nice work if you can get it....
 

180 hours a year ?

The first official flight between Australia and the Antarctic is making its return trip to Tasmania after landing at Wilkins Runway, 70 kilometres from Casey Station.

The Airbus 319 landed in Antarctica early this morning.

Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett was joined by nine scientists from the Australian Antarctic Division on the first passenger flight to land at the ice runway.

The round trip is expected to take a total of nine hours.

The flight marks the beginning of the new passenger air link between Australia and the Antarctic.

Scientists will now be able to fly down with up to 20 operational flights over summer.

Until now expeditioners have had to go by ship, a tedious journey that takes time.

The Federal Government is hoping the new air service will be a key to Australia's future research in the Antarctic.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...section=justin

Yeah I heard this aircraft flying into Hobart earlier this week. Registration VH-VHD...

;)

Great pix on the ABC website but read some of the crap from peoples input! You would think that the world is meant to be locked up & never viewed /used!:) Who owns the planet???/ us,you, me & every single living thing on the planet not the 'goody 2 shoes' !
Bring it on, lets use the whole of the planet for the whole of it's owners not just the few who think they own/control it alone ! grrrrrrrrr:bored:

CW

Amazing how the politicans on about global warming, yet they still like to fly everywhere!
Trade the RAAF B737's in for a fleet of sailing ships!

Thanks Wally :ok:


Wilkins is never going to be a tourist mecca like the Antarctic Peninsula. Geography, let alone the AAD's responsibility under the Madrid Protocol, have put paid to that.

You think aircraft burn fuel, try ships. A round trip by ship burns several million litres of fuel...expecially when icebreaking.

Thats why I said sailing ships, save the environment.
So Jetstar won't be running down to Wilkins with the fluffy slipper brigade then?
Bet you McDonalds, Gloria Jeans, etc are trying to get on the terminal concessions already.

I can just see a 15yo spotty kid working out of a shipping container in -20C... :p

Yes, I like the sailing ship idea :D The fuel in ships comment was more towards the comments on the ABC website.

Coo....a giant pingwing...:eek:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...5837811,00.jpg

feed him to the orca's or something.............

J:cool:

Thinking..."Nuffink green here...looks like a great place for an oil field...now get me TF outa here...I've got Uranium mines to approve".

One thing that has got my attention is why the A319 is not more visable. Most Antarctic assets are bright orange. I know it has an orange stripe on it but if the very unlikely chance of it going down why look for a white aircraft in snow. Surely with all the investment in this project a little high vis paint would be of some advantage.

Noted with some amusement that the ABC TV showed the 'first' pax off the flight was none other than the 'environment's friend' The Hon. Peter (Mudguard) Garrett MP. Appeared to be most enthusiastic about the whole excercise!!:suspect:

Does my bum look BIG in this?;)

With thanks to Mrs Hughes!

Stallie. Is that a land air strip, or it the strip all graded, frozen sea ice?

It's a 'land' air strip - about 40 kms from the coast and 70 clicks from Casey. The ice is solid underneath the drifting wind borne snow; the snow is cleared from the top and heavy rollers compact the ice to withstand the stiletto pressure of an pax jet on top of any subsurface melt channels.

The sea ice around Casey is not strong or reliable enough even for small skiplane ops, let alone an Airbus. Davis and Mawson have islands that help lock in the sea ice supporting skiplane ops until mid December. A decent 'blow' and a Casey sea ice runway would soon be drifting a long way north with all on it.... :sad:

Wilkins ice runway is on the Vanderford Glacier that moves 12m a year (roughly along its length) which for this part of the world is quite slow. Some of our fuel caches, AWS sites and other data download sites move 750m a year which can make it bloody annoying when trying to find them again. :}

Mick B,

The last high-capacity passenger jet to go down in Antarctica left a long, black scar on the white ice; I suspect it wasn't that hard to spot once you were on the right side of the hill. The blue and green parts of that one were just as blackened as the white and unpainted bits.

RIP TE901.

pollies @ taxpayers
 

Nine scientist,s and some bald headed git!.
Work out the economics on that.?
m:(

Wossit like inside? Getting 9 hours out of a 319 is pretty good going, so one suspects the loads are pretty light... so is it standard Y-cls seating (just lots left empty) or something nicer?

And what's the duty-free situation? :} Would it be treated as an overseas territory like Norfolk Island?

9 hour flight
x
20 flights

= 360 hours.

Presumably they come back each time.

Crosshair, I think you'll find the the flying time is 9 hrs round trip. I'm no mathematician but, that spells 180 hrs to me:ok: