Image Courtesy of Robert Wood

From: Dr. Robert Wood
Arica, Chile, November 3, 2008

Meals on the plane

On a nine hour research flight, scientists become very hungry. On a commercial airliner, you would be served two meals in this time, so you can imagine that we need to eat something in that time.

On one of the research planes (the UK BAe-146), they actually carry a flight attendant who serves hot dinners like those you will eat on a commercial flight. And the BAe-146 only flies short missions of five hours or less! On the NSF C-130, the scientists and crew are responsible for providing their own food.

But we have found a solution, courtesy of our Chilean hosts: The empanada (see picture on left). This delicious mixture of meat and vegetables wrapped in pastry is ideal the "go-anywhere" food that we need to alleviate hunger. The picture on the right shows our local empanada baker who is very happy when she sees us most every other day in her store. I bet the folks on the BAe-146 wish they had these for dinner!

Postcards from the Field: Climate Science from the Southeast Pacific

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