How long ago was the Antanov here?

[flying dog]

Talking to other people who live near Mascot, I heard that one day (not too long ago) the Antanov took off.

 

It was bringing in a turbine for the "Snowy2" scheme.

 

Did anyone here see it?

 

I also heard that then the turbine had to be trucked to ..... the snowy.

[yampy]

An Antonov AN 124 visited Sydney on 13/4/ 20 , it landed from Colombo and departed later that day to Kuala Lumpur . I doubt it was carrying cargo for the Snowy Mts scheme , Canberra would have been a better option . They are not a rare sight in Australia and usually can been seen occasionally in Syd .

[flying dog]

Well, that's what I heard.

 

Just asking.

[marshallarts]

Old news I know, but we had a visit here in Perth by the mind-boggling AN-225 back in March 2016 (is there only one of them?). It was carrying some heavy component which was part of a power station or something like that. The load was actually quite small in terms of size, must have been very dense and heavy. I grabbed this pic as it was trucked away. It caused quite a bit of interest here at the time.

 

[onetrack]

FD - What you heard as regards the "Snowy 2 turbine" arrival, was completely unfounded speculation or gossip. The Snowy 2 scheme has only just received development approval in May 2020, from the NSW Govt.

There's 27 kms of tunnel to be excavated before the construction of the new underground power station can start. There's initial work that needs to be carried out this year by way of site exploration and pre-planning activities.

The tunnel excavation will take at least 3 years (through mostly hard rock), and then the power station (which is 800 metres underground) needs to be built.

Once the power station is built, the turbines are brought in for installation and commissioning. They have to be trucked in the last couple of hundred kms, because there's no airport anywhere near the Snowy capable of taking an Antonov.

The projections are, the Snowy 2 project will be complete somewhere around 2024. The turbines will quite likely not arrive before early 2023.

 

What the Antonov AN-124 did bring in, in mid-April 2020, was a major component for a wind turbine.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/aviation/hiding-in-plane-sight-border-forces-antonov-that-wasnt-there/news-story/0e1fc270b7da25ff614f5a440805243d

 

Edited July 20, 2020 by onetrack

[onetrack]

Marshallarts - The AN-225 arrived in Perth with a 117 tonne natural gas turbine genset for a mining company in the North of W.A.

 

117 tonnes is not a large load for the heavy equipment transporters in W.A. In the 1990's I owned a 100 tonne capacity Drake low-loader, and I owned two excavators that weighed 103 tonnes each.

 

It's not unusual to have mining equipment weighing several hundred tonnes today. The excavators in many W.A. mines can weigh up to 800 tonnes. Of course, they need to be transported in smaller sections.

 

The biggest hassle with moving heavy equipment is finding a route that avoid bridges. Many bridges are weight-restricted, even ones built in recent years.

 

Even if a bridge does have major capacity, say 200 or 300 tonnes, it's then a major exercise to cross it with a heavy load.

All traffic has to be stopped so the load can cross it alone (reducing total bridge loading), and the load travel speed is reduced to around 10kmh to avoid overstressing the bridge structure.

If you approach a bridge at speed with an extreme load, it puts major longitudinal pressure on the bridge pylons, initiating a "toppling" effect. The pylons are designed to cope with high vertical loads, but not high longitudinal loads.

[flying dog]

An Antonov AN 124 visited Sydney on 13/4/ 20 , it landed from Colombo and departed later that day to Kuala Lumpur . I doubt it was carrying cargo for the Snowy Mts scheme , Canberra would have been a better option . They are not a rare sight in Australia and usually can been seen occasionally in Syd .

 

Ok. Probably just getting a drink here then.

[willedoo]

(is there only one of them?)

Only one flying; a second one was part built and mothballed. I'd bet the Russians are kicking themselves that they didn't keep the Antonov Design Bureau in Russia.