St Helena
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St Helena
2015 is set fair for the last phases of construction until mid-June before technical fit-out etc begins. If you search for "sainthelenaacess" and update number 55 there is a timescale.
Google Earth now shows the shape of things. You can see the intersection, 1200 metres north marks "beginning of concrete"; and 450 metres south of marks "end of concrete".
I won't go into the detail but roughly speaking TORA ASDA TODA will be RW20 1850/1850/2775/1550; RW02 1650/1650/2425/1550.
Yes it is a short runway but both ends are vertiginous. Single runway, RESAs and isolation feature strongly in the final result.
There will be GBAS, DVOR with 15 degree offset an NDB [not good old ZHH]. The published docs given above for the tender stage are a fruitful source, especially LLZ/DVOR/GBAS OCH [airport elevation 933 ft] but you'll need the DOS 10:000 scale maps now permanently unavailable since 1990 due to bean-counting and asset stripping.
Mark your Google Earth with 15 56 54.6S 005 39 25.8W for Dvor and 15 57 52.8S 005 38.90W NDB give or take a gnat's. The airport may be complete before GE does a further update.
One user proposal is a B757-200w with extra tanks; another suggests the A319 neo; a third includes the B737-700. Commercial viability is going to be an issue but people die before a ship can come anywhere near. This is not about tourism, far from it [no pun intended].
Google Earth now shows the shape of things. You can see the intersection, 1200 metres north marks "beginning of concrete"; and 450 metres south of marks "end of concrete".
I won't go into the detail but roughly speaking TORA ASDA TODA will be RW20 1850/1850/2775/1550; RW02 1650/1650/2425/1550.
Yes it is a short runway but both ends are vertiginous. Single runway, RESAs and isolation feature strongly in the final result.
There will be GBAS, DVOR with 15 degree offset an NDB [not good old ZHH]. The published docs given above for the tender stage are a fruitful source, especially LLZ/DVOR/GBAS OCH [airport elevation 933 ft] but you'll need the DOS 10:000 scale maps now permanently unavailable since 1990 due to bean-counting and asset stripping.
Mark your Google Earth with 15 56 54.6S 005 39 25.8W for Dvor and 15 57 52.8S 005 38.90W NDB give or take a gnat's. The airport may be complete before GE does a further update.
One user proposal is a B757-200w with extra tanks; another suggests the A319 neo; a third includes the B737-700. Commercial viability is going to be an issue but people die before a ship can come anywhere near. This is not about tourism, far from it [no pun intended].
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I'll be making a trip down, I'm amazed by the feat of building the airport and I think it'll be a pretty interesting takeoff and landing experience as well. Basil Read have done absolute wonders for the island it would appear! For one there's the airport and all of it's ancillaries but also the other "odd jobs" they've done/are doing while they are there, such as the road, the new ship landing and the hotel they are building.
I think that Atlantic Star Airlines will be the preferred bidder, a home based airline, that's the 757 proposal. It makes a lot more sense than TAAG or SAA, and a plethora of codeshares couldn't go amiss, the island is so remote I don't think it makes a difference where the tourists are coming from, it'll attract a lot of people! I hope Ascension open up, I don't know why they aren't. It could make or break the flight, there's 500 miles difference between Helena-Ascension and Helena-Lubango for diversions.
Do you know what's happening here by any chance? Gyazo - 92cce41a218e2ce444aace08f81a05ff.jpg Is the bit that looks like the end of the runway, the end of the runway? i.e are they leaving that bit of soil (is that the RESA)? I don't know why they cancelled the plans for EMAS, unless soil is cheaper/just as effective/more worth it? I think they decided to extend the runway to it's longest though didn't they? Instead of having to move all the machinery back to the island at a later date.
I think that Atlantic Star Airlines will be the preferred bidder, a home based airline, that's the 757 proposal. It makes a lot more sense than TAAG or SAA, and a plethora of codeshares couldn't go amiss, the island is so remote I don't think it makes a difference where the tourists are coming from, it'll attract a lot of people! I hope Ascension open up, I don't know why they aren't. It could make or break the flight, there's 500 miles difference between Helena-Ascension and Helena-Lubango for diversions.
Do you know what's happening here by any chance? Gyazo - 92cce41a218e2ce444aace08f81a05ff.jpg Is the bit that looks like the end of the runway, the end of the runway? i.e are they leaving that bit of soil (is that the RESA)? I don't know why they cancelled the plans for EMAS, unless soil is cheaper/just as effective/more worth it? I think they decided to extend the runway to it's longest though didn't they? Instead of having to move all the machinery back to the island at a later date.
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If you are interested some background on the construction challenges can be found here: Building St Helena Airport - An Industrial Scale 'Grand Design'
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aal reet hinny?
G'Day young 'un
Firstly Ascension - there is no right of abode and I direct you first to the Bahamas Agreement and then to what known as the “contingent liabilities”. People can only live on an island insofar as there means to live in sickness and in health and when aged or infirm. That has to be paid for. Only military and contractors have permits to live on ASI – they have no property or right of abode. Should a permit holder lose the right of employment eg contract ends or a serious offence is committed then deportation and recovery of all costs ensues.
St Helena – don’t confuse Basil Read with “the hotel”. Nor believe everything you read in the press releases.
The airport? No one uses arrester gear unless they have to - a licensed civilian airport must go through the hoops and ASSI is there to make sure they do. The guiding principle is to take two wooden pegs and drive them into the ground before you fall off the edge of a cliff then mark out your RESAs bearing in mind single runway, miles from anywhere with barely room for two aircraft side-by-side. What’s left is your runway.
While on that subject can I remind you that this airport is for access not tourism? Freedom of movement to take up employment. Rave all you want about paradise, I don’t want my child raving in fever for want of a ship. When you come to St Helena leave paradise as a word in the dictionary and never speak it by name.
Thanks the clip. You need to download the contract drawings to make sense of Google Earth. I call it a pancake mix mapper. You take the geography and pour pancake mixture over it. There is no attempt to fit the massive amount of earthworks undertaken by Basil Read. But if you take the one and only intersection as reference and use the tools you can identify there the extremities will be. I know it looks a mess and is hard to fathom. Work in progress and the last thing to be built will be…… the entry road. It is all about access and nothing to do with tourism, though every penny helps.
Thanks for taking an interest.
Firstly Ascension - there is no right of abode and I direct you first to the Bahamas Agreement and then to what known as the “contingent liabilities”. People can only live on an island insofar as there means to live in sickness and in health and when aged or infirm. That has to be paid for. Only military and contractors have permits to live on ASI – they have no property or right of abode. Should a permit holder lose the right of employment eg contract ends or a serious offence is committed then deportation and recovery of all costs ensues.
St Helena – don’t confuse Basil Read with “the hotel”. Nor believe everything you read in the press releases.
The airport? No one uses arrester gear unless they have to - a licensed civilian airport must go through the hoops and ASSI is there to make sure they do. The guiding principle is to take two wooden pegs and drive them into the ground before you fall off the edge of a cliff then mark out your RESAs bearing in mind single runway, miles from anywhere with barely room for two aircraft side-by-side. What’s left is your runway.
While on that subject can I remind you that this airport is for access not tourism? Freedom of movement to take up employment. Rave all you want about paradise, I don’t want my child raving in fever for want of a ship. When you come to St Helena leave paradise as a word in the dictionary and never speak it by name.
Thanks the clip. You need to download the contract drawings to make sense of Google Earth. I call it a pancake mix mapper. You take the geography and pour pancake mixture over it. There is no attempt to fit the massive amount of earthworks undertaken by Basil Read. But if you take the one and only intersection as reference and use the tools you can identify there the extremities will be. I know it looks a mess and is hard to fathom. Work in progress and the last thing to be built will be…… the entry road. It is all about access and nothing to do with tourism, though every penny helps.
Thanks for taking an interest.
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But surely St Helena will benefit from some added tourism to the island with the opening of the airport and subsequent new flights, I agree it's mostly about access to the island but once the airport opens for business there will surely be a year on year growth on the island mainly contributing from tourism, I'm sure there will be a few new hotels opening up on the back of it obviously small but catering to an increased interest of the island due to direct flights being made available.
I for one would love to visit St Helena having already visited Tristan Da Cunha, I've been to 92 countries world wide and the island of St Helena is getting more closer with the impending opening of it's airport.
I look forward to seeing the first flight arrive in 2016.
I for one would love to visit St Helena having already visited Tristan Da Cunha, I've been to 92 countries world wide and the island of St Helena is getting more closer with the impending opening of it's airport.
I look forward to seeing the first flight arrive in 2016.
St. Helena is well worth the visit, having done so on Brenda's ticket some years ago now (as I did Tristan, but the main joy there was their signposts to everywhere).
That runway is plenty long enough for any of the light jet aircraft that normally operate air ambulance services. I am also guessing given the runway orientation, permanent crosswinds from the trade winds.
That runway is plenty long enough for any of the light jet aircraft that normally operate air ambulance services. I am also guessing given the runway orientation, permanent crosswinds from the trade winds.
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problem is where are these tourists going to fly from?
I doubt there are enough to warrant more than a once a week from Europe via Ascension and who would base an aircraft at either place?
possibly coming in from Namibia I guess
I doubt there are enough to warrant more than a once a week from Europe via Ascension and who would base an aircraft at either place?
possibly coming in from Namibia I guess
I know they are larger but plenty of tourists fly to the Falklands via Chile rather than the exorbitant air bridge civvy fare from Brize. Via SA or Namibia is not unreasonable. I believe most get the boat from Walvis Bay anyway.
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last time I was on that there were 28 people to Mt Pleasant both ways - and half of those were islanders -
that flight only runs
a) to p*** the argies
b) it makes an absolute fortune in freight both ways
neither apply in St Helena
that flight only runs
a) to p*** the argies
b) it makes an absolute fortune in freight both ways
neither apply in St Helena
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Any News of First Flight to St Helena
Any News of First Flight to St Helena, understand calibration flights due about now (mid Sept '15)?
PZU - Out of Africa (Retired)
PZU - Out of Africa (Retired)
St Helena calibration flights
See my post on the St Helena Service thread from yesterday ( can mods merge threads please)
1st flight to new airport St Helena
The first flight to touch down on the new runway at St Helena is on the way, due about 14.00 today 15 Sept. It will be doing calibration flights from there for the next few days.
Follow flight on: http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0hsvsapz7DRHlAkBqsSqcd9I8DqcjeFyu
Additional info on Twitter: http://twitter.com/hashtag/TestFlightStHelena?src=hash
1st flight to new airport St Helena
The first flight to touch down on the new runway at St Helena is on the way, due about 14.00 today 15 Sept. It will be doing calibration flights from there for the next few days.
Follow flight on: http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0hsvsapz7DRHlAkBqsSqcd9I8DqcjeFyu
Additional info on Twitter: http://twitter.com/hashtag/TestFlightStHelena?src=hash
