Last AMMA flight!

Yesterday was the last AMMA flight. And my last flight till 2008 at the earliest. We did a double flight with afternoon and then one in the early evening.


After a dodgy start, which involved Imodium and a couple of toilet breaks (nasty.. :), I managed to measure OH and HO₂ for the first flight. It was really interesting to see how life is tied to the river in the Sahel regions. Water really does control life out here...


And I thought everything was going well for the second till the laser died on take-off. I was gutted. An over-compliance error came up for the YAG. How can something be OVER-COMPLIANT!! Stupid thing. Well it has happened before so I wracked my brain to try and remember what Trev did the last time. I fiddled around with stuff and finally got the laser working again. The only problem was that the power was half what it was pre-take off and the timing was going insane!! So I made an excutive decision and turned the laser and pumps off till the cabin temp dropped 5oC to 30oC. I've come to the conclusion that the laser can't take temps over 30oC. After a ten minute break to let me and the laser cool down I tried again and what do you know. Success! I gave up on measuring OH tho as the power was so low and dumped the whole lot into the HO₂ cell. I could even see the HO₂ at night which was reassuring.

After 9 hours of standing around trying to measure HO₂ in +30oC heat I missed the after last flight party and collapsed into bed. It's not like me to miss a party but sometimes there's only so far you can push it... But at least I got to take a few photos of pretty clouds while waiting for the laser to cool.

Scarily close planes on Flight B234

Yesterday was the aircraft intercomparison.

We flew really close to the German Falcon

the French Falcon

and the French ATR.


It was really cool, especially as the German Falcon flashed us it's belly before flying away!

My first solo flight!

Well I managed not to break the laser on my first solo flight.







Unfortunately the same can't be said of the poor cylinder. I was worried about not closing the cylinder head properly and I leaned a little too hard... I didn't think I was strong enough but I managed to shear the top nut off. Oh well at least we can open it again, even if it now takes an adjustable spanner and a lot of trouble. I guess it's just one more thing to sort out when I get back.

On the plus side, I did manage to measure HO₂ for the whole flight. There wasn't enough power to measure OH as well so we went with the HO₂ on it's own. I don't know how the data looks yet but it seemed good at the time so I'm looking forward to checking it all out...

Silly o'clock flights

Well my sleep pattern is well and truely fecked at the moment. We have our second dawn patrol flight this morning and thankfully it will be the last one. Trev and I flew yesterday and actually measured some HO2 before the laser died. Hopefully there will be enough laser power in a few mins to make it worth flying. If not it's another night's sleep wasted and I'll be very annoyed. It's supposed to be my first solo flight too. But don't worry. If Trev thought the laser was up to measuring anything I wouldn't be doing it on my own. But at this stage there's nothing left to break so I'm just going for the experience.

But this getting up at 2.30 am after 4 hours sleep can only be managed so long before I collapse. I'm definitely looking forward to chilling out for a few days when I get home...

The French AMMA group had a dinner last night. We were told about it yesterday afternoon. Not much good to me when we had a 5.30 am take off and had to be up at 2.30 to catch a bus. Oh well, I suppose it's the thought that counts. I think...

Morning flight

Our last flight was a laser disaster. Not sure exactly why tho. Hmm. Should be interesting to see if we can measure on this last week of flights.

On the positive side, Perca got their gases after a 4 week delay and they can now measure!! The two Perca boys have been really down since they arrived cos they haven't been able to do anything. I would've gone nuts by now. But they cos their gases yesterday and you couldn't have seen two happier men!! If only we could get our laser working properly. It would be brill to get both measuring together.

I'm really struggling with this 03.30 start. Somehow the 0130 was easier but I suppose I've only got a week left so it's worth it. The laser isn't stepping at the moment and I'm just about to have a hissy fit. I'm exhausted, hungry and the laser gods think it's funny to make me suffer. It's not fair!! The really annoying thing is that the laser power is really good. We just can't get it to step over the wavelengths we need. Do you think a few sacrifices to the laser gods would help?

At this hour of the morning anything is possible...

Sleep patterns?

No dawn flight but my body doesn't seem to realize it yet. I ended up sleeping all day yesterday as I thought we were doing a dawn flight last night/this morning. Anyway I was wrecked from the night before. That was cancelled but I couldn't sleep last night, which means I'm now really struggling with the early morning. How long does it take to reset a sleep pattern?

I've no problem doing all this early flight/ no early flight lark tho. The night->morning transition would be really interestin to see and is definitely worth a little sleep disruption. That said, there's only so much of this I can take before I need an entire day in bed. I've only been outside the hotel to eat in the evenings and go to the airport in the past week. Kinda sad, isn't it?

Dawn Flight

Well I'm a bit exhausted but Cedric and I are at the airport getting ready for a
night-> dawn-> morning flight. The last flight went really well. We made the first measurements of OH AND HO2 over Cotonou, the Bay of Guinea and Lagos, an African MegaCity. That has to be good. All I have to do now is figure out what all this data means!! Well we've never had data before so I'm working a little blind. I guess it'll just involve some thought.

The internet's been down a good bit lately so I'll reply to people when I get a chance. I'm not ignoring you!!

African weather and temperamental lasers

Well the dawn patrol was cancelled about 4 hours into the warm up because we didn't get the right weather. I suppose figuring out the weather is most of the reason we're here so I'm not really annoyed. I am a little disapppointed though. After 2 hours of the laser having a strop (stupid stepper motor) and me trying everything under the moon to get it going, I decided to go off in a strop and left it for a while to think of what to do. I come back 20 mins later and the stupid thing is working. Go figure. It's actually scary how much my mood is tied to a stupid unreliable laser! But it didn't really matter cos 30 mins later the whole thing was called off. I'm struggling to stay awake now but there is a brief at 11 and we're going to try and do the whole thing all over again tomorrow.

Should be interesting!!

What a difference a day makes (in Africa)

Yesterday I was annoyed with the world (particularly FAGE) and ready to swing for something. Thankfully I just hammered the life out of a drum instead.

Today I'm much chirpier. I may have a cold but FAGE is flying! Because of the cold I can't fly. Instead I'm waiting at the airport to see how Trev got on. We are attempting to measure both OH and HO2 today. Last night there was the possibility of a major storm (a Mesoscale Convective System - MCS) so we had a cloud chasing flight planned. I woke up at 5.30 am expecting a phone call to prep the aircraft. Instead the storm blew itself out so we were here at 10 am. I'm still tired from waking up so early though. Oh well... At least FAGE flew today!!

Nothing is ever simple with a laser. But at least there are hippos!

We're having laser issues again. At this stage I'm ready to cry!! After almost a week of no chemistry flights (while waiting for gases to arrive from various corrupt African nations) the stepper motor has decided to have a wobbley. It's been stroppy before but it sorted itself out on its own. We're waiting for aircraft to return now to see if it's decided to cop itself on again. If not, I'm throwing a strop myself and going out to get hammered. Ok, maybe not. I guess it'll just be a late night tonight and a long day tomorrow but i'd prefer to be measuring something!!

On Wednesday we went to see the Hippos upriver. It was a scorching day tho and the hippos were barely moving above the water. They don't pose as nicely as the giraffes. But the locals are a lot more afraid of hippos than giraffes! Hippos kill more people in Africa every year, except for Malaria. It's a sobering thought when you are paddling along in a little timber pirogue. Especially when the slightest wave would sink you all. The side of the boat was about 3 cm above the river level. I was still more afraid of what I'd catch from the river than any animal attack... All the pics so far can be seen on the usual Niger photos page.

I've done some interesting shopping in Niger. We haven't had a chemistry flight in about a week so I've had time (between writing my report, of course :o) to go look around the city. The museum has lots of arty stuff and I want to go back before leaving to pick up some stuff. It's a LOT less insane than the markets. They are great fun but hectic. I really enjoy haggling. I know they won't sell anything at a loss but I don't want to rip anyone off here either so I have been paying what I think it's worth here. It's probably slightly above the locals price but I don't mind too much. In my enjoyment of haggling I even managed to buy an African drum! Now I have no idea how I am going to get it home but it's great fun to thump on when I'm felling frustrated with FAGE (that's a lot today!!) It's bound to be easier to get home than the Tuareg sword I drunkenly bought for £4 the other night. It's probably longer than my hurley at home so I make it about 36" long in a leather scabbard. I think it was supposed to be a Christmas present for my brother but I think it'll probably end up being a pressie for the customs officials. For £4 I can't really complain!!