Jan 27th 2017, 18:02:48
So if you read about the medevac that happened at the South Pole in 2016 that was me and my crew there for that. In one of the "am I really here and doing this!?" moments we had to find a way to make a lit runway in -80 for the medevac plane to land on. The way it was decided to accomplish this was to saw oil drums in half, fill them with AN8 jet fuel and light them along the skiiway edge. So me and 3 other guys are out testing this. Problem is fuel won't ignite at those Temps because it doesn't aerosolize. Solution was to stick a 2x4 in the drum like a Wick and have a guy in fire gear with an acetylene blowtorch hold it lit until the surface Temps rise enough to light the fuel. We were all just hoping it didn't explode.
Smarter than your average bear.