St. Helena. too windy
Discussion
From the thread on pprune, new AIP supplement for St Helena airport (pdf).
Hopefully someone how actually knows about this stuff can expand on it, but (from my complete ignorance) I'd read it as the airport will operate as original intended just with more care/attention drawn to the approach conditions?
Hopefully someone how actually knows about this stuff can expand on it, but (from my complete ignorance) I'd read it as the airport will operate as original intended just with more care/attention drawn to the approach conditions?
After all these months this still has to be the biggest feck up ever for building a new airport.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/nov/03/st...
"The more likely option to make the airport useable would be to allow smaller planes to fly to the island instead of the planned Boeing 737s."
It always seemed strange that they made an airport that could not take the size of plane that could be flown from the UK, instead only ones from South Africa, and now due to atmospherics, that seem to have been completely misjudged, they have to fly something even smaller.
The thing is that Comair who were to do the flights on Boeing 737s don't have anything smaller. So who is going to take up the mantle?
We know how smaller planes get more buffeting from winds than bigger, so it will be an adventurous trip out there for the passengers, perhaps part of the thrill. No doubt aviation geeks will be piling in like they do for all the funky airports around the world.
St Helena looks like a great place to go to, but the UK has really screwed up on this.
One of the original trial landings, left wing down, right wing down ... that was on a good day. Not too extra space either .....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ffaGBgBUZ8
Slight wind noise on the video....
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/nov/03/st...
"The more likely option to make the airport useable would be to allow smaller planes to fly to the island instead of the planned Boeing 737s."
It always seemed strange that they made an airport that could not take the size of plane that could be flown from the UK, instead only ones from South Africa, and now due to atmospherics, that seem to have been completely misjudged, they have to fly something even smaller.
The thing is that Comair who were to do the flights on Boeing 737s don't have anything smaller. So who is going to take up the mantle?
We know how smaller planes get more buffeting from winds than bigger, so it will be an adventurous trip out there for the passengers, perhaps part of the thrill. No doubt aviation geeks will be piling in like they do for all the funky airports around the world.
St Helena looks like a great place to go to, but the UK has really screwed up on this.
One of the original trial landings, left wing down, right wing down ... that was on a good day. Not too extra space either .....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ffaGBgBUZ8
Slight wind noise on the video....
Edited by Gandahar on Tuesday 22 November 19:52
Gandahar said:
One of the original trial landings, left wing down, right wing down ... that was on a good day. Not too extra space either .....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ffaGBgBUZ8
Slight wind noise on the video....
That honestly looks absolutely fine. You see worse than that all the time in Wellington. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ffaGBgBUZ8
Slight wind noise on the video....
maffski said:
From the thread on pprune, new AIP supplement for St Helena airport (pdf).
Hopefully someone how actually knows about this stuff can expand on it, but (from my complete ignorance) I'd read it as the airport will operate as original intended just with more care/attention drawn to the approach conditions?
I like the instruction about clearing up your own mess if it goes pear shaped!Hopefully someone how actually knows about this stuff can expand on it, but (from my complete ignorance) I'd read it as the airport will operate as original intended just with more care/attention drawn to the approach conditions?
davepoth said:
No, they didn't. The town was named after St. Helen's Chapel, which was a local church a thousand years ago. So it's really the people of St. Helens who mis-spell it!
Having lived there for a while, that doesn't surprise me 
. But the town IS called St Helens, so that was a typo by Punch. Munter said:
Orchid1 said:
I was wondering what would happen if they were suddenly unable to land for whatever reason. Where's the closest alternative?
Looks like an RAF base on Ascension about 800 miles away.Mr E said:
I have friends on the island. They were looking forward to the airport opening, as it's a bugger to get to otherwise, and if the ship breaks down there's a bit of a panic about essentials (usually ketchup and marmite...).
One could comment on the need for an airstrip to serve the island. One could also comment on a useful bit of runway on the closest bit of land the uk has to the Falklands...
That would be Tristan Da Cunha; still 2500-odd miles to Stanley though and the size of the populace means it's unlikely to ever get an airfield.One could comment on the need for an airstrip to serve the island. One could also comment on a useful bit of runway on the closest bit of land the uk has to the Falklands...
Edited by hidetheelephants on Thursday 24th November 09:14
ecsrobin said:
Plenty of well maintained RJs going spare now too, as Swiss have finally decided to pension them off. I'm not sure they have the range to do the flight commercially though, as they need to carry enough fuel to divert back to Angola, is that feasible while still using the full passenger and cargo capacity?hidetheelephants said:
Wideawake is not available as a diversion field; if/when commercial flights start they will be carrying enough fuel for diverting elsewhere, possibly back to point of departure.
I'm not sure of the Civil regulations, but when operating into an island such as Ascension we didn't carry 'Diversion Fuel' but an 'Island Holding Reserve' (enough for 2hrs holding time IIRC). What this meant was that the Nav would calculate a PNR (Point of No Return). Approaching PNR we would get the Airfield 'Actual' (current meteorological observations) as well the updated TAF (Terminal Airfield Forecast). If these were within limits we would cross the PNR, if not we would return to our point of departure (either Dakar or Banjul).jamiebae said:
ecsrobin said:
Plenty of well maintained RJs going spare now too, as Swiss have finally decided to pension them off. I'm not sure they have the range to do the flight commercially though, as they need to carry enough fuel to divert back to Angola, is that feasible while still using the full passenger and cargo capacity?hidetheelephants said:
Wideawake is not available as a diversion field; if/when commercial flights start they will be carrying enough fuel for diverting elsewhere, possibly back to point of departure.
http://www.sainthelenaaccess.com/news/faqs/#Emerge...Wideawake is still being negotiated apparently.
Even though the commercial flights can't operate yet, the availability of medical flights for the island must be a huge benefit.
davepoth said:
Even though the commercial flights can't operate yet, the availability of medical flights for the island must be a huge benefit.
yes indeed. Very good point.Most expensive air ambulance ever though.
I don't want to be seen as a downer but what the island really needed was safe flights from the UK perhaps onward bound to the Falklands for the tourist trade.
Gandahar said:
davepoth said:
Even though the commercial flights can't operate yet, the availability of medical flights for the island must be a huge benefit.
yes indeed. Very good point.Most expensive air ambulance ever though.
I don't want to be seen as a downer but what the island really needed was safe flights from the UK perhaps onward bound to the Falklands for the tourist trade.
I still fly the Ascension /Falklands route quite regularly, the winds into MPA can be equally as dangerous, 747,A340, A330 all get a bit sketchy when the weather is in, the airfield is in the lea of a large hill/mountain & suffers from a pretty constant 30Kt plus wind, usually a good 50-60 degrees off runway heading!
10 years ago, having personally been on a C-130K with throttles fire walled, rocks & terrain getting bigger very quickly just after a heavy take off as we got caught in a wind rotor, & watching the crew panic that they were stil in a rapid decent despite max performance shows you just how powerful the weather is, sometimes the only option is not to fly.....
The St Helena airfield will evolve & become the lifeline that it is intended to be, you can't plan for every eventuality!
Gandahar said:
yes indeed. Very good point.
Most expensive air ambulance ever though.
I don't want to be seen as a downer but what the island really needed was safe flights from the UK perhaps onward bound to the Falklands for the tourist trade.
AIUI What they really needed was broadband. If they'd got a decent internet connection then they would have become a tax haven like all proper Crown dependencies. But we wouldn't stump up the money to get a spur from a transatlantic cable that was laid close to the island since we'd already paid for the airport.Most expensive air ambulance ever though.
I don't want to be seen as a downer but what the island really needed was safe flights from the UK perhaps onward bound to the Falklands for the tourist trade.
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