Fairbanks, AK, USA - 10/04/2008

We awoke to find a heavy covering of snow on the ground and with more falling from the sky the prospects of our tanker ride looked slim.

While we waited for the call from John at Eielson, Rink at Everts had kindly agreed to show us around the hangar at Fairbanks where the NOAA WP-3D and the National Research Council of Canada Convair 580 had been operating from.

They, along with the NASA stuff were present to take part in the Artic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS) airborne sampling program.

The data was being collected to allow a study into the affect of long-range pollution from lower latitudes and local boreal wildfires on the atmosphere in the Arctic and high northern latitudes.

The WP-3D was adorned with markings showing all of the hurricanes that it had been used to investigate.

Rink then pointed out that the NASA stuff was still outside and asked if we'd like to go out onto the ramp to shoot them.

It was a real shame the conditions weren't better, but it was still great to get up close to these rare beasts.

While we killed some more time we went for a look around Metro Field, a GA field just outside the Fairbanks perimeter. This "Top Cub" was about as interesting as it got!

Eventually the call came through from Eielson to say that we wouldn't be going flying - no-one would. He did say we could try again the next day, but we had other commitments back in Anchorage. The afternoon was spent trying to come up with a plan of action at the hotel.

The snow finally stopped and the sun came out later in the afternoon so we headed back to the airport for a while.

A frustrating day where emotions ran high. We decided to stick to our original plans for the next day having had the carrot of another crack at the tanker ride the following week dangled in front of us. How glad we'd be the next day with our decision!