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- Jun 7, 2006
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- Qantas
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Tomorrow it's up at sparrow's and out to PER to board QF2906 for a day trip to Antarctica.
Scheduled departure is 0800 and return 2030. That should fill in the day quite nicely - especially as I decided to go the fabled Ice Class (B747 front cabin, window seat pairs)
:shock:. I am reliably led to believe that we only live once...
I have previously been to Antarctica by ship (http://www.australianfrequentflyer....hill-patagonia-chilling-antarctica-62166.html) so this should be an interesting counterpoint. We shall see.
The trip notes say that the aircraft will be under the command of Captain Peter Caws, that it will be his 17th Antarctica flight, that he will be assisted by Capt Greg Fitzgerald and an unnamed first officer and that Qantas has prepared 19 different flight plans to choose the best possible routing depending on the weather. The aircraft is expected to be over the Antarctic Treaty area for around 4h, with 2.5-3h over the continent. Flying will be at minimum safe altitude, which is defined as 2000ft above the highest ground within 180km, or 10000ft above sea level. The coastal plateau rises to 6000ft and the mountains in Northern Victoria Land to around 14000ft.
Three experts who have spent time at Australian bases in Antarctica will be on board to provide detailed information.
The notes also say that brunch will be served at about 1000h while dinner will be served on the homeward leg.
Now is probably a good time for some self-explanatory advance geography information:
Depending on the vagaries of the app, I may post some pre-departure pics but most of the TR will be post-event - the interval probably proportional to the number of champagnes consumed
:mrgreen:.
Scheduled departure is 0800 and return 2030. That should fill in the day quite nicely - especially as I decided to go the fabled Ice Class (B747 front cabin, window seat pairs)
:shock:. I am reliably led to believe that we only live once...I have previously been to Antarctica by ship (http://www.australianfrequentflyer....hill-patagonia-chilling-antarctica-62166.html) so this should be an interesting counterpoint. We shall see.
The trip notes say that the aircraft will be under the command of Captain Peter Caws, that it will be his 17th Antarctica flight, that he will be assisted by Capt Greg Fitzgerald and an unnamed first officer and that Qantas has prepared 19 different flight plans to choose the best possible routing depending on the weather. The aircraft is expected to be over the Antarctic Treaty area for around 4h, with 2.5-3h over the continent. Flying will be at minimum safe altitude, which is defined as 2000ft above the highest ground within 180km, or 10000ft above sea level. The coastal plateau rises to 6000ft and the mountains in Northern Victoria Land to around 14000ft.
Three experts who have spent time at Australian bases in Antarctica will be on board to provide detailed information.
The notes also say that brunch will be served at about 1000h while dinner will be served on the homeward leg.
Now is probably a good time for some self-explanatory advance geography information:
Depending on the vagaries of the app, I may post some pre-departure pics but most of the TR will be post-event - the interval probably proportional to the number of champagnes consumed
:mrgreen:.
.
