July 12, 2017 While our friends in Minden are cooking with temperatures near 100 F, we are wearing snow boots and fur hats inside the hangar in El Calafate. Today started -3 C and finally warmed to 5 C. That’s a relative heat wave as the high will only be 2 or 3 C for the next two days.
Stewart re filled the air bottle with our noisy air compressor. Stewart waited until the rest of us went to lunch at the cafeteria at the airport terminal. It is a brisk walk less than 1/2 mile. Jim and Ed Warnock got both eyeball windows purged with dry air. The weather balloon squad is starting their own virtual balloon cockpit thanks to Loris’ programing skills. This will allow the local ATC to know precisely where the balloon is every five minutes. The glider was finished rigging with brake and spoiler checks. Sandra was working on authorizations for airport access. Morgan was splicing wires and making software upgrades. Tago was delivering paperwork to appropriate offices. Tago picked up our latest team arrival, Martin Heltai, at the terminal. Jackie was working on communications, programing the various sat phones, or cell phones. In Argentina a cell number can add or drop digits depending if it is a cell-to-cell or land-to cell call. At the end of the day Tim and Alec had the pressure system ready. We conducted a pressurization check of the cabin which was a complete success.
