The Aviation section supports the AAD’s objectives and science in Antarctica through both the Wilkins Aerodrome and the Casey Skiway, by facilitating the transportation of personnel and equipment using both helicopters and fixed wing aircraft.
As the ‘flying season’ is coming to an end, this past week or so has seen a flurry of activity as we worked to bring personnel back from the Million Year Ice Core (MYIC) project, along with personnel, equipment and infrastructure from the Denman Terrestrial Campaign (DTC) – Bunger Hills.
In total the cargo moved from DTC amounted to some 61 tonnes! This is by no means an easy feat, as those familiar with air travel may have seen ground crews moving cargo with heavy machinery across concrete aprons and runways. However, work in Antarctica is quite a challenge at times and is often achieved through manual loading and unloading in often windy, snowy or icy conditions using exceptional teamwork by everyone involved.
Aviation Ground Support Officers (AGSO’s) were based at DTC to provide essential support to the campaign and the AAD’s aviation service providers through aeronautical weather observations, communications, manifesting cargo, refuelling, loading and unloading and emergency response, to name a few.
The AGSO team at the Casey Skiway provided the same support, along with the skiway, taxiway and apron preparation, as the station at Casey provides a central location for the movement of cargo back to Australia either via the Wilkins Aerodrome or via the AAD’s ship Nyuina.
The team at Wilkins have been working tirelessly to ensure the runway meets strict landing and take-off requirements for our A319 and C17 fixed wing aircraft, amongst other tasks. At the time of writing this newsletter we saw our first A319 landing for 2025 that has allowed 38 expeditioners to return to Australia.
Also at this time, we’ve just concluded our helicopter operations for the season with our colleagues from helicopter resources preparing for departure in the coming days.
One of the final flights was with Dr Sarah Thompson and her ground penetrating radar, overflying crevasses as part of her tremendous science research.
Meanwhile our colleagues from Kenn Borek Aviation who provide our Intra-continental aircraft have headed back home to Canada via a long trip across Antarctica, including the South Pole and up through South America. As with all aviation activities, there’s a fair bit of maintenance that needs to take place, some of which can be challenging in Antarctica.
As our planes have departed Casey and our helicopters are soon to depart for Wilkins Aerodrome this week, we have now moved into the next phase of our program where we pack up all the infrastructure at the Skiway and prepare it for winter.
In the meantime, our team at Wilkins Aerodrome are working assiduously to ensure all the summer expeditioners can return to Australia and our winter expeditioners can receive much awaited gifts and mail from their loved ones.
In closing, the Aviation section would like to thank everyone in Antarctica and Australia who has assisted in making this season an aviation success. It’s hard to name everyone and every section, department, or organisation, however you know who you are, so thank you!
