What happens when the helicopter is gone?



After the helicopter is gone, we have roughly two hours until they return. The ground crew has to stay at the airport in case the helicopter comes back earlier, while the other could leave. But usually we do not go far. Mainly, people walk towards the internet. Especially during early flights, people relax as everything gets really stressful beforehand. Depending on the time of the day, we have our lunch break or work together in the coffee shop of the airport.
Sounds like, theses hours are pretty relaxed. In reality, now blog post are written, first data are discussed and we update our campaign wiki with quick looks of the data, flight tracks, satellite pictures and flight reports. In other words, we do everything which still has to be done from the day before until we hear the familiar sound of the helicopter, the VHF goes on announcing the landing and everyone goes to his position, hoping for no error messages of the instruments.
waiting for the return
(photo: Matthias Gottschalk)
lunch break
(photo: Matthias Gottschalk)
quality check of the data (photo: Matthias Gottschalk)


working in the coffee shop
(photo: Matthias Gottschalk)
So everyone knows, who works on the other side of ACTOS
(photo: Matthias Gottschalk)

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