Podcast: Flying Airliners, Business Jets And Vintage Aircraft In Antarctica

Any operation involving an aircraft is no easy feat, but flying at the bottom of the world brings its own set of unique challenges and triumphs, as our guest can attest to. Listen in to hear from Patrick Woodhead, a pilot and the CEO and founder of White Desert, a tourism company that charters multiple aircraft types between Cape Town, South Africa, and Antarctica, to discuss the unique operation of flying in what may be most hostile environment on Earth.

From flying Airbus and Gulfstream aircraft to a constantly monitored ice runway, to DC-3s landing at the geographic South Pole, hear about the logistics and planning that go into pulling off this unique flight operation.

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Rush Transcript

Matt Orloff:

Hello and welcome to the BCA podcast. I'm Matt Orloff, associate editor of Business Aviation at Aviation Week. And I'm here with Patrick Woodhead, who is the CEO and founder of White Desert. Now, if you don't know, White Desert is a tourism company operating in Antarctica. But Patrick jokes that he's actually an aviation company with tourism in Antarctica, but I'll let him take it away on that. Patrick, thank you so much for being here.

Patrick Woodhead:

Hey, nice to meet you, Matt.

Matt Orloff:

Likewise. So, before going into the crazy logistics of how you set up operations in Antarctica and what exactly you do there, can you describe your background real quick? Because I know you are a pilot, how you got into flying, aviation, before going into just the wild logistics and world records that you have down in Antarctica.

Patrick Woodhead:

Sure. Well, it all started back in 2005. So about 18 years ago, something like that. I did a ski to the South Pole. That was a 46-day ski pulling sleds from the edge of the continent to the pole. And it was a hell of an experience, but I actually enjoyed it, and we broke the world record for the fastest and youngest team to get to the pole.

And then a couple of years later, went back and did a full traverse of the Antarctic continent. So, it was on this traverse, which is like a 2,000-kilometer ski across Antarctica, it took 80 days and we were in the deep field of Antarctica. I kind of thought, "This is the most beautiful and incredible place, but no one's getting to see it apart from scientists and the odd polar explorer."

You could go to Antarctica on a cruise ship and many, many people do that, and they see the peninsula, but the deep field of Antarctica, the interior, was something that no one was seeing. So, I set up a company called White Desert and we tagged on the back of a Russian [inaudible 00:02:10] cargo plane that was flying into a place called [inaudible 00:02:13] and we basically started a few tents, a few plants, very, very simple.

And 18 years later, we now have an Airbus A340. We fly in a Gulfstream 550. We have two DC-3 Baslers, a twin [inaudible 00:02:30]. We have 100 staff. It's grown exponentially, and we do something like... I think we do more flying in Antarctica than anyone but the U.S. government, I think. So, it's a lot of fun.

Matt Orloff:

It sounds like an AV geek's paradise quite frankly. The amount of work that went into setting this up, I believe too you have an airfield that needs maintenance pretty much every single hour during season, is that right, as well? How did you do all of that? I mean, how did you organize that? How long did that take for you to make this a reality? It's extremely impressive.

Patrick Woodhead:

Well, thank you. It's been a lot of hard work by a lot of people and a lot of specialized people. But essentially, the main thing is we have a nice runway. So, it's a proper runway that is three kilometers long, so it's the size of London Heathrow basically or LAX.

We have these machines that basically imagine like furrowing, like plowing the ice, just very, very subtly like only until 10 millimeters deep. And this creates this material that is then onto the surface of the ice that freezes. And by doing this technique, we're able to create friction that's the equivalent of landing on a normal asphalt runway when it's wet.

So we get a breaking [inaudible 00:03:50] 0.4 [inaudible 00:03:52] which is literally like landing on a wet runway, a normal wet runway. People think of ice and they think they're going to slip everywhere and the plane's going to go everywhere. And actually, it's incredibly controlled.

We started off with the Gulfstream 550, with a little business jet and we did about 100 rotations with this aircraft, which is an exceptional aircraft to land in Antarctica and a great way to get into Antarctica. And then the last two years, we pioneered using a much larger four engine Airbus A340. And this is so we can basically take in tourists and scientists simultaneously and move a lot more people and a lot more cargo.

Matt Orloff:

So as far as pilot training goes, it doesn't sound like, if this is the equivalent of a wet runway at Heathrow or LAX, is just simulator training in an A340 or a Gulfstream enough to prepare one of these pilots to land in such a harsh environment, even though it doesn't sound like it's actually all that harsh when they arrive.

Patrick Woodhead:

I think if the runway is prepared correctly, then the actual mechanics of landing on our runway, you're right, are pretty straightforward. And the trick is, one, is the preparation of the runway because it's a dynamic surface, you've got to get it right. So, that's on us as the ground crew.

The second thing is not just about any pilot will tell you, you've got to get into the runway. That's all about the weather and that's all about the cross winds. That's all about the clouds. We've got unique challenges in Antarctica as well because it's very white.

So, when you get cloud, you get a serious white-out effect and navigation, coming in on your approach, is very, very difficult or can be very difficult.  I think we've got some pretty unique challenges to... The other one which is really interesting is that the scale of the place. When on the maps, you can see the lights to the runway. You know that the runway is basically sort of five kilometers away from a rock formation.

But what you think is five kilometers, you're going about 20 kilometers away because the scale of Antarctica is so huge, what you think is five kilometers is actually literally like... Yeah, the scale is completely off. So, part of that whole process is orientating the pilots as to where the runway is, how it correlates to the different topographical features. And that's a big challenge too.

Matt Orloff:

This is, I take it, obviously a VFR only approach with pretty forgiving visibility requirements, it sounds like, right?

Patrick Woodhead:

Yeah, we have weather windows that we operate in. So, we have a couple of dedicated forecasters who work day in day out [inaudible 00:06:36] next weather models, they have five different weather models that they interpret and correlate into one different sort of information set that they give us. And then, yeah, you've got to aim for the good weather and then be prepared that the weather can change and change quite dramatically.

So, that's why having a plane that has return range fuel is super important. It's 4,100 kilometers from Cape Town to Wolf's Fang Runway in Antarctica. We want return range so if we got the weather wrong, if suddenly fog came in or higher cross winds, the plane can circle and then come all the way back to Cape Town.

Matt Orloff:

And all flights originate in Cape Town, right?

Patrick Woodhead:

Absolutely. It's called the Mother City and it kind of seems to work for what we do as well. The flight itself though is incredible because you leave Cape Town, which is a beautiful African city. It's very sophisticated. It's warm and hot at night and you've got the sea air and it's dark and then suddenly you're flying south, you're the only plane flying south. There's all these other planes that are going north on flight tracker or flight radar. And then suddenly, you start to see Antarctica shimmer in the distance and it's 24-hour sunlight.

It's like a crystal, it's like a massive crystal on the horizon. And you start to see the icebergs originating from Antarctica about 200 kilometers out. So, you see these icebergs in the great Southern Ocean and then you come down and certainly on the Airbus, you're a commercial airline, so it feels like you're sitting in your business class seat, it feels like you should be looking out the window coming into Paris Charles de Gaulle or something. And instead, you look out and there's crazy looking surreal mountains and ice everywhere and you're landing on an ice runway.

Matt Orloff:

Absolutely incredible. You can't wipe the smile from my face. I wish everybody could see it on this podcast. It's just so cool and better yet, there is more to it. Once you arrive in Antarctica, the Gulfstreams, the A340, that's just the first part of the equation. You do actually go to the South Pole on some pretty interesting aircraft themselves that have quite a long history that many people can appreciate. You mind going into detail about that?

Patrick Woodhead:

Certainly. So, as you say, that's stage one of the journey, getting to Antarctica, which is quite a feat in itself. That's a five-hour journey from Cape Town to Wolf's Fang. Then, once you're at Wolf Fang, we've basically got two luxury camps. You can go into Echo, which is at the space themed camp. It looks like sort of like... the interior looks like the Millennium Falcon inside.

And then you've got, Whichaway, which is a slightly more older explorer camp. And from there, we then fly to the South Pole. This is the lowest point on Earth. This is 90 degrees south. And at the South Pole, there's no more east, south or west, which is a very cool phenomenon. The only direction on the entire [inaudible 00:09:33] is north, which is a very surreal thing to get your head around.

Now, the journey to the South Pole is seven hours, still 2400 kilometers, I think, to get to Pole.e use a plane called... It's the old DC-3 so the Dakota DC-3 from the 1940s, but it's undergone a Basler conversion. This is about an $11 million turbo prop new aviation conversion where they... I'm sorry, new engines, where they strip the entire plane.

I mean, I think the fuselage is longer, the wings are wider. Every single thing is stripped in that conversion process, but it looks like the old DC-3 flying around from Berlin Airlift.

And this thing flies us to the South Pole, which is a journey up into high altitude, to 9,000... well, 9,000, 10,000 feet. It's a lot colder up at the plateau so about minus 30, minus 25 degrees Celsius. And we have these incredible Canadian fly boys who fly VFR, they fly in the High Arctic in their summer and then our summer in Antarctica so they barely ever see the night sky. And these guys do a VFR flight all the way to the South Pole.

Matt Orloff:

What a life and this is for seven hours straight that they're doing this for, correct?

Patrick Woodhead:

Well, we have to refuel on the way. So on the way-

Matt Orloff:

[inaudible 00:10:54].

Patrick Woodhead:

... we've set up a camp which we call Camp Dixie and we have fuel there. Now, the journey of the fuel is almost exciting as the journey of the passengers.

Matt Orloff:

The logistics of the fuel itself, please elaborate.

Patrick Woodhead:

Well, the fuel is our lifeblood. And basically we're actually transitioning into sustainable aviation fuel as well, which is a whole nother story about being far more environmentally friendly fuel. But the fuel itself has to get to this camp called Camp Dixie. Now we reckon Camp Dixie is the most remote camp on earth.

The closest neighbors to you are the International Space Station circling 400 kilometers above your head. Those are your nearest neighbors. This is how remote this place is. And we have a team that drive these piston [inaudible 00:11:40] which are like big caterpillar tracks, machine vehicles.

They drive for five weeks at 10 kilometers an hour nonstop to reach 83 degrees south to Camp Dixie to deliver the 200 barrels of fuel and then drive back again after that. We have a team that literally drives nonstop for 10 kilometers an hour for six weeks to deliver this fuel.

Matt Orloff:

It almost sounds impossible. I'm still trying to wrap my head around just how you're able to pull this off and the things you pulled off in your career for that matter, from the first expedition you've gone on down there to hauling fuel 10 MPH over the most desolate place on the planet where your closest neighbors are the International Space Station to make this happen. It's almost science fiction, I got to tell you.

Patrick Woodhead:

I sort of would suggest we have some of the toughest logistics on Earth, maybe not in war zones and stuff like that, but in a peace environment. And I mean, there's just crazy statistics as well like a barrel of fuel, a drum of fuel [inaudible 00:12:43] fuel at Cape Town I think is something like about $150 U.S. dollars. When we bring it down to Camp Dixie with that journey and that logistics, each barrel of fuel is recalculated as $5,500 in value.

When the pilots just casually [inaudible 00:13:00] the tank, you're like, "Whoa, take it easy, buddy. That stuff is way more expensive than champagne." A can of Coke at Whichaway Camp, we've calculated cost us $36.8 to deliver a can of Coke to this place. So, the logistics are crazy, which does mean the price point of our trips is very high. But when you go into the back story of what needs to happen in order to make the planes fly and and the system work, it's expensive.

Matt Orloff:

Well, it all makes sense. I can't imagine it would be cheap. But better yet, it sounds like the tourism is responsible. You're going into sustainable aviation fuel, which there's a huge push for that across the entire industry as you know. I'd be interested in hearing more about that.

But since we're on cost right now, if somebody did want to do this, how much would it cost them? And does this account for delays, cancellations, let's say the weather is bad in Antarctica halfway down between Cape Town and Antarctica and you have to turn around, how exactly does that work?

Patrick Woodhead:

Well, I think we've got very sophisticated weather forecasting and we've been doing it a long time. We're doing it 18 years. So, the chances of getting a boomerang flight as we call it in terms of turning around is very, very low. I mean, extremely low. In terms of weather delays, yeah, it happens. So often, we are delayed by a day but not much more than that. Sometimes two days, but very, very infrequently more than one or two days. We've got a very good runway; we've got a very good setup. So, actually we can get in, we've got very experienced pilots.

From that point of view, the delays really aren't that bad. In terms of the pricing, if you want to come in on our A340, have a business class seat, and then have three hours on the ground in Antarctica and then fly back again... So, okay, it's only three hours on the ground, but you get to go to the deep field of Antarctica, and we climb a little mountain.

You go into this beautiful ice tunnels. It is really amazing. That's $14,000, which is I think pretty affordable for what you're doing. And then we run longer trips so a five-day trip, which we go to at Echo or at Whichaway Camp, one of our premium camps, where everything's included and you go and see the emperor penguins, that's about $60,000. And then to do the South Pole, emperor penguins and the seven, eight-day trip, that is about $100,000.

Matt Orloff:

To be honest, I'm actually surprised. I've seen charter rates between the east coast and the west coast of the U.S. or even New York to Florida go for comparable rates. So, considering the flight time and the uniqueness of the experience, it makes perfect sense, and it was actually... I'll admit, playing The Price is Right in my head, it's a little lower than I would have thought.

Patrick Woodhead:

Well, I mean, refreshing to hear that because it is an expensive trip, but it's also not just the South Pole and not just the emperor penguins. There's [inaudible 00:16:03] at Whichaway, for instance. The environment is absolutely stunning. We go into ice tunnels that are 200 meters long but are iridescent blue.

There's the Blue River, these crystal caves, I mean, just the...the environment, it's so difficult to describe to somebody how surreal and unlike anything on the planet it is. And we have the easiest job in the world because people get off the Gulfstream or the Airbus, and they've been everywhere.

They've been to every environment. They've been to Greenland, Iceland, they've been to the Ice Hotel in Sweden. They've been to every Maldivian six-star resort. They come to us and their jaw drops. They just can't believe what they're seeing. So, it is a very, very different environment and that's kind of pretty much one of the main reasons why it's so special.

Matt Orloff:

Well, it's certainly got a very firm place on my bucket list at this point, especially after speaking to you. The photos, the videos that I've seen from it look spectacular. When is the window of time that you're able to do this? What is season again?

Patrick Woodhead:

We operate in the Antarctic summer. So that is pretty much from the 15th of November through to the 15th of February each year. That's the height of summer in Antarctica. It's when it's 24-hour sunlight. It's warm. I mean, at our camp, I know you guys work in Fahrenheit but it's about sort of minus five degrees Celsius.

It's dry as well. There's no humidity, so it's actually really not very cold. And the main factor is the wind. So properly dressed and it's really not that cold. And it means it's very accessible to a lot of people.

Matt Orloff:

Yeah. Very cool. Very cool. Before we go though, I understand you're a pilot yourself. As if you haven't done enough, how did you get into flying yourself? And how has that helped you with planning and pulling off this crazy stunt each year?

Patrick Woodhead:

I only fly little stuff. I just fly for fun, and I fly Cessnas and [inaudible 00:18:04] and that kind of stuff. I just love it. I got into it because my grandfather was an amazing pilot. He flew bombers during the Second World War. He got [inaudible 00:18:16] medal. He was a serious pilot, and he flew everything from Spitfires to [inaudible 00:18:20] to Boston Bombers to the whole lot.

And then that obviously influenced my father who's a pilot, again, just for fun. And then I fly as well. And okay, I'm a terribly dangerous pilot because I fly less than 100 hours a year and professional pilots are professional pilots for good reasons and they're damn good at their job and they take it very seriously.

So, it's really helped with the business because when the Airbus captain or the Gulfstream captain says, "I don't want to do a cross wind [inaudible 00:18:51] 25 knots," you're like, "I get it completely."

Or if the cloud base goes down to 3,000 foot or if it's scattered at this level, just the whole terminology, the whole understanding of what is happening from a piloting perspective, even though I'm flying small stuff and they're flying $30, $40 million Gulfstreams, you still get your concepts and principles.

Matt Orloff:

Did I miss anything? Because there is just a mountain of cool things you got going on that we could talk about all day, quite frankly?

Patrick Woodhead:

It's very difficult for [inaudible 00:19:27] my words to explain what's going on. But I think for me, the videos really show what it's like out there and give you the sense of it. So on our website, which is white-desert.com, you've got great videos of Echo Camp, Whichaway, the ice tunnels, of the Blue River, of all these different things and you get a real concept of what it's like.

And even if you type in White Dessert on YouTube, it comes up with a whole load of stuff of what we do in Antarctica. And one of the things I'll leave you with is like, even though we've done this like... We've landed a Gulfstream or a Airbus 200 times at Wolf's Fang Runway, I stood there just about a month ago with one of the guys that's been with us since forever who's super experienced runway manager, and as the Airbus came in, he just went, "Oh man, this never gets old."

And it's totally true. Seeing a 400,000-pound piece of metal, which shouldn't fly anyway, the whole mechanics of its flying is ridiculous being how it's so heavy, coming into an ice runway in the middle of Antarctica is just an extraordinary concept. And then, by definition, what that does facilitating all the scientists to their bases, to their research centers, to these tourists to go and see we offer is super exciting.

Matt Orloff:

Well, I think what you just said sums up everything perfectly as far as why we get into flying, people who have been doing it for quite a while, why they stay in flying. There's just something about it that is absolutely magical. And even on the tough days, you got to remind yourself and pinch yourself that this is even possible to be up in the air and flying, especially when it's a giant piece of metal that doesn't seem to make any sense of having any business to be up there, let alone doing so at the bottom of the world in such a crazy science fiction like environment.

So, I think you said it perfectly, and what a great way to end. That's all the time we have for today. Patrick, thank you so much again. Don't miss the next episode though, by subscribing to us on your podcast app of choice. And one last request. If you're listening to the BCA Podcast in Apple Podcast and want to support this podcast, please leave us a star rating or write a review. It would be much appreciated. That's it. Bye for now. Blue skies and we'll see you next time.