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“It wasn’t a ‘holy cow, we have to get out of the road’ kind of thing,” said Wallace Dobchuk, the flight captain. “(But) it could have been a problem if we had any mechanical issues on take-off. Once we got past that, we were into total darkness.”

Through it all, they emerged safely, and won praise from Antarctic research veterans for their tenacity and courage. The National Post spoke with Dobchuk, first officer Sebastian Trudel and engineer Michael McCrae days after the crew returned to Calgary — two weeks after their dramatic mission came to an end.

What conditions did you encounter on the South Pole flight?

Dobchuk: It was a calm morning at Rothera, with overcast skies. During our two-hour preparation period, the weather started to deteriorate. I couldn’t really tell what the sky was doing, with it being dark. But the wind picked up to about 50 km/h.

By the time we departed, we were almost thinking we would miss our weather window to leave there, because we knew there was another frontal system moving in that day into Rothera. We were trying to get out in front of it.

We got up into cruise and basically just cruised along in smooth conditions for the entire flight. The farther along the trip we went, the colder it got. The whole flight took 9.6 hours.

How did you decide when to leave for the South Pole?

Dobchuk: I think the weather we wanted was more based on Rothera. The South Pole, we knew was going to be good for a couple days — cold and clear. It was forecast to be quite cold in the South Pole, around -70 C, so we were hoping to get there before that.