Australian Antarctic Division Flies Regularly to the Antarctic

07/07/2007 Skytraders VH-VHD

This aircraft is leased to the Australian Antarctic Division for flights from Hobart, Tasmania to Wilkins Ice Runway, 70km inland from Casey Station Antarctica.

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Film Cameras

I list here some most used and famous film cameras. The Arriflex 35 II is one of the most significant motion picture cameras of all time.

The introduction of the Arriflex 35 took place in 1937 at the Leipzig Trade Fair in Germany. It was originally designed as a hand-held newsreel camera. It had the sad task of recording the rise and fall of Hitler’s regime: the Axis pacts, the invasion of France, the Russian disaster, Musolini’s death and the Nuremberg trials. Many World War II documentaries include much German material shot with Arriflexes.

The 35IIC has no internal electronics (except for optional items such as pilotone generators). The motor mounts to the bottom of the camera and can be used as a handgrip. ARRI supplied either constant speed (24 or 25 fps) or variable speed DC motors. The motors were very simple with no control electronics.

The 35 II was one of the very few 35mm reflex hand-held cameras available at the time. As new filmmaking styles emerged in the 1950’s and 1960’s, the 35 II became even more popular. The camera was used extensively by all “New Wave” filmmakers around the world, freeing them from being tied down with heavy studio cameras such as the Mitchell BNCR, which although they were excellent cameras, required two men to lift, making handheld filming impossible.

BNCR is a lens mount developed by Mitchell for use with their REFLEX 35 mm movie cameras.It was an update of the BNC mount done to accommodate the mirror in the new reflex cameras. BNC mount lenses cannot be used in reflex Mitchell cameras as they will hit and damage the mirror! The BNC mount may also be referred to as BNC, NC, or Mitchell standard mount. The full abbreviation stands for "Blimped News Camera Reflex", which meant that it was a 35 mm camera intended for news reporting, and included a blimped housing to reduce noise and a reflex shutter to allow the camera operator to view the action through the lens while filming.

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Antarctic Runways

Here is a partial list of airfields on Antarctica measured from the South Pole. Location codes 1-14 of 14 near location NZSP (90°00'00"S 0°00'00"E) NZSP Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station [Jack F. Paulus Skiway], AQ:

• Miles km To ICAO Name
  
• 672 mi 1081 km W SCPZ Antartica (Antarctica) [Patriot Hills], CL
  
• 835 mi 1344 km S NZPG McMurdo Station [Pegasus Field], Ross Island, AQ
  
• 842 mi 1355 km S NZWD McMurdo Station [Williams Field], AQ
  
• 843 mi 1356 km S NZIR McMurdo Station [Ice Runway], Ross Island, AQ
  
• 1051 mi 1692 km W GC0021 Sky-Blu [Sky Blu Logistics Facility], Eastern Ellsworth Land, AQ
  
• 1556 mi 2504 km W AAXX Rothera Point, Adelaide Island, AQ
  
• 1617 mi 2602 km E GC0020 Wilkins Runway (Casey), Upper Peterson Glacier, AQ
  
• 1747 mi 2811 km NW SCBG Base Antarctica [Presidente Gabriel Gonzalez Videla], CL
  
• 1750 mi 2817 km NW GC0012 Palmer Station, Anvers Island, AQ
  
• 1787 mi 2876 km NW SAWB Base Marambio, Seymour Island, AQ
  
• 1851 mi 2978 km NW SCBO Base Antarctica [Bernado O'Higgins], CL
  
• 1908 mi 3070 km NW SCBP Base Antarctica [Arturo Prat], Greenwich Island, CL
  
• 1929 mi 3104 km NW SCRM Teniente Rodolfo Marsh Martin, King George Island, AQ
  

There is a better list available about runways near the SP in this link. The above list excludes for example:

Troll Airfield AQ-0002, Troll Station, Antarctica, 1083 nm N (2006 km, 1246 miles)
Novolazarevskaya Station AQ-0001, Queen Maud Land, Antarctica, 1150 nm NNE (2129 km, 1323 miles)

and several others.

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Trucking at the South Pole

I think here are the key words to success at the Antarctic. Have lot of money and fuel. Use pretested and redundant systems (4 trucks). Do not take any risks. Do it when the weather is mildests.

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Armand Denis

An interesting person Armand Denis was famous of his many films about Africa.

Armand and Michaela Denis

Here is one of them which can bee watched.

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Old Picture of a Man Fishing on the Ice

The person in this B/W picture is unknown. It is taken sometime in the beginning of the 20th century.

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Some Famous CAD Programmers

I was investigating the origins of the AutoCAD program and discovered some interesting persons and blogs which might entertain you.


John Walker (programmer, [not the terrorist **1])
- his blog
- Fourmilab


Michael Riddle (programmer)
- his blog
- COFES: Congress On the Future of Engineering Software
- Digibarn Computer Museum
- FastCAD  and EasyCAD



(**1) It is funny that there is a terrorist with the name John Walker [Lindh] also.

I will continue this list when I find some more interesting software figures in the Internet.

Here are some photos from John Walker's public domain collection.

 

 

 Some building in Lignieres 2009

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