A few minutes ago a Basler made the first landing of the 2008/2009 season, bringing our winter officially to a close. The flight had been delayed by bad weather at Rothera Station. When the weather cleared up enough around 1am they decided to go for it. It is a beautiful day down here and the temperature was just above the cutoff of -54°C. They touched down shortly after 8am and took off for McMurdo after a very brief fuel stop. We expect to see them again with 16 passengers tomorrow.

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Yesterday afternoon an FAA Challenger jet came over from McMurdo for a skiway inspection. They buzzed us a few times and didn’t actually land. This was the first aircraft we have seen since February and it created enough excitement to draw some of the Station dweller out in the open to watch it.

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