On December 8th, I boarded a Hi Fly A3400-300 to fly to White Desert Antarctica.
The tour was called "The greatest day"
It took 5 hours and 15 minutes from Cape Town to Wolf's runway.
We were flying from the south to the north.
Commander Carlos Mirpuri of Hi Fly spoke to the group.
The weather needs less than 15-20 knots of crosswind. As the ice is melting, the temperature can't be too warm. The ice runway needs to be maintained in order for the plane to land.
The A3400-300, 9H-TQZ, was an ex-Emirates model. There are three classes with 12 First Class, 42 Business Class, and 213 Economy Class seats. Around 4:30 pm, we took off from Cape Town with about 40 passengers.
Every 5 degrees South, the flight ops created one way point. The flight took five hours and fifteen minutes.
Dinner was served with full bar drinks.
The season in the southern part of the world is from November to February.
Patrick explained what to expect in his video during the flight.
White Desert has both a one-day and a seven-day tour.
Before we reached the coast of Antarctica, we saw some Icebergs.
Passengers got ready for the exploration as they flew closer to the South Pole.
The weather was good for landing.
The airplane was able to stop during braking because of the runwayfriction index.
The A340 landed at Wolf's Fang Runway 17 in the early hours of the morning. The pilot said we have some tail wind until 500 feet and some cross wind from 090 degrees.
I was able to watch the landing from the seat. In my video, you can see the landing.
The runway has a length of 3000 m and a width of 60 m. It is the only blue ice runway in the world. It takes 22 hours to get the runway ready for a landing.
We were taken by 4x4 to climb Nunatak, a small mountain in the white desert.
The sun never sets during the summer in the South Pole. The photo was taken in the middle of the night. The sun rises in Cape Town.
I went to the newly opened Echo Camp to get some refreshments before I left. It took 3 hours to get to know the most remote part of the world. One of the greatest days of my life!
After getting back at the A340, we took off. The sun was still up.
It took about 15 hours for the trip to end.
I hope you have fun with me. I'm planning on taking a private trip to Antarctica next year.
Visit white-desert.com to learn more about the tour.
Tourists can go to the Geographical South Pole if they take two BaslerBT-67. It is on their itineraries.
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