aNATomy of a Polar Flight

October 21, 2022
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aNATomy of a Polar Flight

Taking Santa's Shortcut!

Sometimes, the shortest distance between two points is over the Arctic. Why is that, and what’s involved?

Let’s explore!

Eh…explore what’s involved, I mean, not explore the Arctic!

Speaking of exploring, however, crossing over the Poles is a bit of an adventurous proposition. There’s issues with coverage of all manner of communication and navigation devices, and needless to say, Santa doesn’t have many backup emergency landing strips at his disposal!

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. On a sphere, the shortest distance between two points is called a Great Circle. So, planes tend to like to fly a Great Circle Route to get to their destination.

Since gobs of us on Planet Earth live mostly in the Northern Hemisphere, it sometimes makes sense to fly Over to Point B, rather than Around to Point B.

For example, in our recent “A Passage to India” series, if we could fly over the Polar region—and thus through Russian and Chinese airspace (currently blocked at the moment due to Ukraine war politics)—we’d save nearly 2 hours enroute!

aNATomy of a Polar Flight

Aviating Challenges

Basically, any flights above 78°N Latitude is considered a “Polar flight.” Not only is it extremely cold way up there, it’s extremely remote, as well. And, therein lies our challenges…

Remember our original “aNATomy of a NAT Flight” post, as well as our Of ETOPS, NATs and SLOP post? We discussed the challenges of ETOPS (“Extended-range Twin-engine Operations Performance”—or, as we like to call it, “Engines Turn or Passengers Swim!”)

Well, this not only applies to flying over vast bodies of water, but also vast bodies of ice as well—basically any massive amount of real estate without a “suitable airport.”

In fact, our Polar Route pushes the limits of these capabilities, requiring even higher parameters in order to be legal. (Basically, the longer the approved ETOPS range, the more stringent the requirements—for plane, pilots and onboard safety equipment.)

Navigating Challenges

Due to simple orbital mechanics, it’s quite a challenge to get reliable GPS coverage in the high latitudes, above +78°N or so.

What’s more, that well-known “Magnetic North” that all of our compasses conveniently point to—whether a simple magnet, our smartphone, or wristwatch—becomes unreliable as well.

Basically, we have to switch our onboard compass from “Magnetic North” to “True North.” This follows the established lat/long grid patterns via our onboard inertial navigation systems. While less accurate, it should be enough to safely navigate to “the other side” of this polar inop window.

Communicating Challenges

In addition to our Nav challenges, we’re gonna be on our own for a bit, as far as talking to Mother Earth.

VHF, HF, ACARS, ADs-B, all will be challenged by the polar routes. We’ll long be out of VHF range, HF may be sporadically available, but in essence we’re on our own. Moreover, we’ll be crossing into foreign territories of other sovereign nations as we do.

For all these reasons, it’s doubly crucial that we keep to our filed flight plan, hitting our Lat/Long waypoints on time, in order to come out the other side as predicted.

We don’t want any international incidents!

Got Enough of the Great White North? Thought Not!

There I Wuz! Adventures From 3 Decades in the Sky—Volume 1 has an entire section of true Alaska Bush Flying tales, written by Cap’n Aux, as well as other pilots who lived their own Alaska adventures!

Check 'em Out Today!

aNATomy of a Polar Flight

Emergency Gear

If the Titanic taught us anything, it’s that, no matter the mode of transport, we’d better carry enough emergency equipment for all on board.

That’s why we have those lovely life vests conveniently located under your passenger seat, and, life rafts built into the emergency slides.

Again above 78°, we’ll need extreme cold weather gear as well. Unfortunately, limits on load will confine us only to a few onboard, rather than for all of us (so bring your parka!).

But, hopefully, this would be enough for our designated sucker to get outside and “go for help.”

In theory, at least!

Conclusion

Just like anything in aviation, if we put enough planning into it, we can safely navigate all over this lovely globe of ours.

While Polar Routes come with their own challenges, airlines are more than prepared to safely whisk you to Point B, right over Santa’s digs.

Bon Voyage!

aNATomy of a Polar Flight

Before Christmas Eve Comes Hallow's Eve

Since, this month, evil spirits haunt us rather than Yuletide spirits, let’s wrap up with a throwback to one of my favorite old “Word on the Ramp” episodes—Special Halloween Edition!

aNATomy of a Polar Flight

Hemisphere Dancing Report

The gorgeous “Double Crescent City” of Baku, Azerbaijan!

Recently, while flying one of my DEL (Delhi, India) trips, we got an amazing view of Baku. Sandwiched between Russia and Iran on the Caspian Sea, Baku is the “lowest-lying capital in the world,” at an altitude of -28 meters!

Baku is known for its contribution to the oil industry, as one can see from these “Waterworld”-like facilities, located about 60 miles off its coast. The town, built on stilts in the Caspian, even has a name: Oil Rocks.

So many wonders in this world!

Last Dance with the Himalayas

As of this writing, I’m deadheading back from my most recent JFK-DEL flight. This time, I noticed that, during our flight over the Himalayas inbound to Delhi, the waning Autumn sun is already ducking below the horizon by the time we overfly the gorgeous, massive monoliths.

So, here’s one last glimpse at those mighty rocks before the winter night takes over.