South from Ascension

After two hours on the ground at Ascension it’s time to continue Southbound. From an aviation perspective the route is quite interesting. Ascension Island is not a busy airport with only 6 scheduled flights per week and there is only one Air Traffic Controller. Apparently he has a secondary radio in his house just in case an unexpected aircraft turns up. As the controller can only work a set number of hours each day by law flights have to be scheduled with this in mind.

Unusually the handover from Ascension tower is direct to the Atlántico FIR on HF. There are not many places in the world where the tower hands over direct to HF. The South Atlantic Ocean is empty from an aviation point of view and there are no airways to fly down so the flight plan is just made up of latitude and longitude points. For those that are interested this time it was 10S16W 15S19W 20S22W 25S26W 30S30W 35S35W 40S40W 45S46W 50S43W, straight down the middle of the ocean. Even though the aircraft broadcasts position reports from time to time there is no radar coverage so if the aircraft goes missing I don’t suppose it will ever be found.

Once south of Brazilian airspace Atlántico FIR hand you over to Montevideo FIR, again on HF and then Ezeiza FIR. The latter is run by the Argentina and they refuse to answer any radio calls from flights to the Falklands so you fly “blind” keeping a listening watch on the frequency. At the appropriate point you change to the Commodores FIR who, also being Argentinean refuses to communicate with the flight. Just over seven hours after leaving Ascension, and about 150 miles from the RAF Mount Pleasant contact is made with “Island Radar” and the decent is started.

The RAF has Euro fighter “typhoons” based at Mount Pleasant and they will often come out for a practice intercept on the inbound aircraft. This gives an opportunity for some great air to air photography. As yet it has not happened to me so no photos.

Then it’s onto the final approach to landing which is over Port Stanley

Its not a large place and one day I hope to get to see it from the ground.



I was sat next to a member of 2 Para who fought in the 1982 war, it was his first time back to the islands for 29 years. It was a privilege to listen to him talk about his experiences. The discussion on this occasion was about the long term psychological effects of warfare, he told me that a smell or a noise could bring it straight back to him even after all this time. He understandably expected it to be very emotional when he visited the cemetery in San Carlos to see the graves of his friends. As a civilian its after conversations like this that you begin to realize what different life experiences we have had and how brave soldiers are.

Ascension island ..... South Atlantic bound

It’s been a bit busy with the last couple of weeks being in the order of 75 hours work each so I have fallen behind on the blog. Last week was one of my more interesting journeys. The Falkland Islands

This was to be my third visit to the islands; unfortunately though I never get long there, the journey starts at RAF Brize Norton for a late night departure to Ascension Island. The flight takes just short of 9 hours as the flight plan requires an oceanic route around the coast of Africa because the MOD do not allow flights over Western Sahara, apparently its considered a terrorist nation. Shortly after 7AM the island comes into view. It’s not a big island as an be seen by the photograph below which was taken from about 7 miles out

This time the two hour fuel stop was spent around the aircraft but one occasion I have been taken on brief tour of the island. There are about 800 people living on Ascension, all of who are contractors of the various agencies with operations there, no one has a right of residency. It’s a volcanic island with a few roads and one real community Georgetown which is the capital. Even with no residents somehow it still manages to have a Government and a litter bin with the logo "keep Ascension island tidy". It feels good to be a taxpayer.

There is no GSM signal, limited phone lines and a mediocre internet service with restrictions on the amount of time an individual can be on line each day, 20 minutes I believe. Despite all this I understand it’s a popular posting. Due to its remoteness the fishing and Diving is supposed to be great and the Flora and Fauna and Animals Green Mountain are untouched. And the animals are not frightened of Humans and will apparently come very close to you. One day I might get to spend a few days there to see for myself.