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Victoria University Antarctic Research Expedition Science and Logistics Reports 1981-82: VUWAE 26

TRANSPORT:

TRANSPORT:

All transport to and from Antarctica was by Hercules, and all transport within Antarctica was by helicopter. The latter was a major source of uncertainty in planning the expedition, because the helicopters were to be shared between Northern Victoria Land and the McMurdo area. It was believed that close support at the summit of Erebus, which had never been freely available, would be denied this year because it risked too large a proportion of the available aircraft. Consequently, the Japanese changed their plan from a wire telemetry seismic network on the summit plateau to a more flexible separate station network on the flanks of the volcano.

In the event, helicopters were withdrawn completely between 5 and 10 December due to serious faults which were at first thought to be unrepairable. The squadron deserves the highest possible recommendation for their fast solution to the problem, but the initial instructions to all NZARP parties to standby for immediate return to base, and the subsequent lack of definite information, resulted in stop-gap measures which could have been avoided.