Nov 26 - The Basler Aircraft

Certainly one of the more handsome aircraft I've seen for a while is
the Basler aircraft which is being used for the AGAP project - a
multinational project to radar-image the buried mountain range
below the ice cap. ( http://www.aad.gov.au/default.asp?casid=35372 )

The Basler is a converted DC-3 - the old piston-engines are replaced
by modern PT6 Turboprops, which give much more thrust and weigh
much less. As a result, the centre of gravity of the aircraft shifts,
which needs to be corrected. They cunningly do this by extending the
fuselage fore of the wings by a few metres to add extra room for seats.

Then they paint it with a snazzy red & blue stripey colour scheme and
take off.

The picture here is of the Basler at the Plough Island sea-ice runway
- just 20 minutes drive from Davis Station.