787 lands at Troll

In other aircraft news, a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner has become the first 787 and the largest plane ever to land at the Troll Research Station in Antarctica.

This flight came from Cape Town and was carrying supplies and scientific equipment for the Norwegian Polar Institute Base there. And as I write, the aircraft above has just left SA airspace on its way back up to Oslo.

Cape Town is the easiest airport to use for trips to Troll, it being “just” 4350km straight down across the Southern Ocean to the ice runway there, and at this time of year, there are regular flights heading out there from a plethora of different nations. Russia and Iceland being two of the more recent ones I have spotted.

There’s a really good article on FlightRadar24 about how Troll operates here.

And a reminder that you shouldn’t visit Antarctica.
And a further reminder that you can’t afford to anyway.

Nothing to see here

Just a Maltese Airbus A340 overhead on its way in from Wolf’s Fang Airport:

As you do.

Looking at the flight path and time, I knew where it was. I just didn’t know what it was.
So I looked it up. Knowledge is power and all that.

And now I want to go there. Luxury Antarctic Tours. Wow.

It all seems very well appointed. Including the runway itself.

Some issues, granted. I’d prefer just about anything other than a plain black screen to represent “satellite communication”. And that “dedicated medical team” does indeed look dedicated, but somewhat under -equipped.

But in fact, the only real issue is the price.

$104,000 is R1,808,164.80. Or just over a quarter of a million Rand A DAY! For the basic package.

My fok, Marelize.

Why not take the whole family for a couple of weeks?

Don’t Visit Antarctica

I know, I know. You had other plans for this evening anyway. Me too: I’ve been told that there might be something history related on the History Channel. Granted, this was by the same person who suggested that there would be some music on MTV last week, but it’s got to be worth staying in, just to witness what would be an… er… historic event.

And if you were wondering how you’d even get there in the first place, you should remember that there is a scheduled flight service from Cape Town to Novolazarevskaya Station, so it’s not as hard as you might imagine.
But lousy TV and ease of access to available flights aside, you still shouldn’t go to Antarctica, because tourism is destroying the place. And that’s a bad thing.

Scientists say walking on moss beds will leave footprints that could last for centuries.

Fortunately, this important news is now being shared, thanks to a new commercial from John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight:

Not quite sure that green oval at the end works so well, given that it completely misses including the widely-suggested alternative destination, but at least the primary the message is quite clear.

On an altogether more serious, certainly more edgy and somewhat longer note, his hugely interesting piece on the US Wealth Gap is sublime.

Cool Flight

It was an emotional time for family 6000 yesterday afternoon, as we said goodbye to Grandma and Granddad, who were (well, are, actually) flying back to the UK via Dubai. Checking on their check in though, I spotted this:

DSC_0053

Yes, at 2330 yesterday evening, you could get a flight from Cape Town to Amsterdam or… Antarctica.
Who knew?

Better make sure you get on the right plane to avoid confusion though:

Hey. Shomething ish not right. Why ish dare sho much shnow at Schipol?
Where are the buildingsh? And where did doze penguinsh come from?

The whole destination thing is a bit vague, and since the total area of Antarctica is 14,000,000km², you might find yourself some distance from the bit of Antarctica you actually want to be in, but on the plus side, at least you’re virtually guaranteed a daylight landing.