Anyone flown to Easter Island?

[Nocturnal1]

Hey All...I've got an upcoming flight to Easter Island (SCIP) and was wonder if anyone's been. They've got some interesting procedures, like the "point-of-no-return" and was looking for some insights.

Thanks

 

[MDPilot]

Flew there in 1990 from Panama, spent 4 days there. The only pavement on the island is the runway and ramp, a old broken down Jeep costs $25 to rent from the guy at the gas station, you can see all there is to see in one day, and there is plenty of fresh fish to eat. What else do you want to know?

 

[typhoonpilot]

Easter Island would fall into the category of remote destination. In other words there isn't an alternate within a reasonable distance that you could carry fuel for. Once you pass the so called " point of no return " you no longer have enough fuel to return to a suitable airport and are commited to continue to Easter Island. Point of no return is an older term though, the newer one is Equal Time Point. This is the point in the flight that you are an equal time to continue to the destination or return to the last suitable enroute airfield. The subtle difference is that you would still have some holding fuel upon arrival over your destination. In fact, for remote destinations it would be wise to have at least two hours worth of holding fuel at normal cruise consumption upon arrival.

Common sense dictates that you would want a very good weather forecast for your destination before undertaking a flight like that, unless of course you can carry roundtrip fuel.

That would be a very fun and interesting trip. Someplace I have always wanted to go. Good luck.


Typhoonpilot

 

[Nocturnal1]

Thanks

Just wanted to say thanks to MD80pilot and typhoon pilot for their words. Incidently, I'm flying a -707 down there so thankfully we'll leave LAX with lots of gas. The point of no return is in addition to the typical ETP's we all know so well. In this case, once you pass your point of no return the airspace is closed to all traffic until you're on the ground. Can make departure planning kinda interesting because it can be 1-2 hours after the announcement. Scheduled traffic (Lan Chile) takes priority. I'll try to post some pictures when I get back.

Regards and happy trails.