🇦🇶 987th fly-in: McMurdo Station Phoenix Field, Antarctica (NZFX)

[Kumiankka]

link to fly-in index thread

 

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The 2023 fly-in lottery is finally concluded, and we're back to regular schedule once again (with my new M3 iMac now steadily up and running too). Our destination next Sunday, December 10th is anything but ordinary though: as the holiday season approaches, Phoenix Field (NZFX) at McMurdo Station, Antarctica should provide quite a winter wonderland, in spite of the little detail that it's actually summer in the southern hemisphere right now. Last time we were here in 2018, we visited the nearby Ice Runway (NZIR), and it is still an interesting secondary destination. But newly constructed Phoenix Field is actually the more realistic option this time of the year, since the ice runway isn't usable during the Antarctic summer when the sea ice begins to break up. The scenery is still the same as last time, you'll need Part 2 of the Antarctica4XPlane add-on as well as the Ross Bay scenery pack linked below. The Antarctica4XPlane pack appears to have changed webhosts a number of time and is currently located here on the Aerosoft forums - you'll need to create an account but the download is completely free.

Have fun!

 

 

 

 

New pilots are always welcome, just read the guide on how to get started!

Remember to listen in on Teamspeak, new channel assignments listed here:
121.00 - fly-in main channel
123.00 - fly-in pre-flight
124.00 - small talk (in German)
125.00 - general comms (non-fly-in)

[ghun1]

may be of interest :

AvTalk Episode 244: Olov Lindström: how to land a 787 in Antarctica | Flightradar24 Blog

Gary (hopefully I will make it this week)

 

[Quintao]

Greetings to all! After being away last week due to work duties, this week I came back and given the destination, did a long haul 12-hour flight from SBCF - Belo Horizonte all the way to the McMurdo Station in Antarctica.

Over 5,000nm flown aboard the long-range business jet Gulfstream 550 I bought during the Thanksgiving sale.

This was a long flight, so I did my flight planning on Simbrief (here if you are interested in reading the entire flight briefing). The interesting part is that although the aircraft had the range for the 12 hour 5,000nm flight, simbrief was adding an extra 5 hour of ETOPS fuel required, pushing the minimum take-off fuel to almost 50,000 lbs, which was too much for the Gulfstream. Since I was certain I was going to land at the McMurdo station, I accepted ignoring the ETOPS requirement.

SimBrief adds a loot of information that I find useful for long flights, including the flight profile and step-up climb details and expected wind.

Departed Confins Presidente Tancredo Neves airport taking-off RWY 16. It was 10pm and very dark in Belo Horizonte.

 

 

Climbed to FL380, then FL400 once over Argentina, set a hold pattern for the arrival procedure and went to bed, leaving the controls with the autopilot flying at .88 Mach speed. Came back the next morning to start the descent just 150nm from the destination.

The location on the navigation instruments was not precise and there wasn't a whole lot of visual reference, so I did a few passes over the several runways trying to understand where to land. My arrival and final approach can be noted on the map below.

I ended up landing at the Pegasus field rather than the Phenix as the scenery seemed to have more of an infrastructure there.

 

Skied my way into the ramp and went for some hot tea.

 

While others were still arriving I decided to pay a visit and enjoy the McMurdo Station scenery.

 

 

 

Rather than flying fewer than 10nm between Pegasus and Phenix, I asked the red Snowcats to tow me to the other ramp.

Got there on time to watch @CHASMAN2014, @Fatherofsam , and @F5Chaser land.

 

Chas parked to my left, and Chaser to my right.

 

Father of Sam joined us at the ramp as well.

After that was @rajo on the Phenom 300.

 

@ManofMac and @Vega66 joined a little later.

 

The last picture was with @Kumiankka arriving from his also long flight.

Time for some rest! See you all next weekend on another surprising location for sure!

[Kumiankka]

Awesome to revisit Antarctica with the new sim setup, and better weather than last time too. That being said, I'm not quite sure where X-Plane was pulling the weather data from because I couldn't find any for McMurdo on any of the regular METAR websites. Thanks to everyone who had the patience to stick around for my arrival after the 5+ hour flight from New Zealand... and @Quintao's epic 12 hour trip is especially impressive!
 

Picked the Virtavia C-17 which works fine in XP12 except for the Dreamengine plug-in which I had to trash because it kept crashing the sim. Was delayed a bit departing Christchurch due to another X-Plane annoyance, the one where if you ever start the sim without your external HD connected it will nuke your scenery_packs.ini. Wish there was an option to warn you before it does that!

 

Enroute to Antarctica, I noticed I had lost my #2 engine. Barely noticeable in fact, since I still had three more to count on. This reminded me to go adjust the mean time between failures setting, which X-Plane always defaults to a ridiculously low value leading to something breaking practically every flight.

 

Very nice sunrise colors in XP12...

 

...or not! I've heard of strange optical illusions around Antarctica but not this one!

 

Finally sighted some land about four hours into the flight

 

Five hours in, passing Mount Erebus and setting up for the approach to Phoenix Field

 

Had to go around on my first try: like others had mentioned, the snowy runway was incredibly difficult to spot. @Quintao, @CHASMAN2014 and @Vega66 were still waiting for me down below and helping out with approach vectoring.

 

Landed on the second try after an interesting approach. Steep angle, higher airspeed than usual and engines throttled back to avoid the dreaded Vmc roll.

 

With one engine out and poor traction on the ice, the C-17 was very interesting to taxi too. I ended up doing a few donuts on the ice before making it to the parking area here.

 

@Vega66 switched to a King Air while I opted for the old C-130 model from this week's banner.

 

Again, taxiing on the ice was almost impossible but eventually I got the nose pointed along the runway in order to take off.

 

Flyby of New Zealand's Scott Base

 

After Vega took off, I circled around to gain some altitude and try to get a formation shot or two

 

Just as I got close enough to see him, we were lucky enough to pass over the Ice Runway where I was going to head next anyway

 

The beta range wasn't working on the old Hercules model, so it took me two tries to finally land at the ice runway. Due to the aforementioned poor braking action, I had to use the snowbanks at the other end to shed the last few knots of speed.

 

Still had time for one more flight, in the Nimbus UH-1.

 

Exploring the main hub at McMurdo Station itself

 

Another visit to Scott Base

 

Thanks to Vega I learned about a helipad destination somewhere at the foot of Mt. Erebus and had to go looking

 

Didn't find any visible helipad, but I did find some interesting structures. Shackleton's cabin (HSM-15) I believe, and some of the Adélie penguins which make their southernmost habitat at Cape Royds. And the monument in the distance must be the Cross on Wind Vane Hill (HSM-17). Incredible little details in this scenery!
 

Could've spent hours more hunting for all those historic Antarctic sites, but at this point I had to finally call it a night and return to Phoenix Field. Maybe next time...

 

[Quintao]

What was impressive today was that I never got disconnected during the entire 17-hours of the fly-in! 1 hour pre-flight, 12-hour flight, 4 hours on the ground. 

Edited December 10, 2023 by Quintao

[CHASMAN2014]

Greetings to all! thanks for a fun flight to Antarctica a very interesting destination.

Started from Odell Glacier (AT18) in the EV-55.

Final approach to runway 09  Phoenix Field (NZFX) at McMurdo Station, Antarctica

Met up with @F5Chaser and @Quintao.   Thank you Quintao for navigating me to the parking area.

@Fatherofsam below in the Dash8:

@Kumiankka landing in the C17, long runway no problem stopping even with the dicey runway.

@ManofMac below in parked at Phoenix Field:

Overhead view of Phoenix Field:

@rajo taxing to parking:

@Vega66   parked at Phoenix Field:

@Vega66 later switch to a heli jet:

Vega66 landing on NZFX 09.

Have a nice week everyone.  Hope to see you all next Sunday.

CHAS

 

Edited December 11, 2023 by CHASMAN2014

[Fatherofsam]

Well I started off setting up for my longest flight yet. I chose to fly from Queentown(NZQN) in th US Navy Lockheed Martin PC3 Orion. The model is a bit basic, but I thought appropriate for the job. I was going to use the XP12 version of the C17, but it wouldn't load.

The ETA was 8Hrs 43Mins. So I had to schedule a tanker refuel for later in the flight.

It was a cold lonely flight, but the crew had work to do under red light.

I had to go out IRL, so left it to the AP to fly on. However, I think the speed dropped off over time and when I got home I was doing 65kts on the water, which is an achievement on its own.

The olny thing left for me was to stqrt on a 10nm approach in the freeware Twin Otter.

Spacial disorientation got me! But I could have stayed there as a beacon for the others. But up I went again.

@CHASMAN2014 was in the 'circuit' as I got close, so I decided to fly around a bit first.

A nice 3 point ski landing.

I vacated the runwaty at the earliest oportunity. and met Chas taxying up.

I taxied to the wrong end and did some figure skating. befor heading to the ramp.

I eventually got to the ramp where @F5Chaser, @Quintao and @CHASMAN2014 were sitting comfortably.

An enjoyable, different fly-in, thanks. But family pressures meant I had to say bye. I'll be away next week, so I hope you all enjoy the Wright Brothers' Anniversary fly-in

[rajo]

All flights for pilot rajo

Date	From	To	Aircraft	Type	Duration	Distance	Earnings	Action
2023/12/09 04:01:06	SC0A	SCFA	DCRAJ300	Embraer Phenom 300	00:41	169	$71.82	View
2023/12/09 03:10:24	SPTN	SC0A	DCRAJ300	Embraer Phenom 300	00:41	165	-$64.93	View
2023/12/08 04:26:15	SKCL	SPTN	DCRAJ300	Embraer Phenom 300	03:43	1347	-$5,606.72	View
2023/12/07 04:09:04	MMPS	SKCL	DCRAJ300	Embraer Phenom 300	03:34	1432	-$5,465.39	View
2023/12/07 00:14:48	KAVX	MMPS	DCRAJ300	Embraer Phenom 300	03:53	1564	-$5,951.52	View
2023/12/06 01:06:21	KLBF	KAVX	DCRAJ300	Embraer Phenom 300	02:40	964	-$4,102.68	View
2023/12/05 03:13:47	KCIN	KLBF	DCRAJ300	Embraer Phenom 300	01:01	271	-$1,614.16	View
2023/12/05 02:01:34	KTVK	KCIN	DCRAJ300	Embraer Phenom 300	00:31	118	$1,123.28	View
2023/12/05 01:06:06	KADW	KTVK	DCRAJ300	Embraer Phenom 300	02:38	749	$3,883.92	View
2023/12/04 22:19:46	KDCA	KADW	DCRAJ300	Embraer Phenom 300	00:18	8	-$485.12	View

In KLBF there were a few hundred kilos of cargo for Mcmurdo Station, Antarctica, very close to Phoenix Field (NZFX). IN Washington DC my Phenom 300 was still standing from the last anniversary fly-in, I was thinking of island-hopping on the shortest route to Antarctica.

But when the cargo arrived on Catalina and I wanted to make Pacific flight plans, I realized that with the Phenom's range, it wasn't going to happen

 

So the east coast of Central America and then South America

On the way there was once a bizarre cloud formation

in Cerro Moreno Intl, Antofagasta, Chile was unfortunately the end of FSE, the deliveries were forward contracts, and the deadlines were gradually exceeded, I had blown a lot of kerosene until I realized that I could no longer bring this load to the destination

However, I had also registered my flights in ZONexecutive

But here, too, it was over in the Antaktis because ZON does not know the station airfields

Finally at our destination

See you! Happy landings!

 

Edited December 11, 2023 by rajo

[Vega66]

Greetings, Everyone

Wonderful Fly In this week, favoured by the best weather I ever experienced over Antarctica and the great scenery add-ons.

For this one I planned to replicate a real life route performed by the Globemasters, from Christchurch NZ, to Mcmurdo.

Started as early as possible, since the flight would take nearly 5 hours in a best case scenario.

Still a very nice plane to fly in XP12, especially the outside and engine sounds are very nice.

Leaving Chsristchurch, climbing at full throttle.

Cruising at FL280 over an almost endless blue ocean.

Approaching Phoenix fields, the scenery started to present some nice details.

The first attempt to spot the field ended up misaligned and very high, forcing a Go Around. But it helped to correct the approach path, with an aditional welcom help from @CHASMAN2014, @Quintao and @ManofMac parked on the field.
Here the view of the field from the cockpit.

A little struggle with a somewhat extended flare, but finally managed to touch down within a safe distance. With the help of the powerful reversers the C17 became to a full stop before the end of the runway.

Taxiing to park proved to be a far difficult task than the rest of the entire flight. The brakes failed to respond properly in such conditions, causing an overshoot during the backtrack and aditional problems during the parking manouvers.

But finally, managed to park in a good position for a group shot.

Then a change for some heli flight. The weather was amazing, and no Ice problems were recorded.

First stop at Pegasus Field, followed by a quick flight to Williams Field.

Another leg to visit Mcmurdo heliport

Another stop by the Mcmurdo Station Ice Runway

Greeting a waddle of Penguins, at Cape Evans 

One last stop at Marble Point, before returning back to join @Kumiankka, also arriving on a C17 from Christchurch.

As Kumi was changing to an Hercules for a short visit to the Mcmurdo Station Ice Runway, I switched to a King Air for one more leg, this time to Odell Glacier

At first I had some trouble getting thrust to both engines, but after a few minutes found the root cause associated with inverted throttle and prop assignment. Expedited departure and made some turns above the Ice field, struggling to get the quandrant controls properly adjusted. Finally managed to stabilize it and headed towards Odell.

Great weather and clear visibility all over.

Finally landed at Odell, again with an overshoot as I fail to stop the aircraft within the runway limits. But the snow helped to avoid further troubles, and managed to park near the smoke sign.

Finally, switched again to a Globemaster. Despite the short runway at Odell Station, the take off was just great. 

A final pass over mount Erebus, just before climb to cruise back home ant call it a great day.

 

Looking forward to join the next one. Wish you all a great week.

[F5Chaser]

Hello all,

I had a difficult time finding a good map of nearby airbases to start from this week so I began at Phoenix Field with the Virtavia C-17. This was my first time flying the XP12 version and I am very happy with how well it is still running in 12.

I departed on what I thought was runway 27 but due to magnetic variation, turns out that was actually runway 15!

Flying past Mount Erebus on my way north to intercept @CHASMAN2014.

And following Chas back to McMurdo Station. For some reason swift placed his aircraft on the ground while he was actually a few thousand feet AGL. Probably something to do with the option to clamp floating planes to the ground.

I flew around for a little longer and then entered the pattern at Phoenix Field to land. Good thing this has reverse because brakes do not work at all.

After landing I taxied a couple of miles to where @Quintao and Chas were parked. I did not get the other custom scenery installed before this flight. It appears the scenery package and the default scenery have the airports in different locations. @Fatherofsam joined us shortly after I slid into a parking spot. Kind of funny how we go to one of the coldest locations on Earth and we get less icing than the warmer latitudes, haha. Great to see Antarctica again and with better weather this time!

See you next this weekend at First Flight Airport!