I couldn't seem to find a way out of Comodoro Rivadivas, Argentina-- to Antarctica. My favorite starting point-- the British research station "Rothera" was only accessed by flights and boats from the Falkland Islands or from a town in southern CHILE called Punta Arenas. I could not find any flights from Comodoro to the Falklands-- it looks like the British have cut off all access to the Falklands from Argentina-- which led me to research that crazy conflict in the early 1980's when Thatcher sent a fleet to the Falklands to defend them against Argentina.
I was trying to find if the Argentinians have any flight timings. They have their base General Belgrano [77°52′S 34°37′W] between Halley and Rothera,plus the inland station Sobral [81º04'S 40º34'W] which, after a burst of activity in the 60s is now partially deactivated. The distances quoted vary
ReplyDeletehttp://www.marambio.aq/sobral.html
vs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentine_Antarctica
The Argentinian source says it's 420 km South of Belgrano,with the Pole another 900 km away. Yet Wiki [no citation] quotes a distance, just between the two stations, of 1450 km [!!!]
The Argentinian polar site details a 1965 circular flight from Rio Gallega [Santa Cruz] to General Belgrano and back with an Avro Lincoln reaching 75°30'S 52º W after just under 12 hours, reaching 78 ° 40'S 57º W. well inland in Antartica.
The coordinates 73º S 50º 30'W; 70 S 55 ° 30'W and 67 ° 30'W S 58th were successively exceeded at 20: 20 ; 21: 29 and 22: 31 , respectively.
This must have been to the above inland base supporting the nationalistic "polar expedition".
Base Matienzo reached at 23: 08 hrs, and back to base at 3:55 AM the following day. Duration 20 hrs 37 minutes.[There's a mix of local Argentinian and standard time, hence the 3 hour difference]
http://www.marambio.aq/opsocorro.html
The Wiki page for Belgrano details non-stop airdrop flights in a C130 from Ushuaia during reconstruction after the 2005 fire at the base but no timings are available.
Wow, interesting details Felix-- thanks. I'll be studying this for sure over the coming week or month. These discrpencies are the key to this.
ReplyDeleteI get the feeling that such polar expedition might be analagous to the "lunar missions" Rick.Could the 20.5 hour drop flight just be part of the back story? A side issue, I know.
ReplyDeleteHere's a stamp and postmark from 1965....
http://images.stampwants.com/g3kdz.img
I certainly get a deja moon-vue with this image:
http://www.marambio.aq/galeria/albums/polosurleal/normal_LEALPOLOSUR01.jpg
source:
http://www.marambio.aq/operacion90.html
Video of the 1965 expedition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsZNHVTB_88
Hey - it's the 50th anniversary later this year and I am sure the old Sno-Cat tractor will be taken for another drive from the Transport Museum iin Lujan.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tractor_Expedici%C3%B3n_Polar_Argentina_1965,_Flag_Day_2006,_Rosario,_Argentina.jpg
I just noticed an earlier anniversary in Argentina - the flight of a Douglas DC3 to the South Pole in 1962 - video here [says 2 DC3s] Er, wow....did that really happen?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYeDHuct1ao
Are these old guys, 50 years on, like the astronauts who went to the moon?
But hey, you don't want to go to the pole, you want to circumnavigate it! Looking forward to the next instalment.