Mon 20 Nov '06 - Punta Arenas - The Waiting Game....
We didn't get away this morning due to high winds at Patriot Hills & we're now on hourly standby.
The wind at Patriot is both friend & foe. Friendly in that it is only because of the high Katabatic winds that sweep down off the mountains that these aircraft can land at all. In doing so the wind blows all the snow away & the ground is left as an undulating sheer blue-ice strip. But the only available 5 km strip of this surface also means that the aircraft have to land in a cross wind which they can't do if the winds are too strong. ALE have to watch the winds & get a reasonably clear window to make the landing & of course when we take off we're not landing for 5 hrs so it's about trying to predict the trends. They also simply can't afford to take any chances because apart from the dangers involved the costs of aborting a flight & turning back is huge. These flights cost about $350k to operate so it is a consideration.
So we wait.....
The seafood & steaks here are fantastic & Punta itself is OK. You wouldn't want to spend your holidays here because this is summer & about as good as it gets. They had snow last week & the wind never stops blowing & I mean never.
Apart from that not much to report so I'll sign off.
The wind at Patriot is both friend & foe. Friendly in that it is only because of the high Katabatic winds that sweep down off the mountains that these aircraft can land at all. In doing so the wind blows all the snow away & the ground is left as an undulating sheer blue-ice strip. But the only available 5 km strip of this surface also means that the aircraft have to land in a cross wind which they can't do if the winds are too strong. ALE have to watch the winds & get a reasonably clear window to make the landing & of course when we take off we're not landing for 5 hrs so it's about trying to predict the trends. They also simply can't afford to take any chances because apart from the dangers involved the costs of aborting a flight & turning back is huge. These flights cost about $350k to operate so it is a consideration.
So we wait.....
The seafood & steaks here are fantastic & Punta itself is OK. You wouldn't want to spend your holidays here because this is summer & about as good as it gets. They had snow last week & the wind never stops blowing & I mean never.
Apart from that not much to report so I'll sign off.
posted by Kevin Dempsey at
4:10 PM
