The Rumdoodle Skiway has been activated for flying in the 2012 summer. Summer expeditioners from Davis are flying to Mawson so they can return to Australia on V4 at the end of February. The trip from Davis is in a chartered BT-67 aircraft (a modified DC3). However, before passenger flights can begin the skiway has to be tested by a ‘proving flight’. This was undertaken on Tuesday 31st of January — Davis to Mawson and return.
The BT67 aircraft chartered for the delivery of passengers to Mawson is a DC3 that has been seriously modified for polar use. Basler has modified the aircraft for a Canadian charter company that the AAD has used over recent years for intra-continental flights between Australian Antarctic bases and field outposts.
At the beginning of the season the Canadian charter company fly their aircraft through the US and South America and then across the Antarctic Peninsular to begin charter work for Australia and other nations.
What is required to activate the skiway? The Rumdoodle Skiway is on the glacier that crawls past the Masson ranges near Rumdoodle. The glacier has been used since the early fifties as a landing ground, but from year to year the surface of the glacier is subject to wind scouring, melt, snow accumulation and ablation. So before it can be used in the summer months its surface is checked. If satisfactory the skiway is deemed suitable for aircraft.
Prior to any flights the skiway is prepared. That means the runway needs to be marked out, a windsock installed, a parking area defined and a ground crew ready at the airfield. Then an aircraft will do a test flight with a landing. If all is well the skiway is open for flights. The skiway is in Antarctica however, so airfield set up takes place just prior to each flight otherwise everything would blow away in the next blizzard.
So on the morning of the 31st January five of us with two Haggs and emergency response equipment went to Rumdoodle to set up the skiway for the proving flight. One crew (Tim, Lisa, Cotty and Lloyd) laid out coloured bags, evenly spaced along both sides of the surveyed runway length of 1500m and set up a windsock. The other team (Wilko and Dave) spread a small drift of accumulated snow from the skiway and did regular weather observations so that the incoming aircraft knew the weather conditions on the ground.
The DC3 landed on schedule, unloaded an aviation ground support person (Matt), some light cargo and back-loaded some packages, and in fifteen minutes was on its way back to Davis.
We await the next weather window that will allow the passengers to make their journey from Davis to Mawson.
David Morrison