Antarctic Festival
Her smile says it all
By CPL Nyssa Lynskey
Bright and early one Friday morning, 14 crew members plus three maintainers from No. 5 Squadron, prepared their aircraft for a trip to Christchurch, to attend the Annual Antarctic Festival.
Also along for the flight that day was Mr John McKinnon, Secretary of Defence. After a short preflight, we took off for a transit down to Christchurch to drop the maintainers off and continued on to Invercargill, where we carried out some training with the Army. This was made more of a challenge due to the bumpy conditions around the mountains (turbulence that is). Once complete, the crew, some of whom had turned as green as their Army counterparts, transited to Christchurch to prepare the aircraft for the weekend’s activities. Although the weather on the Saturday was less than ideal, that didn’t seem to deter the public. A queue quickly formed to come aboard and see inside the P3. Although it was a wait, the crowds informed us that it was definitely worth it. Throughout the day we had a steady stream of people pass through, learning about the range of roles we carry out and seeing the different types of equipment we have onboard. Many were surprised to hear that we could land on the ice and operate over the Ross Sea. Also present for the open day were the US Air Force’s C17 and ski-equipped C130. After a long day, the C17 crew invited us and our chilly-bin onto their plane for a quick tour and drink before they headed off to watch the mysterious game we call ‘rugby’. Sunday morning and the sun was shining, making it a much nicer day to look around the Antarctic Centre displays. The crowds were even bigger than the day before as more people filed through the aircraft, many people coming back for a second look. After another long day we packed up the aircraft ready for our flight home, everyone looking forward to getting back after a tiring weekend. Overall, it was great to be invited to showcase our plane at the Antarctic Festival. It gave the public a chance to understand a bit more about No. 5 Squadron’s roles and responsibilities overseas and around New Zealand, as well as the very important work we now carry out in and around Antarctica.