Los Angles International Airport (KLAX)

September 2002 Feature

McMurdo

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Helping the FAA.  That's what this months feature is about.  The FAA needs to install some new navigation equipment at the McMurdo base on Ross Island, Antarctica.  This is a chartered flight, and to see the flight schedule you will need to go to the Charter Flight Page at the LAX Hub main page. The final leg of the flight will be from  Christchurch, New Zealand (NZWG) and our destination will be the Sea Ice Runway at McMurdo (ZCMI), on Ross Island.

Geographical

The McMurdo region of Antarctica lies nearly directly South of New Zealand:  it is about 1800 nm from the southern tip of New Zealand to McMurdo.  There are a few island groups in between, the Auckland Islands Southwest of New Zealand, the Campbell Islands East-Southeast of the Auckland Islands, and the Balleny Islands closer to the Antarctic coast.

McMurdo is the largest base on Antarctica;  it is run by the USA.  I strongly recommend visiting www.theice.org/ to learn many interesting things about McMurdo and Antarctica.  Nearby are other bases, such as New Zealand's Scott Base. You should be able to find McMurdo base at the following: 77degrees, 50 minutes South and 166 degrees, 36 minutes East.

McMurdo lies at the end of McMurdo Sound, where ships can offload supplies and personnel at a floating ice dock.  There is a runway at nearby Williams Field (used by Hercules aircraft, for instance).  Aircraft landings are also performed on floating ice runways, with C-5 Galaxies. 

Unfortunately, FS2000 shows absolutely nothing human in the McMurdo area:  no airport or runway, no navaids and no towns.  The only thing that FS2000 offers is a string of waypoints from Christchurch to near McMurdo:   That's why we need to provide you with scenery for this months feature.

On one side, McMurdo Sound is bordered by Ross Island, on which Mt. Erebus lies.  Mt. Erebus is 12448 ft high (3794 m).

Ross Island is at the edge of the floating Ross Ice Shelf, which stretches far and wide to the East and South. 

Note:  there is no point trying to fly to the South Pole in Flight Simulator:  you will not be able to go further than S89º 30'.  If you do try, your plane will simply stop at that line.  The same is true near the North Pole:  you will not be able to fly further than N89º 30'.

Magnetic vs geographic headings

You will have to get used to very confusing magnetic headings during this trip.  Remember that the aircraft panel shows magnetic headings:  those will be off by as much as 150º compared to true geographic heading!

Surprisingly, the South Magnetic Pole lies off the shore of Antarctica towards New Zealand (near S65º and E140º).  The flight South (which follows roughly E165º) will therefore see the South Magnetic Pole pass by on the right, so that magnetic North will swing from behind to the left and even to the front left!  On the included map of the McMurdo area, magnetic North is shown to be at 147º (true geographic).  This means that true geographic North has a magnetic heading of 213º near McMurdo!  The very meaning of North and South can be very confusing in this area!

 Here is the conversion for McMurdo: 

 Magnetic heading = geographic (true) heading + 213º (or -147º)   Geographic (true) heading = magnetic heading - 213º (or +147º)

 Weather

 The best way to fly this months feature is to use "real weather".

 The Flight

 I suggest flying at 20000 ft and Mach 0.52 (a typical cruise speed of the C-130H)

As befits a  trip carrying government employees, we will try and provide the most comfortable flight possible, with fueling stops at Hawaii and American Samoa as well as Christchurch, New Zealand.

By the way, there are a few strange long flat white tongues that stick out from the coast into the water (or into the Ross Ice Shelf):  those are glaciers that flow down from the mountains and then continue off-shore, floating on the water for a long distance.

 Be very careful with magnetic headings when flying close to the South Pole.  Leave the GPS map visible to orient yourself., (there are also a number of  radio beacons for guidance.) 

On the way back to New Zealand, pass near Cape Hallett (there is a joint New Zealand-US base there):  you will have to deviate somewhat to the right of the flight track between waypoints KALVA and GULAN (disconnect the GPS to do that).  Simply follow the coast line (I don't know exactly which of the many points in the coast is Cape Hallett, but I do know that it is not the "eastern-most" point). 

Do make sure that you pass near those two waypoints (KALVA and GULAN), or else the GPS will refuse to guide you automatically to New Zealand and you will have to set the autopilot manually!

As you fly almost (true) North, watch magnetic North (0º on the EICAS) sweep from behind you to your right and then to your front.

If you do run low on fuel, your best bet is to land at Dunedin (NZDN) on runway 21 (6234 ft long):  ILS 109.9 MHz, DME 115.7 MHz, NDB 368 kHz.

At Christchurch, land on runway 20.  The radios were set already in Antarctica for the approach, but here they are once more in case you changed them:  ILS 110.3, VOR CH 115.1, NDB OD 262.

Christchurch is the main departure and return point for many scientific flights to and from Antarctica.

Microsoft did not put anything at either poles, but the needed scenery is available at flightsim.com. The file name to look for is ant02.zip and it contains McMurdo as well as 32 other Runways, and an additional 5 fictitious runways. OR you can click on McMurdo scenery to download the special scenery for this flight from our own website. Click on MAP to see a general overview of the Ross Sea area.

Most people have heard of the Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights.  If you are lucky, you will see a brilliant display of the Southern Lights, called Aurora Australis.  Here is a picture of the Southern Lights, taken from the space shuttle Columbia.

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Revised page layout 01/01/02      Last Updated on 08/16/2002.
By Stan Fitzgerald   (Email: stanf@callatg.com)