The first section of the book is a beautiful description of ‘daily life’ on the atoll; a lot of folks stopping/pulling in who were en route to other destinations. Well worth reading; even if only for the first section.
Playing Semper Paratus made it obvious the "C130" was a Coast Guard C130 and no doubt from Barbers Pt. Seen the island from the air once. On board one of those CG C130's like back in 1987. They seem to have a good job cleaning up the runway.
This is so beautiful. I've been curious about Palmyra ever since "that book," and now I'm more curious about the conservation efforts. One question - and this probably shows my ignorance - does the airstrip have any landing lights? If so, I assume they'd be solar powered. Would anyone be crazy enough to fly to Palmyra at night? I ask because I'm using Palmyra as the role model for a novel I'm (trying) to write. Thanks for posting this! It makes me feel like I'm flying there myself.
Lesley Morgan there are no landing lights, nobody has much reason to land there during the night but if need be using night vision goggles it could happen.
From the description of the runway in the book "And the Sea Will Tell", it must have been a major engineering undertaking to restore it to use. In the book, it was loaded with guano and countless birds. Initially, I thought this video was some sort of simulation. It still seems hard to imagine large planes can land there.
Based on the condition of the runway in the book "And the Sea Will Tell," it seems that an entire new runway would have to be constructed and the previous runway completely removed to accommodate any aircraft... let alone a C130
@@user-wl6bw3jl4n Yeah, C5, C117, even a 747 has 100ft of more wing span. But, that's why the C130 is the swiss army knife if you need to land in small places. The C5 or 117 would just air drop it on the runway.
AirNav data for Palmyra (Cooper) Airport, Palmyra Island Atoll, US Minor Islands: Airport Use: Private, permission required prior to landing. RWY 6/24 5000x150 ft. Surface: Coral only with soil cement adhesive for compaction. 5000 feet is plenty long and wide for a C-130.
