First flying day!

Today we were up early, packed and ready, and headed to the
airport.  We talked over the weather and our flight plans with
Tonny, loaded the helicopter, and took off.  Our first goal was
to overfly several sites on the way to our first landing, at one
of our borehole stations from last year.  As we flew along, I'd
help Tonny navigate to the next station with the help of a
handheld GPS, and we'd be scanning the snow surface for a sign of
the station.  Once we were within about a half mile, we could
generally see the station- if the solar panel was still upright.




Here is our station named 25N0 (the first number is how many
kilometers it is up the flowline from a set point, and the second
number is how far it is from the center of the flowline).  Yup, it's there!
Look closely (you may have to zoom), and you'll see the station in the
dead center of the photo.  This illustrates what it's like to spot one of
these stations from the air.

Tonny Olsen, our pilot, bringing us to one of our stations.  I
don't have many photos of the work we did out at the stations,
since I spent all of that time working!  By the end of the day
we were on track having visited 4 sites, some of which were in
perfect condition, others in need of repairs.  Looking forward to
another good day of flying tomorrow!