Single achievement

An Antartic Expedition!

Official achievement authored by Bobby Allen.

Antarctica, the southernmost continent and site of the South Pole, is a virtually uninhabited, ice-covered landmass. It’s known for the Lemaire Channel and Paradise Harbor, striking, iceberg-flanked passageways, and Port Lockroy, a former British research station turned museum. The peninsula’s isolated terrain also shelters rich wildlife, including many penguins.

Hidden away from the rest of the world at the Earth’s southernmost tip, Antarctica is arguably the most intriguing and mysterious places on our planet. The coveted seventh continent has been capturing the imagination of adventurous spirits for centuries, promising awe-inspiring wonders and life changing experiences.

You have been tasked with taking a small group of international expediton explorers and resupplying the nearby McMurdo Station with some much needed supplies!

For this achievement, you will be flying the passengers and cargo into Phoenix Airfield (a MSFS bespoke airport).

Phoenix Airfield is an airstrip in Antarctica opened in early 2017, designed to replace the Pegasus Field's role in serving McMurdo Station, the airfield consists of a single "Compacted Snow" runway. Pheonix Airfield does not publish a METAR, the nearest weather station is Williams Field, which is 11 km away. The flight information region (FIR) is Auckland Oceanic East.

In last few years of Pegasus Field's operation, it had been plagued with warmer temperatures combined with dust and dirt blown in from nearby Black Island, causing excessive melting making the runway unusable at the end of the summer season. Accordingly, Pegasus, and the Ice Runway (which has not been consistently used in recent years), were planned to be replaced with a new "Alpha Runway" near Williams Field, constructed using compressed snow technology. A search for a replacement site began in 2014; serious construction began during the 2015-16 summer. The new runway is about 3 miles northwest of Pegasus, to be out of the wind patterns of the Black Island dust. It is based completely on compacted snow, rather than the "blue ice" base under Pegasus. With the new design and construction technique, its runway is designed to withstand approximately 60 wheeled flights a year.

On the 7 April 2016, the National Science Foundation officially announced that the new runway would be named Phoenix Airfield after the name of a propeller-driven C-121 Constellation transport plane that was flown between Christchurch and McMurdo by the U.S. Navy VX-6 squadron from the 1960s through to 1971.

Phoenix Airfield underwent operational testing and received its first wheeled landings during the 2016-17 austral summer season.

Pegasus Airfield closed after the last flight on 8 December 2016 and Phoenix Airfield was opened shortly after, in early 2017.

C17s were planned to use the runway throughout the 2017–18 field season, but the NSF issued a notice on July 31, 2017 stating that "Conditions at the new Phoenix compacted-snow runway prevent the use of wheeled aircraft during the warm part of the austral summer".

The TLS, TACAN, and MLS systems were decommissioned in 2022, and newer RNAV instrument approaches are now available.

Common aircraft that are generally used to fly passengers and cargo into this airfield include the C17 Globemaster, Boeing 757, and the Basler BT-67 (a modern day, modified version of the Douglas C-47) but you are, ofcourse welcome to fly whatever takes your fancy - just be sure that you are able to carry enough fuel to make it there!

There is also a free add-on over at FlightSim.to for MSFS users, so if you plan to explore further once you arrive, you might consider downloading and installing the Antartica Airport Pack from FlightSim.to.

This achievement requires a landing of -400 f/m or less - The compacted snow runway is fairly solid but we don't want to risk breaking through the ice!

Criteria

Depart from an airport of your choice, fly to and land at NZFX, your flight distance must be further than 1000 NM. Your landing rate must not exceed 400 f/m.
Date Departure Arrival Pilot Aircraft Landing rate Distance Flight time
13JUL25 2056Z YSSY NZFX James Goodsell Boeing 777-200LR/F (B77L) -115 ft/m 3232 nm 02:26 View
18MAY25 2351Z NZCH NZFX Emiliano Carlos Navarro Boeing 747-8 (B748) -261 ft/m 2125 nm 04:28 View
06MAY25 1956Z NZFX NZFX J.A. Boeing C-17 Globemaster III (C17) -217 ft/m 1324 nm 03:07 View
13APR25 1833Z YWKS NZFX IrishVirtual 01 Airbus A321 neo (A21N) -285 ft/m 1188 nm 02:45 View
26MAR25 0456Z NZWN NZFX Staghound Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor (F22) -55 ft/m 2241 nm 01:30 View
11MAR25 0453Z NZQN NZFX Bat24SS Boeing C-17 Globemaster III (C17) -168 ft/m 1982 nm 03:39 View
05FEB25 1327Z NZRC NZFX Roger Abram Cirrus Vision SF-50 (SF50) -131 ft/m 1867 nm 05:50 View
21JAN25 2217Z YMML NZFX Artem Airbus A330-200 (A332) -157 ft/m 2502 nm 05:16 View
31DEC24 1943Z NZCH NZFX PVPilot Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner (B789) -64 ft/m 2178 nm 04:30 View
31DEC24 1915Z NZCH NZFX Ryan Hartley Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner (B789) -300 ft/m 2107 nm 04:12 View
31DEC24 1840Z NZAA NZFX Piotr Z Airbus A310 (A310) -258 ft/m 2851 nm 06:29 View
26DEC24 1557Z YWKS NZFX Xeromman Airbus A320 (A320) -245 ft/m 1448 nm 01:22 View
16DEC24 2023Z YSSY NZFX Josh Bennett Airbus A330-900 (A339) -199 ft/m 2784 nm 06:19 View
18NOV24 0745Z NZNV NZFX Scotty Clifford Boeing P-8 Poseidon (P8) -50 ft/m 1949 nm 04:04 View
17NOV24 1635Z YWKS NZFX Klappdrachen Honda HA-420 HondaJet (HDJT) -9 ft/m 1249 nm 03:03 View
14NOV24 2115Z YWKS NZFX Aaron Priest Cessna 700 Citation Longitude (C700) -69 ft/m 1234 nm 02:31 View
10NOV24 0246Z SCRM NZFX Maciej Boeing 737-800 (B738) -282 ft/m 2280 nm 05:25 View
23OCT24 1614Z YWKS NZFX Vincenzo VPS64 Boeing 737-800 (B738) -150 ft/m 1261 nm 03:09 View
21OCT24 2151Z NZQN NZFX VAF155 Alberto Boeing 737-700 (B737) -335 ft/m 2083 nm 05:13 View
09OCT24 1701Z YWKS NZFX Rock57 Douglas DC-6 (DC6) -127 ft/m 1189 nm 04:22 View