Flight Log: Punta Arenas SCCI -- Villa Las Estrellas SCRM 06.02.2018

Aviation forecast for Teniente Rodolfo Marsh Martin (SCRM) airfield in Antarctica:

TAF SCRM 060422Z 0606/0706 34020G35KT 2000 RA BR OVC003 TN02/0608Z TX04/0622Z BECMG 0610/0612 34025G40KT PROB40 TEMPO 0612/0620 0800 +RA FG OVC001 BECMG 0620/0622 31020KT 1200 -RA BR OVC001 BECMG 0702/0704 5000 BR -SHRA SCT003 OVC010

In plain English:
Time of forecast: 06 February 04:22 UTC or 01:22 local time
Applies to: 06 Feb. 06:00 to 07 Feb. 06:00
Wind: from 340 degrees at 20 knots in gusts of 40 knots
Visibility: 2000 m
Rain, fog, a blanket of cloud at 100 m altitude
Temperature: 2 to 4 degrees
Development: 10:00 to 12:00, wind from 340 degrees at 25 knots in gusts of 40 knots.

With a 40% probability of the following change:
12:00 to 20:00, rain and fog, blanket of cloud at 30 m altitude
Development: 20:00 to 22:00, wind from 310 degrees at 20 knots, visibility 1,200 m, rain and fog, blanket of cloud at 30 m
Development for 07 Feb.: 02:00 to 04:00: visibility 5000 m, mist and showers with wispy cloud at 100 m altitude and a blanket of cloud at 300 m altitude.


07 February 2018, Punta Arenas — Villa Las Estrellas:

We had bad news again in the morning. The weather wasn’t as expected and we would have to wait. But our guide Christian Andersen had sent us a mail saying we’d be picked up from our hotel at 10.30 a.m. and should be ready for our flight to take off at the airfield. We waited at the airfield for two hours without receiving any news.

However, Christian suddenly turned up at about 1 p.m. and surprised us with the information that the pilots had decided to fly and conditions in Antarctica for landing over the next few hours were good. We were delighted, packed our stuff and passed through security and baggage screening and actually got in the plane. It was a Beechcraft 300 with a pressurised cabin and a maximum of nine seats of which we occupied six. Kurt and I sat in the first row behind the cockpit to watch the pilots at work. We took off quickly and the plane ascended to an altitude of 28,000 feet or about 9,000 m. We were way above the clouds and even able to see the ground now and again. Luckily, the blanket of cloud lifted just as we were leaving the land mass and we thought we could see Cape Horn. Otherwise the flight was uneventful and we were offered nice catering options. Our Russian friends, who had spent the evening before eating and drinking in ample quantities, were very quiet during the whole flight. The landing on Antarctica’s King George Island was quite spectacular. The cloud threshold was significantly below 800 feet or 300 m, but visibility was about 6 to 8 km, making weather conditions during landing not very difficult. The wind was much less than during the previous few days. I was quite shocked about the condition of the runway, which was covered with craters, depressions and puddles. It wasn’t made of concrete anyway, but of gravel that shot sideways from the wheels. I wouldn’t have wanted to land Marie on a runway like that. But we were back on terra firma and waited for our taxi that came in the shape of a tracked vehicle with a trailer. We were overjoyed to have reached Antarctica after all.

Bye for now.