From Comodoro Williams Int'l to Base Marambio
I decided to go ahead and 'borrow' a Cessna Grand Caravan to make the flight to Antarctica. After looking at the
charts, I decided that it would be foolish to try to land a 737 anywhere down there,
since the runways are a) a bit short for that and b) gravel. The weight of a 737, even if mostly empty, slamming into a gravel runway doesn't seem like a
recipe for a successful conclusion. So I filed a plan to fly at 7,000 IFR GPS stright shot from Williams to Marambio. After climbing out of the soup, I soon found that 7,000 had me flying through clouds most of the time, so I requested altitude increases until I got above the weather. I wound up cruising at 13,000. The flight took me back and forth over territorial waters of Chile & Argentina, so I switched centers several times, between Punta Arena and Comodoro Rivadaviva. After leaving the Megallanes, the flight was over the Drake Passage until coming into sight of the islands of the Antarctic Peninsula or 'Graham Land'. The base itself is located on Seymour Island, which is on the south side of the peninsula. ATC had me come in on a visual for runway 24- while there is an NDB and a VOR, there's no ILS. The cloud ceiling was at about 3,000, and when I broke through, I was quite surprised to find that the airport is basically a runway set atop a mesa (see photos below). At that point, I was very happy I'd decided not to bring the jet. I blew the approach anyway, and went missed, but landed OK on the next time around.
One note: Comodoro Williams Int'l is the Airport at Ushuaia, not to be confused with Port Williams, which is a town in Chile on the other side of the channel from Ushuaia. Just so you know.
Pardon the space, but I'm experimenting with different methods of getting Blogger to display pictures the way I want to. This was mainly a photo expedition, and I'm trying something new.
I decided to go ahead and 'borrow' a Cessna Grand Caravan to make the flight to Antarctica. After looking at the
charts, I decided that it would be foolish to try to land a 737 anywhere down there,
since the runways are a) a bit short for that and b) gravel. The weight of a 737, even if mostly empty, slamming into a gravel runway doesn't seem like a
recipe for a successful conclusion. So I filed a plan to fly at 7,000 IFR GPS stright shot from Williams to Marambio. After climbing out of the soup, I soon found that 7,000 had me flying through clouds most of the time, so I requested altitude increases until I got above the weather. I wound up cruising at 13,000. The flight took me back and forth over territorial waters of Chile & Argentina, so I switched centers several times, between Punta Arena and Comodoro Rivadaviva. After leaving the Megallanes, the flight was over the Drake Passage until coming into sight of the islands of the Antarctic Peninsula or 'Graham Land'. The base itself is located on Seymour Island, which is on the south side of the peninsula. ATC had me come in on a visual for runway 24- while there is an NDB and a VOR, there's no ILS. The cloud ceiling was at about 3,000, and when I broke through, I was quite surprised to find that the airport is basically a runway set atop a mesa (see photos below). At that point, I was very happy I'd decided not to bring the jet. I blew the approach anyway, and went missed, but landed OK on the next time around.
One note: Comodoro Williams Int'l is the Airport at Ushuaia, not to be confused with Port Williams, which is a town in Chile on the other side of the channel from Ushuaia. Just so you know.
Pardon the space, but I'm experimenting with different methods of getting Blogger to display pictures the way I want to. This was mainly a photo expedition, and I'm trying something new.
Parking at Willimas Int'l |
Holding short |
Getting turned around to line up for takeoff |
Climbout from Williams Int'l |
Climbing thru weather... |
Looking towards Port Williams, above the muck |
Keeping the moon company |
Over Drake Passage |
Approaching Antarctica... |
Over The Antarctic Peninsula |
Approaching the first time around... |
On Final- finally |
A few photos of the real thing:  The Control Tower  |
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