St. Helena. too windy

[Flooble]

Just out of interest, would a military crew struggle as badly as a civilian crew to land at this airfield?

Military probably do more hands-on flying? A tougher selection process? Younger crews in general? Possibly also looser restrictions on when you are allowed to land?

Maybe the answer would be to use those Voyager aircraft?

[RWD cossie wil]

Flooble said:

Just out of interest, would a military crew struggle as badly as a civilian crew to land at this airfield?

Military probably do more hands-on flying? A tougher selection process? Younger crews in general? Possibly also looser restrictions on when you are allowed to land?

Maybe the answer would be to use those Voyager aircraft?

Voyager is probably too big for St Helena, it's runway is only 6,398 ft long.... no doubt It could get in & out, but it would be tight on performance & useful load... Re the crews, its more to do with the unpredictability of the wind, wind shear is very nasty & not easy to mitigate against, does not really matter what uniform you are wearing.

[saaby93]

RWD cossie wil said:

Voyager is probably too big for St Helena, it's runway is only 6,398 ft long..

I do wonder if someones been out with a stanley tape measure and found its exactly that number of feet
or whether it's 1950 metres to the nearest 10 metres or so, someones done a metres to foot conversion and come up with a distance that appears far more accurate than it is.
Wouldnt 6400 ft or even 6500 ft be accurate enough between friends?

Or did it begin life as 1.2 miles?

[djc206]

saaby93 said:

do wonder if someones been out with a stanley tape measure and found its exactly that number of feet
or whether it's 1950 metres to the nearest 10 metres or so, someones done a metres to foot conversion and come up with a distance that appears far more accurate than it is.
Wouldnt 6400 ft or even 6500 ft be accurate enough between friends?

Or did it begin life as 1.2 miles?

Runway lengths are published in metres to the nearest metre I believe so it's just a conversion of 1950m. For example 09L/27R at Heathrow is 3902m long on the AIP aerodrome chart.

[saaby93]

djc206 said:

Runway lengths are published in metres to the nearest metre I believe so it's just a conversion of 1950m. For example 09L/27R at Heathrow is 3902m long on the AIP aerodrome chart.

Any bets on that one having gone the other way and heathrow is 12800 feet to the nearest 100ft and someones converted it to metres to give a measurement far more accurate than it is?
Or is it really 3902metres long? Would anyone be upset if it was listed as 3900 metres?

[RWD cossie wil]

saaby93 said:

djc206 said:

Runway lengths are published in metres to the nearest metre I believe so it's just a conversion of 1950m. For example 09L/27R at Heathrow is 3902m long on the AIP aerodrome chart.

Any bets on that one having gone the other way and heathrow is 12800 feet to the nearest 100ft and someones converted it to metres to give a measurement far more accurate than it is?
Or is it really 3902metres long? Would anyone be upset if it was listed as 3900 metres?

Always better to have more runway than less

[djc206]

saaby93 said:

Any bets on that one having gone the other way and heathrow is 12800 feet to the nearest 100ft and someones converted it to metres to give a measurement far more accurate than it is?
Or is it really 3902metres long? Would anyone be upset if it was listed as 3900 metres?

Well Denham is 775m which is roughly 2543ft so that doesn't work.

Some pedant would miss those 2m

[Flooble]

RWD cossie wil said:

Voyager is probably too big for St Helena, it's runway is only 6,398 ft long.... no doubt It could get in & out, but it would be tight on performance & useful load... Re the crews, its more to do with the unpredictability of the wind, wind shear is very nasty & not easy to mitigate against, does not really matter what uniform you are wearing.

Whoops, hadn't noticed it was so short! To me anything above 800 metres counts as plenty long enough :-)

[RWD cossie wil]

Flooble said:

RWD cossie wil said:

Voyager is probably too big for St Helena, it's runway is only 6,398 ft long.... no doubt It could get in & out, but it would be tight on performance & useful load... Re the crews, its more to do with the unpredictability of the wind, wind shear is very nasty & not easy to mitigate against, does not really matter what uniform you are wearing.

Whoops, hadn't noticed it was so short! To me anything above 800 metres counts as plenty long enough :-)

We have flown into Newcastle before, that's 7,641ft, only had about 150 passengers onboard & about 12 tons of fuel though, still needed a TOGA power take off to get out of there!

[Gandahar]

davepoth said:

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.

Airlines or airwaves ! Actually that is pretty old fashioned in itself, but pardon the pun.

It's been an interesting time how the UK has treated the overseas territories, the population in the UK is very fond of them and the politicians see their strategic importance. But still we seem to have 40 year back policies on getting these a nice compromise between humans living there and their needs and also the unique environment that should be cherished.

Can someone with a huge brain please get the job at Westminster? Thanks.

[anonymous-user]

Gandahar said:

davepoth said:

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.

Airlines or airwaves ! Actually that is pretty old fashioned in itself, but pardon the pun.

It's been an interesting time how the UK has treated the overseas territories, the population in the UK is very fond of them and the politicians see their strategic importance. But still we seem to have 40 year back policies on getting these a nice compromise between humans living there and their needs and also the unique environment that should be cherished.

Can someone with a huge brain please get the job at Westminster? Thanks.

At least their islands weren't used for atomic testing or all the inhabitants evicted and refused right to return like Diego Garcia or refused right of abode in the UK like the Hong Kong Chinese. They should think themselves lucky they've got a not fit for purpose airport and dodgy wifi.

[Puggit]

Well someone's using the airport today...



https://twitter.com/flightradar24/status/803977117...

[anonymous-user]

That's cool, someone on the island has a receiver and suitable internet to upload the data. I know FR24 send you them free if you live in an area with poor coverage.

[maffski]

Puggit said:

Well someone's using the airport today...

St Helena Government - EMBRAER TRIAL FLIGHT CONFIRMED – LARGE PASSENGER AIRCRAFT TO LAND ON TUESDAY

It's a test flight by Embraer, the 190 is apparently a possible aircraft for the scheduled service.

[Puggit]

maffski said:

St Helena Government - EMBRAER TRIAL FLIGHT CONFIRMED – LARGE PASSENGER AIRCRAFT TO LAND ON TUESDAY

It's a test flight by Embraer, the 190 is apparently a possible aircraft for the scheduled service.

No record in Flight24 of it leaving St Helena again...

[Chrisgr31]

Puggit said:

No record in Flight24 of it leaving St Helena again...

That's because in the meantime someone has googled St Helena to find out the runway length. Found a thread on Pistonheads which lead to confusion as to which way it's measured and converted. They have now erasures and converted it the other way and found its 2 ft shorter than they thought, which is too short for the plane 😆

[maffski]

Interview with the pilot of the Embraer test flight - https://whatthesaintsdidnext.com/2016/12/04/no-big...

St. Helena have now issued a request for proposal (pdf) to operate the route, so I guess Comair are out.

The RFP confirms that Accession is available as a planned diversion, and potentially a scheduled route between the islands to link with the RAF airbridge.

[davepoth]

Having Ascension as a diversion makes a huge difference to the viability of this service IMO. I expect there will be some more interest this time round.

[Gandahar]

maffski said:

Interview with the pilot of the Embraer test flight - https://whatthesaintsdidnext.com/2016/12/04/no-big...

So the rival manufacturers test plane finds no issues with wind. Flown by their test pilots who I assume are better than average.



Not as if there is that much run-off for if the plane due to wind lands well down the runway.

Edited by Gandahar on Saturday 10th December 20:50

[davepoth]

Gandahar said:

So the rival manufacturers test plane finds no issues with wind. Flown by their test pilots who I assume are better than average.



Not as if there is that much run-off for if the plane due to wind lands well down the runway.

Edited by Gandahar on Saturday 10th December 20:50

I looked at that photo the first time and thought "nah, they've got that wrong - it's blatantly a screen capture from an episode of Thunderbirds, nobody would ever build a runway somewhere like that."