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Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would expect that these runways are not high volume. Temporary/shifting/special needs.
This is about McMurdo. I'd be surprised if they ever had multiple flights landing at once.
How does the TLS work with multiple aircraft landing at once? With ILS, the signal broadcast is static but it seems like it will now be per aircraft.
I wonder how similar their ILS is to the ILS used on navy aircraft carriers?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The entire fleet qualified for McMurdo seems to be six planes and three helicopters, if I'm reading this right. https://www.usap.gov/sciencesupport/scienceplanningsummaries... I would guess it to be pretty rare that multiple aircraft would be on approach at once, and if so, I'd imagine one could hold at a distance to allow approaches to be serialized.
I've flown to/from McMurdo on a total of 4 types of planes... C-17, C130 (kiwi AF), L-100 (Safari, contracted by Italian antarctic program) and LC-130 (to/from pole).
Landing at McMurdo Station seems a lot like landing on a giant, slow-moving aircraft carrier. I wonder how similar their ILS is to the ILS used on navy aircraft carriers?
The Instrument Carrier Landing System (ICLS) is basically just an upgraded version of the civilian ILS which they squashed down onto a ship. It broadcasts a beam of radio waves into the air and any aircraft can pick it up and follow the glide slope.
There is also the Automatic Carrier Landing System (ACLS), which is roughly equivalent to this system. Radar receivers on the carrier are fed into a computer, which calculates the aircraft's position and transmits back commands back to the aircraft's autopilot.
The cool part about this Transponder Landing System is that it doesn't require any equipment upgrades to the aircraft. An aircraft equiped with original ILS equipment from the 60s can use it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've flown to/from McMurdo on a total of 4 types of planes... C-17, C130 (kiwi AF), L-100 (Safari, contracted by Italian antarctic program) and LC-130 (to/from pole).
What an experience! Can I ask your role in visiting?
The ground based equipment dictates approach path with no updates to onboard approach databases on aircraft needed.
RNAV can’t do curved approaches on a glide slope as far as I know.
ILS minimums are generally slightly lower than LPV which is the RNAV approach type with lowest minimums.
This supports older aircraft with ILS (localizer with glide slope) that don’t have a WAAS capable GPS.
Edit: Also, using the Mode S transponder with precision approach radar instead of ADSB-out for the aircraft position means older planes without ADSB (because they don’t fly under a mode C veil) can be supported and it also means the base is trusting their equipment for the aircraft position rather than trusting an aircraft that potentially doesn’t have an SBAS GPS on board.
Year round aviation access to Antartica. Well Done! Every step towards McMurdo becoming a normal city despite its location seems like such an incredible accomplishment. Can this work at pole station too? I realize there's a lot of other considerations landing there in the winter (fuel freeze temp?) but the less isolated it becomes, the more science we can get.
I bet it's "quite exciting" to be a pilot trying to fly at the pole doing anything apart from flying straight and level right past.
Your longitude readout becomes useless as the lines of longitude converge. Your GPS altitude becomes wildly inaccurate because the orbital inclinations of the constellation means they never get above 45 degrees or so from the horizon. Your compass is pretty much trying to point straight down (and at the magnetic pole which is some way apart from the rotational axis of the earth pole).
And it's cold, likely very bad weather, the landscape make orienting yourself and even seeing upcoming mountains challenging, and you are a long long way from a safe landing spot and even further from any realistic help.
* How to Operate an Airport in Antarctica (also via flightradar24.com): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26340384 (68 comments)
* Nuclear Power at McMurdo Station, Antarctica: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27549484 (192 comments)
And perhaps my favorite blog, brr.fyi makes frequent appearances here. An example:
* South Pole Water Infrastructure: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40615530 (63 comments)
For all Antarctica posts: https://brr.fyi/tags#south-pole
Wow that’s badass. It’s tempting to argue that a GPS based RNAV approach could have similar performance but this has several advantages: The ground based equipment dictates approach path with no updates to onboard approach databases on aircraft needed. RNAV can’t do curved approaches on a glide slope as far as I know. ILS minimums are generally slightly lower than LPV which is the RNAV approach type with lowest minim…
That said, it’s always nice to have a ground-based alternative approach. I wonder if they have sustained issues with GPS this far south.