{"id":118720,"date":"2021-11-22T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-22T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/?p=118720"},"modified":"2021-11-22T23:27:26","modified_gmt":"2021-11-22T23:27:26","slug":"airbus-a340-lands-first-time-antarctica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/2021\/11\/airbus-a340-lands-first-time-antarctica.html","title":{"rendered":"Airbus A340 lands for first time in Antarctica."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Wet-lease operator <strong>Hi Fly <\/strong>reported Monday that the company&#8217;s Airbus A340-300 landed on an Antarctic ice runway, the first time the four-engine aircraft has performed such an operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The aircraft flew from Cape Town, South Africa, to Wolf&#8217;s Fang runway, a distance of about 2,500 nm, on Nov. 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hi Fly says it uses the aircraft to transport tourists, scientists and cargo to Antarctica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>\u2192 <a href=\"https:\/en\/2021\/04\/the-unusual-case-of-triple-air-hijacking-in-venezuela.html\">The unusual case of triple air hijacking in Venezuela.<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Its exceptional range coupled with its four engines make it ideal for such remote operations,&#8221; the company said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The airline noted that the scheduled cargo included 23 passengers and ground support equipment, to help set up the Antarctic operation, carried in the cargo hold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hi Fly said the aircraft was a variant with a maximum takeoff weight of 275 tons, and carried 77 tons of fuel because there are no refueling facilities at Wolf&#8217;s Fang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Communication was via ADS watch and controller-pilot data link up to about 250nm from the destination, and the crew switched to a local VHF radio contact at about 180nm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wolf&#8217;s Fang is located at a latitude of about 71\u00b0 south, which meant the crew had to use a true, rather than magnetic, heading reference beyond 65\u00b0 south.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>\u2192 <\/strong><\/em><a href=\"https:\/en\/2021\/01\/how-was-fly-in-luxurious-boeing-377-stratocruise.html\"><em><strong>How was fly in luxurious Boeing 377 Stratocruise<\/strong><\/em>?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;When you fly to the end of the world you often need to make sure that the actual weather matches the predicted weather,&#8221; says Hi Fly vice president Carlos Mirpuri, captain of the flight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He says weather data from Wolf&#8217;s Fang was transmitted via ACARS via Lisbon, where Hi Fly&#8217;s main operation is based, and the crew also receives friction data for the 3,000-meter ice runway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The necessary fueling allowed the A340 to make the approach with a maximum landing weight of 190 tons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mirpuri said there is &#8220;tremendous&#8221; reflection from the surface and goggles are needed to help switch between the inner and outer view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The non-flying pilot has an important role in making the usual and additional calls, especially in the later phases of the approach,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;There is also no visual guidance of the glide path, and the mix of the runway with the surrounding terrain and the vast white desert all around makes altitude judgment a challenge.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mirpuri said the A340 landed smoothly and, although the turnaround was scheduled for 3 hours, it was accomplished in &#8220;much less time.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">&#8220;The takeoff was accomplished without incident, as was the return flight. All the objectives of this first flight have been met.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Related Topics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-post-grid uagb-post-grid  uagb-post__image-position-top uagb-post__image-enabled uagb-block-f61ba9a6     uagb-post__items uagb-post__columns-2 is-grid uagb-post__columns-tablet-2 uagb-post__columns-mobile-1 uagb-post__equal-height\" data-total=\"467\" style=\"\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<article class=\"uagb-post__inner-wrap\">\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class='uagb-post__image'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/2026\/04\/etihad-airways-bolsters-u-s-network-chicago-reaches-double-daily-frequency-and-charlotte-scales-to-daily-service.html\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"bookmark noopener noreferrer\" class='uagb-image-ratio-inherit'><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Etihad-Airways-B787.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large 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reported Monday that the company&#8217;s Airbus A340-300 landed on an Antarctic ice runway, the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":4316,"featured_media":118710,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[217,222,230,198,824],"class_list":{"0":"post-118720","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-airlines","8":"tag-airbus-2","9":"tag-aircraft","10":"tag-airline","11":"tag-flights","12":"tag-hifly-2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/HiFly-A340-Antartida.jpg",800,400,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/HiFly-A340-Antartida-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/HiFly-A340-Antartida-300x150.jpg",300,150,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/HiFly-A340-Antartida-768x384.jpg",768,384,true],"large":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/HiFly-A340-Antartida.jpg",800,400,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/HiFly-A340-Antartida.jpg",800,400,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/HiFly-A340-Antartida.jpg",800,400,false],"pk-small":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/HiFly-A340-Antartida.jpg",80,40,false],"pk-thumbnail":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/HiFly-A340-Antartida.jpg",300,150,false],"csco-small":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/HiFly-A340-Antartida-80x80.jpg",80,80,true],"csco-intermediate":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/HiFly-A340-Antartida-200x140.jpg",200,140,true],"csco-thumbnail":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/HiFly-A340-Antartida-380x220.jpg",380,220,true],"csco-thumbnail-alternative":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/HiFly-A340-Antartida-300x180.jpg",300,180,true],"csco-thumbnail-uncropped":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/HiFly-A340-Antartida-380x190.jpg",380,190,true],"csco-medium":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/HiFly-A340-Antartida.jpg",800,400,false],"csco-medium-alternative":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/HiFly-A340-Antartida-560x336.jpg",560,336,true],"csco-medium-uncropped":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/HiFly-A340-Antartida.jpg",800,400,false],"csco-large":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/HiFly-A340-Antartida.jpg",800,400,false],"csco-large-uncropped":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/HiFly-A340-Antartida.jpg",800,400,false],"csco-extra-large":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/HiFly-A340-Antartida.jpg",800,400,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Redacci\u00f3n - Aviaci\u00f3n al D\u00eda","author_link":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/author\/aad"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Wet-lease operator Hi Fly reported Monday that the company&#8217;s Airbus A340-300 landed on an Antarctic ice runway, the&hellip;","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4316"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118720"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118732,"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118720\/revisions\/118732"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}