Hello Fly 801 took off from Cape City, South Africa on Tuesday, November 2.

Captain Carlos Mirpuri sets foot on Antarctica.

Marc Bow/Hi Fly

The crew of Hi Fly 801 (and its return excursion to Cape City, Hello Fly 802) was led by Captain Carlos Mirpuri, who is also Hi Fly’s vice president.

Entirely, the spherical trip flights moreover the quick prevent in Antarctica to unload took about 3 several hours and covered 2,500 nautical miles.

The blue-ice runway at the Wolf’s Fang property is selected a C Amount airport, inspite of not technically getting an airport. That usually means that only highly specialized crew can fly there because of to demanding conditions.

“The cooler it is the much better,” Mipuri defined in his captain’s log.

“Grooving is carved along the runway by specific machines, and after cleaning and carving we get an suitable braking coefficient the runway remaining 3,000 meters extended, landing and stopping an A340 that major on that airfield would not be a issue.”

While the blue ice is beautiful, it can also be regarding for pilots for the reason that of its glare.

Mipuri additional: “The reflection is great, and right eyewear will help you adjust your eyes involving the outdoors perspective and the instrumentation. The non-traveling pilot has an important part in producing the common as well as excess callouts, particularly in the late phases of the approach.”

Hello Fly 801 approaches the ice runway.

Marc Bow/Hi Fly

The initial recorded flight to Antarctica was a Lockheed Vega 1 monoplane in 1928, piloted by George Hubert Wilkins, an Australian navy pilot and explorer. He took off from Deception Island in the South Shetland Islands. The undertaking was funded by William…