The SAAF Forum

Just heard.....
Tonight (Thurs 19th) the Ship Society in Cape Town is hosting an illustrated talk by (Dr?) John Cooper, from the Sir Percy Fitzpatrick institute and the unusual subject is - Fixed wing aircraft to the sub Antarctic Islands, 1911 to 2011. The public are welcome, R15 includes coffee or tea, for details phone Philip 021 6834589.

Shouldn't take long - if one discounts the Falklands there are very, very few sub-Antarctic islands having airstrips!

On the ball hey ?

You'll never know for sure - unless you go ! How many 2km landing strips have been cut out of the ice?

You go and come tell us tomorrow. Most of these Islands are characterised by almost continuously howling gales and torrential rain. When it does not rain it snows. No real ice fields on any of them one could make a runway out of. The topology does not allow it. For years there has been a move afoot to make a runway on Marion. Dunno how far that has progressed. Most have no population other than a few scientists which makes it hard to budget a squillion bucks to build them an airport.
I was just watching a video on Crozet Islands - and it is claimed, in the video, that winds of over 100 km/h blow 300 days a year. They do not want tourists on any of them particularly as the ecosystems are a little too delicate to cope with lots of rubber-necking sightseers trampling all over the Kerguelen cabbage, Besides disinfecting large batches of arriving tourists is a pain,

C'mon Doug - I've been waiting with bated breath for the answer to this one - tell us you went!

Googled every sub-Antarctic island and no airstrips on any of them that they admitted to.
Incredibly few of them actually - the Pacific only has two, maybe three at a stretch. (There's no real generally accepted definition - south of 45 degrees seems to be the cutoff). Indian ocean has only four. (or four groups) Bit more in the Atlantic - most sort of clustered around the Falklands area.

No Eugene...your argument was so convincing - I gave it a miss. Actually I've been sitting on a game farm with my camera.... a different focus for the last couple of days. So we will never know....

I considered going but as the place here was like the fiery furnace that particular day I desisted.
I suppose we could always get hold of the ships guys and ask them?

Have you guys found anything out on this subject?

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I tried phoning the number a couple of times - got no reply. Gave up and it slipped what laughingly passes for my mind.

Aah Eugene, you know the old saying: "Of all the things I have lost, I miss my mind the most"

The one good thing about Alzheimer's is that you can hide your own easter eggs,

2km long runways? Pah

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Mary River, Nunavut on Baffin Island - on what is alleged to be an airstrip, Mary River Aerodrome. Looks more like a bog. And like all those Canadian bush aircraft the Twin Otter is built like a tank and can take what other aeroplanes would throw their hands up in horror about.