In the same week that the Royal Mail Ship returned to its base in the UK, to signal an end to mail and other services to the remote island of St Helena after a great number of years, watch this BBC video clip showing the news £285 million airport presenting quite a challenge to the test flight.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/video_and_audio/headlines/36493860

Well from what I heard it has been delayed indefinitely now because they say it is too dangerous for airliners to land there.

Seems a bit daft to build the airport up completely and not find out until they actually fly a plane there to test it out to realise that there is going to be windshear.

 

But anyway, will see what happens and the mail ship is going to have to carry on for a while now.

Build massive windfarms strategically placed near the airport to take all the energy from the prevailing winds...... 

 

Not sure the residents of the beautiful island would agree...

Took a look in Google Earth.  Imagery is a couple years old, still under construction.  That's quite a nasty place to try to build an airport.  We need this in FSX/P3d.

 

scott s.

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We need this in FSX/P3d.

 

scott s.

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Search for "FSX_St_Helena_Ascension_Tristan-da-Cunha" in the Avsim Library.

Hi.

 

The BBC are perennially pessimistic and somewhat sensationalist about such stories.

 

RMS St Helena's schedule is currently extended to 27th September. The ship's website has this news:

 

"Following certification of St Helena Airport on Tuesday 10 May 2016, all parties are working to overcome the challenges of wind shear identified by the first few flights into the Airport. This work includes the development of appropriate operational procedures needed to allow services to use the northern Runway (20), where wind shear has been identified, as well as options for using the southern Runway (02), where wind shear has not been identified.

 

While this work continues, we recognise there are St Helenians in Cape Town, the UK and Ascension who are ready to return to St Helena and do not have a confirmed means of doing so. Others will be planning journeys in the coming weeks.

 

SHG will therefore honour its commitment to maintain access by extending the service of the RMS as an interim measure and for a limited period until air services begin. This service will be for passengers and freight. The schedule can be viewed at: http://rms-st-helena.com/schedules-fares/ and bookings will be accepted from Monday 6 June 2016."

 

 

Concerning the airport, St Helena's governor, Lisa Phillips, posted this on the island's government website:

 

“Press reports in the UK  and elsewhere that describe St Helena Airport as being ‘scrapped’, ‘mothballed’ or ‘postponed indefinitely’ are incorrect.  The situation remains as in our last update.  This is that there are wind shear challenges on one runway (20, the northern approach) which means larger planes (eg. 737-800) cannot currently land safely.  We are collecting wind data which will allow larger planes to land on this runway, but this will take some time. 

 

“Wind shear is a factor at several airports around the world, including London City Airport, where safe landings happen every day. 

 

“In the meantime, we are working hard to identify an interim flight solution that can land on our second runway (02, from the south).  There is no wind shear on this second runway, but there is a tailwind.  We have identified aircraft types which can land in these conditions, and airlines that have such planes – and we are now exploring the specific availability of aircraft with these airlines. 

 

“The Airport is certified and open, as demonstrated by the emergency medevac flight last Saturday when we were able to fly a sick baby to Cape Town.

 

“Naturally, we will keep the public informed … as we have been doing.”

 

Best regards,

D

 

 

Great Update.Thanks.