The plans they are a changin'

Well, it didn't take long for the ambitious schedule for this week to start to change. On my arrival yesterday I was met at the airport by VPR's Ed Stockard. When I asked him how things were going, he responded- "Well, do you want me to just say 'fine', or do you want the real story?" I knew at once that our carefully-laid plans were soon to be in transition.

The 109th Air National Guard planes were still grounded with mechanical problems, and so wouldn't be arriving that day. This gave me a little more time to do some repairs on my equipment, but also threw a wrench into our plans. Now, 2 planes should arrive today, but only one with skis, and without a second ski-equipped plane for rescue if something goes wrong, we won't be flying anywhere until we have another ski-equipped plane available. This is likely to be Sunday at the earliest.

So the trip to the Russell Glacier that we'd planned for later in the week has been moved to tomorrow, since it only requires a truck, which we do have. It's all about using our time as efficiently as possible. After that, the plan, with any luck, will continue to follow as closely as possible to the original plan, with us flying to Raven, then to Summit, and eventually back here. I have yet to meet with the film crew, so I don't know quite what they are wanting yet in terms of shots.

More later as the plan evolves!