered the stairs. Dave pulled his parka hood up over his head and put on his fur lined gloves. He didn’t bother to take his fur-lined, sealskin boots, or mukluks, as they were called up here, out of his crew bag. After all he was only going to walk a hundred feet to the complex. Major Boop climbed down the ladder followed by Dave.
Sheridan felt the prop wash blast against his body. It was a challenge to stay up right. They walked over to the stairway and were met by the Site Commander, Vince Beach. They shook hands but it was very difficult to carry on a conversation with the props running. Vince led the way up the two flights of stairs and into the site. Dave’s eyeglasses fogged up immediately with a thick layer of ice as he hit the warm air of the entrance way. He pulled off his glasses to see. Vince welcomed him and Major Boop to DYE-3 and had them sign in on the site log. Vince then led them through a series of hallways into the dining room for a cup of coffee. He introduced him to the site’s chef, Olga. She shook his hand and then gasped, “Captain, do you know that your ears are bleeding?” He reached up to feel a smear of warm blood on his ear lobes. However, it wasn’t his ears that were bleeding. It was his temples. Apparently when he stared into the prop wash, his metal frame glasses froze to his skin. When he removed the glasses because they fogged up, he also unknowingly removed several layers of skin. He thought to himself, what a way to make a grand entrance by bloodying up the kitchen.
Dave soon found out the coffee in Greenland really gives you a jolt. It is a little thicker than back in the States. After Olga helped put on a couple of bandages, he downed his second cup and devoured a phenomenal real Danish pastry. Then Vince gave him a tour of the complex.
“Most of the chefs up here in the Arctic are the best of the best. They come out of the Merchant Marine. The military had learned a long time ago that in order to keep the moral high and the troops happy they didn’t skimp on the meals. The typical daily caloric input up here in the Arctic is over 5,000 a day and it’s not just all sugar. It’s full of good protein with plenty of meat and potatoes. Keep in mind those extra calories might keep you alive for a few more hours if you go down on the icecap. Too bad you’re really screwed if you go down in the water.”
“We have enough food on site to last us sixty days. Water is no problem. I’ll show you our drag line and snow harvesting operation in a little bit.” He showed him the huge freezers and warehouse pantry. “The first floor consists of warehouse space, receiving, and our power plant with six huge, 12 cylinder White Superior diesel generators.” Vince remarked, “We need three running at one time to supply site power. We have two in standby mode and one down for overhaul at all times. It takes the Ravens six weeks of round the clock flying to supply our diesel fuel requirements for the year. They make about two hundred flights out here from Sonde in a six week period and off load over a half million gallons.”
They next climbed a flight of stairs to the lateral tropospheric communications room. Vince explained that radio waves are bounced off the troposphere to adjacent sites. This allows for over the horizon radio communications versus line of sight VHF. It is also very difficult to jam. Half of this floor was a gymnasium with a weight room. “We have to have some place to work off all that pastry.” In the back corner was a varnished plywood wall with a door that said “BAR.” “We also have to have a place to drown our sorrows.”
Next, Vince showed Dave the third floor living quarters. There were a dozen or so rooms arranged on the outside perimeter of this floor. The walls were a good three feet thick and were highly insulated. Each room had a window, more for fire escape than for view. This floor also housed the radar console room in the center of the complex. Vince explained the radar system to him, “We use the FPS-30. With the FPS-30, you could throw an orange into the air thirty miles out and we would see it.” Dave asked what the range was. Vince answered, “The actual range is classified, but it is over 250 miles. We have overlap with each of our adjacent sites.” Vince punched four digits on a cipher lock and opened the door to the radar room. “This is the heart and soul of our complex. This is our console room, ops center, and communications center. It is manned 24/7. If you need to take a leak there is always someone on standby to cover for you.” The room wasn’t all that large. It had two scopes side by side, a low altitude scope and a high altitude scope. “There are sixteen permanent party members on-site. We have twenty one with you and the drilling crew. We operate with three RadTechs, two ComTechs, a chief mechanic and two apprentices, an electrician, a laborer, a janitor, a chef, and two dozer operators that constantly plow snow away from the site and keep our skiway smooth for aircraft operations. Then there is myself and a LogTech.”
Vince introduced Dave to Jim Ewing. “Jim has been on the line for nearly six years without getting burned out. They all make good money up here and really have no place to spend it. Unlike many of the guys stationed up here, Jim doesn’t have an ex-wife down south to worry about. He just keeps banking it away.” Jim shook his hand and pointed his thumb at Vince. “Talk about your money bags. The reason we have a twenty million dollars worth of com gear on this site is so Vince can talk to his broker every day.”
Just then the radio speaker crackled to life, “Sob Story, Sob Story...this is Raven Two over.” Jim keyed his hand set and replied, “Raven Two, Sob Story is with you.” “Roger, Sob Story...We are at 15,000 and descending…Please give us a weather and radar check.” “Roger, Raven Two, I have you one two zero miles, bearing two eight zero. Weather is as follows, outside air temp (OAT) at minus two fiver degrees Fahrenheit, winds three six zero at ten, visibility three miles, ceiling two thousand and overcast with marginal VFR. Be advised Raven One is on the Apron taxiing out. ETD fifteen minutes.”
Raven Two acknowledged the information. Vince said, “Raven two is the load of drilling gear along with Dr. Rapp and Dr. Timken. We have a half an hour to finish up your tour before I have to head back outside to greet them and supervise the offloading.”
Vince took Dave up another twisting flight of stairs. He could feel the altitude getting to him now. He was huffing and puffing. “It’ll take you a couple of days to get acclimated to the altitude. Remember, DYE-3 is nearly two miles above sea level.”
They exited the stair shaft and were on the third floor. Here there were several rooms dedicated to the station chief, and any VIP visitors. “Here is your room, Captain.” Vince opened the