DAY 15, LEG 73 - Buenos Aires to Mount Pleasant
Whilst we refuel, the weather improves slightly in Buenos Aires and will allow us some good views of the city on departure. This leg takes us to the Falkland Islands, off the coast of Argentina. The claim to these islands has been fought over by the United Kingdom and Argentina for decades and a vote will be held amongst the residents of the islands to decide finally whether they wish to remain part of the UK or whether ownership should be transferred to Argentina. There are two main airports on the Falkland Islands and our destination is RAF Mount Pleasant. On arrival we will spend the night on the Falkland Islands in order to fly to Antarctica the following day in good time to make it back to the mainland again and up to Santiago, Chile, where the aircraft will have maintenance checks done and an auxiliary fuel tank fitted to allow the crossing of the Pacific Ocean.
Parked at Jorge Newbery next to a SOL Airways Saab 340.
Take off in a crosswind.
Climbing out over Buenos Aires.
Overhead Ezeiza International Airport.
Crusing over north-eastern Argentina. We ask for the latest weather in the Falklands from ATC and they inform us the wind is currently 300/24kt. The runway direction is roughly 280 degrees so at the moment, does not present any problem.
Cruising over the South Atlantic.
First sight of the Falkland Islands. The latest wind at Mount Pleasant is 320/32 gusting up to 46kts! Slightly more of a crosswind than we were expecting and should produce a very low groundspeed on approach.
Joining the circuit at RAF Mount Pleasant.
Final runway 28 at RAF Mount Pleasant. Thanks to the strong winds, our groundspeed is just 81kts!
SABE - EGYP stats
Take off time: 1037
Landing time: 1451
Flight time: 04:14
Fuel used: 1720kgs / 3784lbs
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