[MrMichael]

I have heard from a friend that test flights using an Embraer aircraft were conducted end of November beginning of December and were successful. Embraer seem to have funded these tests, I guess on the basis that their planes charachteristics are more suited to the challenging conditions than Airbus.

[Tom Otley]

And more background here

Aid department ‘failed’ taxpayers over St Helena airport that can’t take planes because of wind

and on the test flight here (cracking photo of the airport as well)

Further St Helena Test Flights Completed

[JohnHarper]

I believe the earlier trials were with a Comair Boeing 737 rather than an Airbus.

[FDOS_UK]

John is right about the aircraft type.

Reading the article, it appears that they are using the runway that is not affected by windshear, but which means accepting a tailwind component.

I imagine that an E195 is rather lighter than a 738 and thus requires less LDA (landing distance available), allowing it to safely use a runway that would not be within limits for a 738 (or A320). Tailwinds are factored into performance calculations – if you look at the bottom of page 6 on the document here you will see how to do it for a light aircraft.

http://publicapps.caa.co.uk/docs/33/20130121SSL07.pdf

For the sake of argument, let’s assume that St Helena has 1850 metres of runway available; to operate there an aircraft must be able to land in 1293 metres or less.

A lighter aircraft, that can approach at a lower speed will require less LDA and I’m told that the 738 is quite ‘hot’ in terms of final approach speed.

So, good luck with the E195, I hope it works out for the islanders, who must have been frustrated by the events to date.

[openfly]

Errrr…the check flights were on an RJ85!!
It’s amazing how rumours get exagerated…..

[MrMichael]

Embraer funding this themselves they clearly see sales in it. Could it be that if the Embraer (of whatever type) were to make a success of this it could boost their sales where they otherwise are not getting getting them. Places like Madeira where conditions are challenging and only last week meant flights diverted to the Portuguese mainland. For an Airline such as TAP and other regulars to such places it must be attractive.

[FDOS_UK]

[quote quote=781591]Errrr…the check flights were on an RJ85!!
It’s amazing how rumours get exagerated…..

[/quote]

The St Helena Project confirms an E195.

http://www.sainthelenaaccess.com/news/

Her’s a picture of the aircraft landing.

I notice that the RAF are sending a C130J to conduct further trials tomorrow.

There was an RJ100 down there, in October.

[FDOS_UK]

MrMichael

The problems at Madeira, are more about maintaining a stable landing profile in gusty crosswinds – rather than runway length, so not sure if the E195 would help, unfortunately.

Sometimes the diversions are to Porto Santo and then an uncomfortable ferry crossing follows – yuck.

[openfly]

Apologies…I was unaware of this flight.

[SimonS1]

I wasn’t aware there had ever been an RJ85 at St Helena.

[FDOS_UK]

There was an RJ100 there recently

Ex Swiss, by the look of the livery.

[ImissConcorde]

Looks like it’s SA Airlink rather than Comair operating.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/st-helena-first-commercial-plane-remote-british-territory-south-africa-a8001061.html

[SimonS1]

For anyone following this there is an interesting documentary on YouTube about the arrival of the airport and the difference (or not) that it has made to St Helena.

Good to see that around the turn of the year Airlink has had some midweek direct flights from Cape Town too.

1 user thanked author for this post.

capetonianm

[capetonianm]

Thank you Simon, I had a brief look at that earlier and will make the time to watch it in full later. It looks both interesting and well made.

[openfly]

The CPT service is only short-lived sadly…very seasonal, until mid Feb. But it will give the authorities a good idea of the requirement for the second service. For a short period, it is possible to fly JNB-HLE on a sat and return HLE-CPT on a tue….something I would love to do. There is another problem, apart from the cost of the flights, is the lack of accommodation on the island. There are only a total of about 200 beds available apparently. Now that flights are proving to be viable maybe the UK government will be forthcoming with cheap loans for hotac.
Good luck to the Saints….

[Author]

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