User manual

Antarctica Vol. 1 - British Rothera and Beyond
Aerosoft GmbH 2021
20 21
English
rugged and lighter landing gear, which has not any associated
problems of the hydraulically operated skis springing a leak.
Once an aircraft has landed, the pilot transmits this to home base
along with a time of next communication so that the flight follower
will know when to expect the next call and the aircraft may then be
shut down.
If the HF radios are not readable due to static, then the same reports
can be made by satellite phone to the Rothera operations tower via
the normal phone lines.
Sledge parties rely for their very survival on HF radios. Their very first
task when dropped off by aircraft and before it leaves is for the field
team to set up the radio and establish radio communications, as this
is the only way the team can communicate with home base and
summon assistance in an emergency or to request more supplies or a
pickup by aircraft.
The Pilot will not leave the team until he is satisfied that they can
communicate correctly with home base.The position reports are
usually by reference to pre-designated waypoints or else by actual
reference to GPS latitudes and longitudes, enabling a precise location
to be found.
Each international base has its own communication frequency as
stated in the AFIM (Antarctic Flight Information Manual), a published
document by agreement with all member states that have a claim to
sectors of Antarctica.
Most bases respect the use of English, the internationally agreed
language, but not all adhere to it, depending on the ability and
competence of the radio operator to speak in English.
Requests by pilots for a runway report or weather can be quite
subjective and open to interpretation as some ground radio operators
have very little formal training in aviation weather reporting. In fact
this author flew one individual to a forward supply depot, at short
notice, where he was to spend a few weeks manning the radios and
carrying out resupply tasks and making weather observations.
When asked what training he had received the individual was
surprised to hear of his forthcoming duties and replied that he had
had „no training“ at all. It then followed a brief crash course in
meteorology and weather observation reporting for the remaining
duration of the flight.
TIBA - Traffic Information Broadcasts by Aircraft -
126.90
This is exactly as it sounds and is used primarily as a listening frequen-
cy on which pilots monitor other pilot‘s transmissions giving position
reports and more importantly any weather conditions or reports on
the surface condition (i.e. soft snow or hard polished slippery ice)
which may be of interest. Fuel states may also be transmitted such as
numbers of fuel drums remaining, if re-fuelling is to take place on
arrival.
The frequency is generally used as a chat frequency between pilots
(reports can be made of icing conditions in flight) but respect is made
also so that it is not cluttered up with irrelevant chatter when another
aircraft may need it for transmitting some important information.
The other frequency which is monitored is 121.5 MHz - the internati-
onal distress frequency. No transmissions may be made on this except
for an emergency situation.
To summarise, VHF radios are used for aircraft comms close to base
and HF radios are used further away. Satellite phones are used when
the VHF and HF radios are unusable for whatever reason. And they
may make calls anywhere across the world.