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Hi Fly details pioneering A340 flight to Antarctic runway
Wet-lease operator Hi Fly has detailed its landing of an Airbus A340-300 on an Antarctic ice runway, the first time the four-engined type has carried out such an operation. (www.intecaerospace.com) 更多...
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Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBRX3QJJ0Jg&t=10s
Pretty cool! Thanks!
Thanks for the link
Very 'cool' video and airplane, and if they had any ATC folks down there one might have said "braking action poor".
Except for the fact that it wasn’t poor at all.
Having 9 trips to South Pole supporting the US Antarctic Program in the early 2000s with stops in McMurdo, a few thoughts:
Had Flights to/from the ice between Christchurch and McMurdo on LC-130 (ski-equipped NY ANG), C-130, C-141, C-17, and a return trip on an Australian A319 (1st class seating with windows and FAs - a luxury!. All travel to/from South Pole were on LC-130. Intercontinental flight times ranged from 5 to 8.5 hours (Jet vs C-130, LC-130 was the worst packed in there like sardines for 8.5 hours. C-141s were marginally better from a comfort perspective, the advantage was a shorter trip. Flights to South Pole took 3 hours. FL was 220 to 290 depending weather and direction. At one point they had a PAR at Pole, but that was before my time. As I recall there is a GPS approach. The runway at South Pole is snow packed (not a true ice runway), that requires periodic grooming for ski equipped aircraft, mainly LC-130 and Basslers. On a busy day there would be 5 LC-130 arrivals. Engines were kept turning while offloading/onloading cargo and pax.
I recall one trip looking down on the waves on the Southern Ocean, they were enormous, those early explorers making the crossing in wooden boats were incredibly brave. One of the problems at McMurdo is the katabatic wind. It can be ferocious over 100 kts. We think there might have been an instance where it exceeded 150kts since radomes at the Black Island Telecommunication Facility were damaged. They were rated for 150 kt+.
All in all an interesting experience and I didn't pay $96k for the pleasure of a South Pole visit.
Had Flights to/from the ice between Christchurch and McMurdo on LC-130 (ski-equipped NY ANG), C-130, C-141, C-17, and a return trip on an Australian A319 (1st class seating with windows and FAs - a luxury!. All travel to/from South Pole were on LC-130. Intercontinental flight times ranged from 5 to 8.5 hours (Jet vs C-130, LC-130 was the worst packed in there like sardines for 8.5 hours. C-141s were marginally better from a comfort perspective, the advantage was a shorter trip. Flights to South Pole took 3 hours. FL was 220 to 290 depending weather and direction. At one point they had a PAR at Pole, but that was before my time. As I recall there is a GPS approach. The runway at South Pole is snow packed (not a true ice runway), that requires periodic grooming for ski equipped aircraft, mainly LC-130 and Basslers. On a busy day there would be 5 LC-130 arrivals. Engines were kept turning while offloading/onloading cargo and pax.
I recall one trip looking down on the waves on the Southern Ocean, they were enormous, those early explorers making the crossing in wooden boats were incredibly brave. One of the problems at McMurdo is the katabatic wind. It can be ferocious over 100 kts. We think there might have been an instance where it exceeded 150kts since radomes at the Black Island Telecommunication Facility were damaged. They were rated for 150 kt+.
All in all an interesting experience and I didn't pay $96k for the pleasure of a South Pole visit.
