September 7 was exciting. In the morning, a Coast Guard MH-60T flew to the Healy for training and to pick up two people leaving the ship. I was allowed in the helicopter control office and in the immediate area outside to photograph the ops. The team made several landings and they also hooked a load to carry beneath the helo. Perhaps the most exciting part of the training was watching the crew on the Healy set up and initiate mid-air refueling as the ship and copter moved along in tandem.
On September 8 & 9, the scientific work intensified. In the afternoon, in fog and choppy seas, several of the Coast Guard crew went out in a cutter boat to pick up sets of instruments from three different moorings. The instruments were tethered to the bottom to old train wheels, and it was a tense time, for Seth Danielson, a scientist from the University of Alaska Fairbanks while he waited to see the floats with equipment pop up from their anchorages. Everything was recovered safely, and on September 9, the process was done in reverse as multiple instruments were deployed by cranes into the churning seas.
Figure 1- Coast Guard MH-60T approaching the Healy
Figure 2 - Crew members tie down the helicopter after landing on deck
Figure 3 - The Landing Signal Officer (LSO) gives direction to the pilot for takeoff
Figure 4 - Helicopter hoists a cargo load from the deck of the Healy
Figure 5 - Crew members tend the refueling hose as the ship conducts a Helicopter In-Flight Refuel (HIFR)
Figure 6 – Healy crew bringing recovered instruments and equipment aboard the ship
Figure 7 - Guard crew returning to Healy after picking up sets of instruments from three different moorings
Figure 8 – Science team members working on recovered float
Figure 9 – Science team members deploying equipment at a mooring
Figures 10 & 11 – Instruments being deployed at a mooring site (note former train wheel used as anchor)
