Antarctic Aviation

[Tote]

Quote "I'll call it quits on this thread and chip in on an Antarctic Aviation thread if there's interest. " - Stallie

OK bloke you're on, I for one am interested.

Regards,

Tote

[flagg]

X2 :-D

[stallie]

A good day on the ice


An ordinary day on the ice...

[stallie]

And a perfect night's flying....



As the midnight sun skims the horizon, long purple and pink shadows cast across the landscape. Such a contrast from the harsh stark white of the day. The light would stay like this for hours as the sun skimmed the southern horizon - not quite setting - then rise again into the sky. This is a few degrees south of the Antarctic Circle - still quite some way "north" of the pole.

This is taken from the twin engined C212 aircraft that I used to fly on skis supporting the Australian Antarctic Program. Great fun, rewarding flying (if you are interested in the science) and a fantastic bunch of people. It took me over one third of the Antarctic Coastline and to a bunch of places inland.




The images in the previous post are from McMurdo from the A319 that I mainly fly nowdays. It goes from Hobart to Casey and also Christchurch to McMurdo as required over the spring summer months in support of the Australian and US Antarctic programs respectively.

[Davo]

You know, you're going to get into trouble fooling around with a camera when you're supposed to be landing a big expensive airplane.

[Hay Ewe]

am in, pass the popcorn!
I dont have any pics or stories to add though, jsut interested in another area of the aviation industry, different from what I work in

Hay Ewe

[Judo]

And a perfect night's flying....



As the midnight sun skims the horizon, long purple and pink shadows cast across the landscape. Such a contrast from the harsh stark white of the day. The light would stay like this for hours as the sun skimmed the southern horizon - not quite setting - then rise again into the sky. This is a few degrees south of the Antarctic Circle - still quite some way "north" of the pole.

What is the scale on this? I can't tell if it's taken from 10m or 10,000m! It's a very cool shot, regardless.

[stallie]

@ Judo - around 8000 feet. The air is so clear and the absence of anything that has a sense of scale (road, tree etc) makes telling the height over ground very tricky sometimes. We would frequently fly the 765nm leg between Casey and Davis Station in the C212. For three hours there was absolutely nothing but snow and ice. Looking down out the window, an inexperienced eye would have trouble gauging 200 feet and 2000 feet.

@Davo - fear not, there are six hands in the cockpit. More than enough to spare one to take a pic!

[stallie]

There are two runways in east Antarctica used for the A319 aircraft. It lands on wheels on the ice.

The first is at Wilkins about 70kms outside of Casey Station. It's in an area that is windy and allows the blue ice - compressed snow thousands of years old - to be exposed and graded to form a runway. The ice is graded smooth and rolled to ensure that there are no subterranean cracks or meltwater channels that the wheel might break through into.

When it's below about minus 7, the ice has quite a good friction coefficient. That is, it's not that slippery. Warmer than that and it can be, and then you also get melt issues where the ice surface strength is compromised. Here's a shot of the bare ice and the grooves to further increase friction.


The 3500 odd metre runway is on a glacier. There is a GPS approach to it with a PAPI light system. The glacier (and the runway on it!) moves 12 metres a year as the ice continues its death march towards the coast. On a quiet evening, you can actually hear the ice cracking like a distant gunshot. It's also got a few undulations as the following pic I took from near the threshold.


The undulations and the relatively uniform slope of the surrounding terrain do cause an interesting optical illusion of seeming too high on final.

There is no fuel there for the A319 - it has long range belly tanks that allow it to get from Hobart to Antarctica and return without refuelling with all ETOPS contingencies. There is a many fold advantage to this setup. The first is the cost saving of getting the fuel to Antarctica, unloading, storing it, getting to to the runway, storing it again and protecting the area in case of spillage.

But the main advantage is that of safety - the weather can turn to custard (which it can do quite quickly despite the best forecasting) and the aircraft just turns around and heads to Hobart again to fly again another day. There is no other runway (or suitable site to build one with the associated logistics) to divert to.

[Davo]

And what about turbines, things like ice crystals in the air, and extreme cold? Were there any problems that came up at first or have these engines turned out to be happy down that way? I ask because I always thought that turbines and dirt runways didn't go together but I see there's a mob here that now do these sorts of flights for mining.