Winter is uppon us!

Another journey out and about Afghanistan today, this time into the mountains on a last minute trip of opportunity. The flight was like any other, up until we got near the FOB, when we started to notice a definite change in temperature. This was confirmed by a change in the landscape from the all-too-common dusty brown to an immaculate white. At that point, things took a turn for the worse - we were essentially flying directly into a blizzard.

As I'm sure we all recall, only a few months ago I was complaining about how hot it was... Well my friends, it is now far too cold. The helicopter is not very water tight, and not very air tight, and the heater and heated seats seemed to be broken. As quarter sized flakes of wet snow pounded against the side of the helicopter, we were left a confined, cold, and wet mess.

After we finally landed in poor visibility and beating snow, Chief and I made our rounds through the project sites and did what we could to solve problems and answer questions. We may have found a solution to save the government a few hundred thousand dollars on two projects, so that's a good day there!

Come departure time, it was still snowing although not as heavily. We had all agreed that trying to complete the second leg of our trip was foolish and that we should head back to KAF. However, about 5 minutes after take off, the helicopter banked sharply to the left and I knew that KAF was not in my immediate future - we were heading back the way we came.

After re-landing the plan was to wait 90 minutes and reassess. This allowed more time to stand around in the snow, and work to solve more of the world's problems. Luckily we did manage to make it out on that try and I am safely (and warmly) back at KAF. Once again, I am reminded why San Diego is my home...