U.S. FLIGHT SOUTH

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29010, 26 September 1959, Page 12

U.S. FLIGHT SOUTH

First Fresh Food Since March

Although the United States Navy Skymaster which is expected to leave Invercargill for McMurdo Sound about 9 p.m. next Friday will have some important passengers aboard when it arrives at Hut Point, they will compete for interest with a consignment of 2001 b of mail, and fresh lettuces, tomatoes, radishes, onions, oranges, apples and milk. The passengers—Rear-Admiral David M.-Tyree, his aide (Lieutenant D. W. Madison), the VX-6 commander (Captain W. H. Munson), and Captain Jack Eady, assistant chief of staff for operations and plans—will be the first visitors from north of McMurdo Sound since the U.S.S. Staten Island left there on March 4. The fresh food and mail will also be the first the winter party has had since the ship left. Men who have spent the winter at the South Pole station will have to wait even longer for visitors, mail and fresh food. No flight can be made to that base until the temperature rises from its present 60 or 70 degrees below zero to about 40 degrees below zero in November. Nothing has been landed at the South Pole station since December 29 last year.

At McMurdo Sound the winter party will now be repairing, for the third time this month, the 5000 ft ice runway. A raging snowstorm there has halted air operation and restricted work to indoor activity. Surface winds are said to be blowing at 20 to 30 knots from the east, with gusts up to 60 knots. No-one had been out to see the air-strip when the message was received at the advance headquarters at Harewood, but the men at Hut Point expect to find the runway covered in snow drifts No new reports have been received about either the Cape Hallet or Marble Point runways, but because of its proximity to McMurdo Sound it is likely that the Marble Point emergency runway is also covered with snow.