Original subtitles

[Narrator] The Skibird is the go-to aircraft

for tough jobs in frozen places from pole to pole.

The world's largest ski plane is heading to Greenland.

[Man] You keep an eye on those throttles.

[Narrator] On a vast ice sheet

scientists' lives and livelihoods

depend on these planes.

[Woman] If we didn't have the Skibirds

to support a project like this, we just couldn't do it.

[Narrator] Now their expedition is in its final days,

and vicious winter storms are on the way.

The Skibirds face a daunting task--

get the team and their gear out

before they're buried under snow and ice.

[Man] ATO now!

[Narrator] It's a steamy summer morning

at the National Guard Base in Schenectady, New York.

But this LC-130 Hercules is not going to the beach.

Grab this strap, would you?

[Narrator] Master sergeant Bill Madrian and his team

are fitting it with a 2,000-pound ski.

Again, guys,

you do not want to put your finger in there,

because if something happens,

if these arms for some reason or another slam down,

you'll slice a finger off.

Is he cranking the gear up?

[Bill] Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!

[Narrator] It's a balancing act of precision and brute force.

Sometimes they go on, they slide on like, like butter.

I think we're right in the sweet spot right now.

There you go.

Other times, they fight with you every inch of the way.

[Soldier] Come on, one more time.

[Narrator] There are only 10 modified Hercules Skibirds.

And they're all based here with the 109th airlift wing

in upstate New York.

Three are heading to Greenland to evacuate climate scientists

from the ice cap.

Takeoff is in 48 hours.

Piloting one of the Hercs is captain Eric Wood.

What I love about flying the LC-130

is the unique, how unique the mission is,

how unique the aircraft is.

It's the largest ski aircraft in the world.

It handles like a small airplane.

It's kind of like being a bush pilot

but in a large military aircraft.

[Narrator] The crews of the 109th

only know one season--winter.

Six months near the north pole, six months at the south,

their planes are the only lifeline

for scientists studying climate change.

Flight engineer Corey Palmatier has the huge responsibility

of making sure their plane is good to go

before he joins Eric Wood on the flight deck.

The only way I can verify

that the airplane is safe to fly

is by looking at every piece and part that I can physically see

and make sure that there's no damage.

[Narrator] The Hercules lives up to its name--

it can carry two armored personnel carriers.

It stretches 100 feet long and stands 40 feet high.

Its high lift-generating wing is 130 feet, tip to tip.

The Herc has proven itself indispensable

in extreme environments.

The first one rolled off the Lockheed assembly line in 1955.

More than 2,000 planes later,

they're used for everything from troop transport

to air-to-air refueling,

and from firebomber to aerial gunship.

During the Cold War,

the ski variant supplied remote radar stations

across the far north.

And decades later, the Hercs is still the aircraft of choice

for polar missions.

90 minutes from takeoff.

Loadmasters Nick O'Neill and Logan Brennan

are positioning the supplies and equipment

they'll need for the operation.

The weight of the cargo and where it sits

have a direct impact on how the plane handles.

[Nick O'Neill] We're a little different than a regular C-130.

Instead of usual load plan, it's more light in the front,

heavier in the back, giving it a little, little back weight,

just so we can get the nose up when we go and taking off.

[Narrator] From Schenectady, New York,

the Skibirds will fly almost 2,000 miles

over eastern Canada, across the Davis Strait

and into Sondrestrom Air Base on Greenland's west coast.

Every summer on Greenland's ice cap,

scientists gather to peer into the past.

Buried under more than a mile and a half

of layered snow and ice

is a record of the earth's climate

dating back over 100,000 years.

Scientists like professor Dorthe Dahl-Jensen

are on the cutting edge of climate research.

They've been drilling into the ice cap

for the past four months.

But the brief arctic summer is fading fast.

They've got to pack up their ice core samples

and get out before winter returns.

[Dorthe Dahl-Jensen] The Skibirds,

they're just everything.

If we didn't have the Skibirds to support a project like this,

we just couldn't do it.

So they are simply our lifeline,

and they are so great to work with.

[Narrator] Back in the U.S.,

the crew is doing a final weather check

for their six-hour flight.

Can you hand me the charts for St. John's?

[Narrator] Aircraft commander Eric Wood briefs his team.

It looks like we have a flight plan

at flight level 170, 270 knots, through pepki,

on our way up to Sondrestrom.

We're following an alternate of St. John's.

We're carrying enough fuel for a couple hours of holding,

from direct.

How much fuel do we need?

We need 51.

[Narrator] Navigator lieutenant colonel

Samantha East's calculations

call for 51,000 pounds of fuel...

More than enough to make the trip.

But captain Wood is always looking for places to put down

in case of mechanical problems.

It's extremely critical.

Luckily, today with the Skibird,

with an airplane with skis on it,

we do have options to go land in the snow

if we ever absolutely needed to as an emergency.

[Narrator] 30 minutes to takeoff.

Wood makes one last inspection.

Most problems with an airplane,

you can notice from a distance

when you're walking out to the airplane,

whether a wingtip is leaning to one side or not.

It'll tell you whether or not you've got soft tire

or a flat tire.

And make sure I have a clear taxi route out of parking.

And I do.

[Controller] Schenectady ground, good morning.

You'll be requesting runway four for takeoff.

[Man on radio] Skier 88,

Schenectady ground, runway four, taxi via golf to kilo.

[Narrator] Wood and his crew are the first flight out.

The other two Skibirds will follow.

The Herc may handle like a bush plane in flight,

but on the ground it moves more like a transport truck.

[Controller] Skier 88, Schenectady tower, runway four,

wind calm, clear for takeoff.

[Narrator] At full throttle it takes 18 seconds

to reach 100 knots.

The Herc is heralded for its short takeoff performance

and the high lift wings take it into the air

after using just 3,000 feet of runway.

Once airborne,

loadmaster Logan Brennan has a new assignment.

While the pilots are scanning the horizon,

he's their eyes in the back.

[Logan Brennan] We're looking to make sure there's no leaks,

hydraulic oil, fuel,

just inspecting the underside of the wings,

looking at the exhaust, trying to, if you can,

look at the back of the engine

as well as the front of the engine

and just really making sure there's nothing abnormal

going on out there.

[Narrator] Just over 10 minutes into the flight,

and the pilots take the Herc through 15,000 feet.

There are seven crewmembers on board,

but the buck stops here with captain Wood.

You're managing the mission

as the aircraft commander.

You try to keep the big picture

and make sure the mission's progressing as it should.

[Narrator] Sitting over Woods' right shoulder,

flight engineer Corey Palmatier is scanning the dials.

Well, my primary role is to operate and monitor

all the systems on the aircraft,

ensure everything is operating

within their safe operating range.

[Narrator] Beside Wood, co-pilot Pat Newton

is a relative newcomer to the cockpit.

I was a loadmaster back in the day,

one of those guys.

I joined in 2002 and I went away to pilot training in 2008,

finished a couple years ago, so it's a blast.

[Narrator] Four hours after takeoff,

the Herc has reached the Davis Strait--

an aerial no-man's-land.

This is the end of radar coverage

until they reach land again.

Wood and his crew are now invisible

to air traffic controllers

and must report their position based on their own instruments.

Sam East and Rachel Leimbach use their GPS

and a slightly older technology--

a periscopic sextant.

Right now, Rachel is taking a celestial shot

and she's actually measuring the height of the sun

above the horizon.

It's the same way that Columbus discovered America,

we're just a little bit better at it than he was.

The reason we do that is because we're in polar regions,

if you run into problems with your onboard computer systems

and navigation systems,

there's nothing out there to help you.

There's no radar, there's no ATC,

there's no land-based navigation aids, it's just you.

[Narrator] With 600 miles of Davis Strait behind them,

the coast of Greenland's is now in sight.

[Rachel Leimbach] It's starting to look really pretty.

[Wood] Yeah, it's gorgeous.

Well, we've just turned over this point,

Mike alpha right here, right on the coast of Greenland's,

and now we're headed in, inland here to Sondrestrom.

The weather looks good,

so we're going to be able to get below the clouds up here

in just a little bit,

and you'll get a good view of Greenland's.

[Narrator] Sondrestrom Air Base is a relic of World War II

and notorious for its sloping runway.

For inbound pilots,

landing on a hill creates a dangerous optical illusion.

[Controller] Skier 73, runway 09 cleared to land.

[Pat] Cleared to land on 9, skier 73.

[Narrator] Some who have failed to compensate

have paid with their lives.

[Wood] Well, optical illusions can cause a lot of problems

during landings.

This runway with a slope can give you the illusion

that you're coming in too steep

and make you want to get lower than you should be.

[Narrator] Pilots can make one of two mistakes--

flare too early for landing

and they'll run out of airspeed and crash to the ground,

or come in too fast and steep

and they risk damaging the plane.

Going to brake slightly.

[Controller] Skier 73, 180 backtrack

and taxi on taxiway delta.

[Wood] For currency, we have to land here so many times

within a year to maintain a currency for it,

because it is such a unique airport

with so many optical illusions.

Welcome to Greenland's, home of the LC-130.

[Narrator] With all three Skibirds safely on the ground,

the real work can begin.

The officer in charge is major Carlyle Norman,

a 15-year veteran with the Skibirds

and a master of logistics.

Worst case scenario,

I'll get you a second engineer for your pre-flights.

Alpha one.

[Narrator] In addition to planning

the final pullout flights from the science camps,

Norman needs to train his crews for their next assignment.

In a few short weeks they'll be on the other side of the world,

flying ski missions in Antarctica.

[Norman] My job is to make sure that I give them what they need

to do their jobs,

make sure I keep the airplanes up and running,

make sure I keep them, you know, not working long hours.

My goal is always to make sure that I am treating my people

as good as I can do it.

[Narrator] This morning he's briefing

aircraft commander Eric Wood and co-pilot Pat Newton

on their mission to Neem,

a remote research station in northern Greenland's.

It's two and a half hours due north.

What lies between is the unforgiving ice cap.

Wood's evacuation flight, the second last of the season,

will also carry in supplies for next season.

Alright, so you're taking out six passengers

to the camp and two pallets,

and you're going to bring four pallets

and about 10 passengers back from the camp.

All right.

It's pretty warm out there today.

It is, it is, yes,

but with those temperatures and the ATO bottles,

you guys should have no problem getting off the snow.

Great.

[Narrator] ATO, or Assisted Takeoff Bottles,

are packed with solid rocket fuel.

Once ignited, eight bottles give the Herc the explosive kick

it needs to get airborne.

[Corey] We might not be able to take off

with the power we have available,

or the snow could be too sticky.

But we're able to strap these onto our aircraft,

and they provide about 8,000 pounds of thrust,

which is about the equivalent of adding a fifth engine

to the airplane.

And should give us the few critical knots we'll need

to accelerate off the snow.

[Narrator] Weather is the biggest obstacle

when flying into the frontier,

making a routine landing a potential disaster.

[Wood] Some of the issues we're going to have today,

landing up at Neem,

is anytime there's an overcast layer of clouds,

the white clouds and the white snow on the ground

blend together.

And we always talk about how

it's like landing inside the middle of a ping-pong ball.

You can't, you have no reference on the ground

to judge your height,

other than our radar altimeters we're using.

[Narrator] There are no other airfields between here and Neem,

so managing their fuel is critical.

Rachel is calculating the bingo fuel number.

It's not an exact science.

Rachel has to factor in the possibility

of flying a holding pattern in case of bad weather at Neem,

but still needs enough to get home safely.

When I give the aircraft commander

our bingo fuel for what fuel we're looking for,

to be like, we can't mess around on the ground anymore,

we need to take off.

[Wood] Number four.

[Corey] Turning, 07.

[Wood] When you check in with tower,

just make sure you let 'em know we got the bottles.

We need to back-taxi the runway.

[Narrator] The ATO rockets are high-explosives.

Ground control gives the Herc lots of room to maneuver,

making sure that other planes keep their distance.

-[Pat] Co-pilot has the control. -[Wood] Roger.

[Narrator] For this takeoff,

co-pilot Pat Newton is at the controls.

The wheels are retracted into the fuselage,

but the skis are not.

Landing gear's up, skis are up.

Let's go flaps up.

[Pat] Flaps up.

[Narrator] Exposed to headwinds, they create enough drag

to limit the Skibird to 300 knots on the flight north--

about 10% slower than the regular Herc.

Setting at 3-6-0.

Clear terrain?

[woman] Clear terrain.

[Narrator] On the ground at the Neem Ice Research Station,

the science team is racing against time,

[Man] We need to align all the corners

before we sort of pull it tight.

[Narrator] In a few short weeks,

vicious winter storms will seal this place tight.

For the last several weeks

they've bored hundreds of ice cores.

Camp leader professor Dorthe Dahl-Jensen has overseen

some dramatic firsts for their research.

[Dorthe] This is one of the last ice cores we drilled,

and actually the reason why we came this year to drill,

the very, very deep ice that we find right at the bottom,

the interface between the rock and the ice.

So this is from the depths, 2,538 meters.

[Narrator] The scientists are drilling

into the Earth's history,

retrieving samples of an ancient forest

that once covered the now-frozen landscape.

[Dorthe] Because we have all the biological material

sealed in the ice, it's totally untouched and frozen down,

so it's so well preserved,

can't find anything like that in any other sources.

So this is really, really exciting

to come home and study.

[Narrator] Their research time has been invaluable,

but it's quickly running out.

We're getting close to the time

where we're closing camp,

so we're building the pallets with all the equipment we need

to send back to our labs in Europe and the U.S. and Canada.

[Narrator] But the scientists will have to wait--

captain Wood and his crew are nearing Neem camp

and the weather has deteriorated.

They have whiteout conditions,

we can't land in that,

so we're probably going to set up a holding pattern

over the camp, and hopefully the weather will clear

and we'll be able to land.

We take off in the morning being very optimistic

that things are going to work out for the best.

It's not always the case,

and that's exactly what's happening today.

So we're going to give it the best shot we can,

hopefully the timing works out.

But if not, we always have tomorrow.

We err on the side of caution.

[Narrator] Captain Wood enters a holding pattern high above Neem.

If they circle for more than an hour,

they'll be putting themselves in jeopardy,

burning the fuel they'll need for the trip home.

Back at Sondrestrom,

major Norman is dealing with another piece of bad news.

Copy 95, you guys got a fuel leak.

I'll run in and talk to Assam.

Why don't you guys go ahead and pack it up

and come on inside for now?

I'll see you inside.

[Man on radio] We'll be right in, Skier 52.

[Narrator] A pre-flight inspection revealed a problem

with one of the other Hercs.

Karl, Skier 95,

I've been told they've got a fuel leak.

Yep, the guys are out troubleshooting it now.

It looks like the left-hand fuel manifold's leaking.

We're going to check availability of a part

and we're probably gonna end up having to can it.

Okay.

[Narrator] Norman can't afford to have any of the Skibirds

out of commission.

[Norman] We try not to operate out in the ice cap

without having at least one or two other birds

as SAR birds, so "Search and Rescues."

Because if that plane were to go down on the ice cap,

we wouldn't have search and rescue capability

within 24 hours to go out and rescue them.

[Narrator] Master sergeant Frank madia is under the hood.

Whenever you have a fuel leak,

you want to make sure you take care of it right away,

because, you know, you can,

it could be catastrophic and lose lives.

If it were to happen in flight, that would be a very bad thing.

You know, you...very bad.

And I found this hose was leaning up against

the bleed air manifold here,

and it burnt the casing on the outside of it,

and it was all wet and fuel was oozing out of it.

[Narrator] Back in the U.S. This would be no big deal.

But in Greenland's, spare parts are hard to come by.

[Narrator] Holding over a remote science camp

on Greenland's ice cap and low on fuel,

captain Eric Wood wants to attempt a landing.

[Wood] Visibility is down to almost nil.

Whiteout conditions there.

We've already begun our descent.

So at this point we're going to continue the approach

and take a look and just hope that it's cleared up

by the time we get there.

[Narrator] If the crew decides to abort,

they'll have no choice

but to head back to Sondrestrom air base.

The Skibirds were designed to operate in extreme conditions,

and co-pilot Pat Newton lives for this type of flying.

P There's no other aviators in the world

that have these.

There's only 10 aircraft, and we have all of them.

So it's a unique mission, unique capability,

not a lot of people get to experience this type of stuff.

[Narrator] To get his Skibird safely down on the ice cap,

captain Wood is relying on the plane's radar

and his navigators,

Rachel Leimbach and Samantha east.

We have a low ceiling of two miles of visibility,

so Rachel is going to be doing airborne radar approach,

which will be talking the pilots down into the camp.

[Narrator] The onboard radar gives the crew

a rudimentary picture of ground features

and instant feedback about their altitude on the approach.

Radar waves emitted from the base of the plane

are bounced off the ground below,

giving the crew their precise altitude to within two feet.

Cutting through clouds,

they've spotted the approach flags leading to the ski-way.

Starting to get flags. There they are.

I got the flags. Hallelujah.

Right now I'm just lining up for the camp.

[Narrator] A low-tech alternative

to the landing lights of an airport,

the flags start two miles from the ski-way threshold.

We're looking at flags,

and that's it for our reference to the ground.

And it's really hard to tell how high you are off the ground

besides looking at our instruments.

[Rachel] Approaching four miles, recommended altitude is 8670.

[Narrator] Rachel calls out the altitude

until the moment of touchdown.

[Rachel] 100...

50...

40...

30...

20...

10.

[Wood] Prepare to offload.

[Man] Acknowledged, loadmaster.

[Dorthe] Skier 4-2, welcome to Neem.

[Narrator] Now comes one of the Herc's coolest tricks--

the combat offload,

a way to get stuff out of the plane in a hurry--

important if someone is shooting at you,

or if you're running out of gas.

The combat offload is a quick, expedient way

of getting the cargo off the aircraft,

because time is precious when we're on the snow

because you don't want to burn so much fuel.

He's got that offload checklist.

[Pat] Roger.

[Narrator] Aircraft commander Eric Wood guns the engines

and the cargo pallet shoots out the back of the Hercules.

[Wood] Power!

Over!

[Narrator] It's fuel to be stored for next year's research.

An ice field is no ordinary airport.

Any mechanical glitch here and they're stranded,

which is why they leave the engines running.

But burning 350 gallons an hour means they need to move fast.

Pallets and an aerial drone are hustled on board.

But their efforts come up short.

Sam's calculations show they no longer have enough fuel

to make it back to base.

Back at Sondrestrom Air Base,

a potential rescue plane is grounded

because of a broken fuel line.

Master sergeant Karl Burghart and staff sergeant Eric Fuller

are cannibalizing a line

from the spare engine they bring along on every mission.

[Eric Fuller] Ah!

You okay?

[Eric] Please don't twist it that direction.

[Karl] Okay, want me to go the other way?

I think I've got to pull the collector.

We have a supply of spare parts up here,

but unfortunately, this part isn't one of them that we carry

because it doesn't fail that much.

[Narrator] But getting the fuel line out and reinstalled

will take hours.

Back at Neem, the crew are out of options.

They have no choice but to take fuel

from the camp's own emergency supply.

Gassing up on the ice field is called hot refueling.

No wonder.

Whenever you mix gas,

four running engines, and a lot of people,

there's always risk of a fire or injury.

So we're always very cautious and careful.

Because it took longer to load the aircraft than we expected,

we had to take about 1,000 pounds of gas from the camp

in order to have enough fuel to make it back to Sondrestrom.

[Narrator] Sitting idle can cause another problem.

The weight of the Herc creates a layer of water beneath the skis

that can freeze solid.

Raising and lowering them

prevents them from getting locked in place.

Today's weather conditions are also conspiring

to make this takeoff a challenge.

Snow versus wheels.

Wheels is pretty much the same surface all the time.

Snow, depending on how the sun's hitting it,

it creates a different situation every time you try to take off.

So we'll have to vary flap settings

and do a number of different things to try and take off.

But today, it looks like we're going to have to use some ATO

to get off the ground.

[Narrator] The ATO, or Assisted Takeoff Rockets,

are a last ditch effort,

a one-shot deal that either works

or leaves you stuck on the ground.

Captain Wood is going to need the ATO bottles

and every inch of the two-mile ski-way.

[Wood] When we do every ski takeoff,

gets your heartbeat racing

and almost takes your breath away once you get airborne.

It feels like the airplane just slides

from side to side,

just does not seem like any kind of normal takeoff.

For instance, like you're on the center line of the runway,

and you're up and you're going.

[Narrator] Eric has to put it all on the line

to get his plane and crew back in the air.

[Wood] Five knots...

[Pat] Plus 70%.

[Wood] 65 knots...

ATO now!

[Narrator] Flight engineer Corey Palmatier

readies the assisted takeoff rockets.

A flick of the switch will ignite

an extra 8,000 pounds of thrust.

[Corey] 50 knots.

[Narrator] It's a one-shot deal--

14 seconds of burn

and they're either flying home or staying put.

[Wood] Five knots...

[Pat] Plus 70%.

[Wood] 65 knots...

ATO now!

-[Wood] Gear up? -[Pat] Gear up!

[Pat] I should have gone plus 50.

[Narrator] The first load of scientists

is on its way back to Sondrestrom.

And with the hard work behind them,

Eric gets to take in the view.

[Wood] I can spend all day looking out the window

at this section of the world.

It's incredible.

[Narrator] At Sondrestrom Air Base,

Eric Fuller has scavenged a fuel line from the extra engine.

Okay, Eric, the part's in.

We're done here.

So now we're just gonna button it up, fire it up,

and see if there's any leaks yet.

Give me high speed.

Parallel.

[Man on radio] Gear it up, Frank.

-[Frank] Number four? -[Man on radio] Yup.

[Frank] Coming up on four.

[Eric] We're still trying.

We discovered the problem, and with this OPS check,

we have no more fuel leakage, we are good to go.

We'll probably fly this later on this afternoon.

[Narrator] This Skibird is back on-line,

and with Eric's plane just back from Neem camp,

lieutenant colonel Mike Kelly will take his place

in the hot seat.

Kelly flies full-time with a major airline

and is a part-time co-pilot for the Air National Guard.

[Mike Kelly] My airline is fantastic,

but coming up here, just the challenging environment,

it's the only plane in the entire air force

that does this mission and role.

[Narrator] If Kelly looks tense, he should be.

It's exam time.

He's in Greenland's for his annual Skibird check ride,

an airborne grilling that every pilot fears.

It's pass or fail.

It's a co-pilot check ride

first for our ski procedures, going into the camps,

just to make sure that we can do it.

[Narrator] The destination for the evaluation flight

is camp raven, an abandoned Cold War radar site,

now used exclusively as a test ground for Skibird pilots.

Lieutenant colonel George Alston will be the evaluator pilot

for this check ride.

It's his call if Mike gets to keep his job

flying polar missions.

[George Alston] I'm really going to be watching

to make sure that the co-pilot is performing

all of his proper procedures

and the entire crew to get the aircraft safely on the ground.

[Narrator] The first part of the test--

an airborne radar approach that calls for precise coordination

on the flight deck.

Everything he knows, every word he says,

that's really what makes or breaks

getting into the airfield at that point.

That's where I'm going to be watching the co-pilot intently.

[Narrator] Kelly's task--

verify the flags of the ski-way

and then set the flaps for landing.

Lead-in flags are in sight.

11 o'clock. Co-pilot has the approach.

[Narrator] The Skibird is on short final

with an airspeed of 110 knots.

Kelly: Gear down, skis down.

[Narrator] It's looking good...

Until it isn't.

[Kelly] We're over-shooting.

The lead-in flag is going below the aircraft.

[Woman] Missed approach point.

[Kelly] Coming in a little bit low.

[Woman] 30...

20...

10.

[Narrator] George is not impressed,

but calls for full power to give him one more chance.

[Kelly] Skier 12, commencing takeoff slide, Ski-way 17.

We're going to go out and do the approach

one more time,

just to make sure that we got a really good look

at everything that happens in that critical phase

there at the end.

[Narrator] When your job is on the line,

that's not what you want to hear.

If Kelly blows this landing,

his career with the Skibirds could be in the past.

[Kelly] Co-pilot has the approach.

Continue decent, turn right.

Continue turning crosswind for a box pattern to ski-way 17.

[Narrator] After the second landing, the exam is over.

The Skibird sets course for Sondrestrom.

If Kelly did any better the second time,

George isn't saying.

Back on the ground, it's report card time.

Okay, so to sum it up, I thought at the beginning,

there was a little bit of sloppiness,

a little bit of check ride nerves, which is fairly common.

I thought you cleaned that up very nicely

through the rest of the ride.

Overall, a very nice check ride, a G1, congratulations.

Go fly.

-[Kelly] Thank you, sir. -[George] Yeah.

[Narrator] The final pullout mission to Neem

is on the flight line.

Flying the mission, aircraft commander colonel Gary James

and co-pilot major Nate Morgan.

Let's make sure everybody's signed in.

[Narrator] This Skibird is ready,

but the weather isn't ideal.

They've accumulated snow over the last five days,

and there were patches of snow, drifting snow on the runway,

up to five inches in depth that could hinder our takeoff.

[Controller] Skier 23.

Runway 27, you're cleared for takeoff.

Wind, 260 degrees.

Cleared for takeoff, Runway 27, Skier 23.

[Narrator] At Camp Neem,

Dorthe has also been watching the weather,

anxious to get her team out.

Well, we've had very changeable weather today

with ground fog coming in with snow

and then sunshine, blue sky.

So we're actually getting a little worried

about the weather.

[Narrator] Nate and Gary take off hoping for the best.

An hour outside of Neem and they're in the dark

about exactly what to expect.

I have not spoken to Dorthe today.

I just tried her on HF,

but she's not either, she's not either monitoring HF,

or she's not hearing me.

[Narrator] At the camp,

Dorthe is about to offer an update.

But the weather's not very nice,

it's very overcast and it's snowing.

[Narrator] The final pullout from Neem is in trouble.

[Dorthe] When we have a full overcast,

as we have now, and when you look at the horizon,

you can't see a clear blue sky under the horizon,

then it's really difficult for us to judge

the elevation of the ceiling.

So there's only one way to do it,

and that is to use the weather balloons.

[Narrator] The balloon rises at roughly 400 feet per minute.

Once it disappears, they can calculate the cloud base.

Three minutes and 40 seconds.

Okay, that means the cloud base

is over 1,500 feet, that's really nice.

-[Man] That's good. -Yeah.

[Narrator] Minutes later, the crew is approaching Neem,

but the ceiling has sunk.

Once again, the crew will rely on the Skibird's airborne radar

to get them on the ski-way.

[Nate Morgan] Radar altimeters.

[radio chatter]

[Man] 50...

40...

30...

20...

10.

[Man] Flats are coming.

[Gary] All four check.

Good.

[Dorthe] Skier 23, welcome to Neem.

[Narrator] This is it for the Neem scientists.

The last scramble to pack up, board up and get out of town

before the weather gets worse.

With engines running and fuel burning,

the last item, the camp's weather station,

is packed away.

That's it.

[Man] Thanks, thanks.

-Been a good season. -[Man] Yeah, very nice.

It's been a really good season.

Everything we had decided we would do has actually happened.

It's been successful, every single part of it.

The replica drilling, deep drilling,

flying with the airplane, everything has just been...

-[Man] Perfect. -Perfect season.

[Narrator] It's the final takeoff from Neem.

There are snowdrifts on the ski-way

and the weather is closing in.

Assisted takeoff rockets weren't loaded for this flight,

so it will be up to the crew to squeeze every ounce of power

from the Skibird to get back in the air.

So I'll be hawking the instruments,

making sure we can extract as much power as we can

out of the engines,

and that helps us accelerate and take off.

While I'm pulling back on the yoke at the same time

is we want to kind of protect the nose ski,

because it's a lot more delicate than the main skis.

[Man] You are at 42 knots.

You keep an eye on those throttles.

[Nate] What we want to do is reach a certain speed,

where we can get our nose wheel off the ground.

Once that happens, we have a lot less friction

and we can accelerate even further and get up.

[Gary] What I would give for ATO right now.

[Nate] Stalls 81, you're at 85.

[Narrator] Up and off the ice pack,

Gary gets them back on course for Sondrestrom air base...

Cruising along the coast for a spectacular view

of Greenland's famous iceberg alley.

The evacuation mission is finally over for another season.

The next logistical nightmare--

getting the planes and people back to the U.S.

Right now, it's a one-man office,

just me in the office, and I'm juggling everything.

So literally and-- hold on one second.

Go for Ski--for OPS.

Man on radio: Just wondering, are the packs on the way?

I did round the packs up, the packs are en route.

[Man on radio] Okay, thank you.

It's okay to start engines once they get here?

Once your packs arrive, you are clear to start engines

and cleared to press from there.

[Man on radio] Skier 77, thanks, OPS, we'll see you back there.

So that's what I've got going on.

It's just me, and like I said,

rounding up people, passengers, cargo, the customers,

get them up here, interact with them,

so, yeah, it's a lot to do.

[Narrator] George Alston and his crew

are on the second plane out.

It looks like they'll be exchanging

one extreme weather situation for another.

We're going to have to be maybe picking our way

through some thunderstorms as we get over the northeast U.S.

Not uncommon for this time of year--actually, very common.

We should be arriving there early to mid-afternoon,

and so that's when thunderstorms build.

Controller: Skier 52, Runway 27,

you're cleared for takeoff.

Clear for takeoff on 27-278.

[George] Here we go, we're rolling.

[Narrator] The Skibirds say goodbye to Greenland's

for another year.

George Alston is taking the scenic route,

a straight line down the spectacular Sondrestrom fjord.

Alright, the weather this morning is going to cooperate,

so we get to do one of my favorite things,

we're going to fly down the fjord.

The fjord here is about 90 miles long,

and it was carved out by the ice and glaciers

over the millennia,

and it is just absolutely stunning.

It's actually my favorite thing,

even more than flying in over the ice cap.

[George] Ah, that's cool.

[Man] This is gorgeous.

[George] And there, my friends, is the coastline.

[Narrator] Three hours later and they're over northern Quebec,

flying through a layer of supercooled water droplets

that can freeze on impact with the Skibird.

[George] What we're fighting as we're coming farther south

from the arctic down into northern Canada,

that's where we're picking up the icing.

When your icing gets to a severe state,

the weight that it can create is so great on the airplane

that it can actually cause you to lose airspeed.

The worst is when you get the mixed with the clear.

You get severe clear ice.

When you come out of it, it will just be solid ice

all the way around.

[Narrator] The LC-130 uses heat from two sources

to combat airframe icing.

Heat from the engines

is directed to the wings and fuselage,

while electrical heat is used to protect the propellers.

So we've had to use those today

to make sure that we kept a nice, clean surface

to keep the airflow over the wings

so that we can reduce the weight and keep the aerodynamics.

[Narrator] George Alston flew Hercs in the Bosnian conflict

before joining the Skibirds in the late '90s.

Over a decade later, it's still his ideal aircraft.

I think the Herc is like a dump truck.

You think about it, a dump truck's not pretty,

it's not fast, but it gets the job done.

And that's really what the Hercules does,

whether it's the Skibird or the wheel bird variant,

we get it done.

[Controller] Skier 78, contact Albany approach, 132.82.

Good day.

[Narrator] Co-pilot Pat Newton is hoping to follow

in his footsteps.

Any job that you have on this airplane is a good one.

And I'm just really excited to be up here

and actually living the dream.

But a lot of the planes we do fly

were on the assembly line before I was born.

So they're old planes and we've got to treat them well.

Hopefully, they'll be around for a while,

because I'd like to be doing this for a while.

[Controller] Albany approach, skier 78,

40 miles to the north.

Level 10,000 request vectors...

[Narrator] They're now 60 miles out

and starting their descent into upstate New York,

and the weather isn't good.

[George] The thunderstorms are out there about 60 miles.

We're going have to work today.

[Pat] Yup, it's going to be bumpy, guys.

[George] That's what I was thinking.

[Narrator] A severe weather warning has been issued

for the area.

-[Pat] Sam. -[George] Sam.

[Sam] Microburst warnings are in effect for Albany.

[Narrator] Thunderstorms are moving from west to east

towards the Skibird's destination,

Schenectady County Airport.

[George] It should be moving east

and be out of the way

by the time we get there, hopefully.

[Narrator] Thunderstorms thrive in cumulonimbus clouds,

which can grow over 30,000 feet tall.

They're the clouds pilots fear the most.

Violent updrafts and wind shears can cause structural damage

and send even large planes hurtling to the ground.

[Pat] Can we go back to like a 235?

And then just kind of parallel?

Because I don't want to get too close

to the thunderstorms downrange.

[Narrator] The onboard weather radar is invaluable.

George skirts the worst of the storms

looking for a clear path to the airport.

[George] Just want to basically pass

20 miles to the right of it.

[Narrator] Eventually George finds a window in the weather

and has enough time to make a dash for the runway.

[Controller] Skier 78, Schenectady tower, winds calm,

altimeter 2983, runway 22 cleared to land.

Cleared to land on 22, Skier 78.

[Narrator] George makes a final turn

and has his Skibird on the homestretch.

Landing gear's down, skis are up.

Check pilot.

No problem.

...glide panel.

[Narrator] By now the climate scientists

are back at their labs making sense of their samples.

For the Hercs and their crews,

it's time to start repacking.

Another successful Greenland's mission.

Next stop--Antarctica.

[Narrator] In a month's time, they'll be heading to Antarctica

flying resupply missions to climate scientists there.

From one pole to the other,

the Skibirds are the tool of choice

for extreme assignments on snow and ice.