Race is Nov 16-18,

First of the cars coming in?

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/M...5/history/20121107/1531Z/EHAM/KAUS

http://www.formula1.com/inside_f1/understanding_the_sport/5297.html



[Edited 2012-11-07 17:39:16]

The cars and equipment usually arrive to the venue in the beginning of the week in which the race will be held, i.e. Monday and Tuesday (12th and 13th), since first free practice sessions of each race begin on Thursday of the race weekend.

But since there is a fortnight between the Abu Dhabi and Austin races, and this is a new track, race equipment might just start arriving few days earlier.

Expecting a couple of Aerologic/DHL charters into KAUS   

MPH has already delivered its load using a blue ERF and is on its way back to AMS as we speak.

Thanks for the info, what about this flight?

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/C...4/history/20121107/0630Z/ELLX/KJFK
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/C...4/history/20121107/1620Z/KJFK/KAUS

"The first of six 747s carrying about 200,000 pounds of equipment for next week’s Formula One race arrived at Austin-Bergstrom InternationalAirport today."

http://www.statesman.com/news/sports...-begins-to-arrive-in-austin/nSzpd/

The article includes a nice video of the plane and the unloading of the cargo:

http://www.statesman.com/videos/news/f1-cargo-arrives-at-abia/vg8k7/

[Edited 2012-11-08 08:48:27]

Depending on the track some things are shipped (as in boats) weeks in advance. On another forum I'm a member at we have a logistics guy working for Ferrari and he explained it to us.

Hmmm I wonder how many and of what variation certain types of equipment one might be able to see up close from the spotter's area off of 17L.

At some point today I ought to go find out!!!   


filler

filler



KAUST  

There's some more photos on skyscraperpage.com in

this post

LoneStarMike

some pictures I took this year @ Melbournes Albert park. These photos were taken on the Wednesday arvo, just before the track officially closed for the public to use.

I believe the Aussie GP is the biggest logistical Nightmare as the teams are so far from home base

http://postimage.org/image/5w4trt89x/
http://postimage.org/image/4s4b18z23/

[Edited 2012-11-08 16:53:40]

Of all times not to be in Austin....

Cheers,
Cameron

Looks like Atlas has a pair of flights arriving within about an hour of each other this afternoon:
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/GTI2063
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/GTI2065

Another Atlas flight arrived today. Flew right over my house.

In other Formula 1 airport news:

Airport customs expands as F1 fan arrivals loom
By Ben Wear
Austin American Statesman
November 12,2012

Quote: With an influx of international race fans set to begin arriving Tuesday, workers have completed an expansion of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport’s customs facility that will double its capacity. [SNIP] The changes will allow agents to clear 150 to 170 passengers an hour through customs — flights with predominately foreign nationals on board take longer to process, officials said — up from 80 to 120 an hour before the expansion. [SNIP] The customs facility expansion, which cost about $250,000 and took only a couple of months, likely will be in place for about three years. The Austin City Council in October approved a $6.3 million design contract for what would be a four-story, 40,000-square-foot addition to the terminal — construction should cost another $40 million or so — that would permanently expand the customs capacity to 350 passengers an hour or more. That project, Austin officials hope, could draw regular European airline flights to and from Austin, but would also speed the handling of F1-related arrivals in future years.

LoneStarMike

Quoting strangr (Reply 9): I believe the Aussie GP is the biggest logistical Nightmare as the teams are so far from home base

These pictures show very well how this is organised. The material is ready packed on aircraft unit load devices, just need to be trucked to the aircraft and loaded. Customs is done on site at the race track and the ULDs are sealed. Not having been involved directly with it, the most likely is that all this travels on a Carnet ATA and arrangmenets for the clearance are done months ahead.

The circus could not operate otherwise. Glad to see that it seems to work fine in the US as well, AUS is new territory for the F1 but DHL has obviousy cleared the track. The time when the circus is in Europe must be like a holiday for the circus. Just trucking over the road and no customs handling.

Here are some outbound goodies from the F1 GP, if any of you AUS spotters can get out there this morning. I wish I could but I lack the focal length to make any good pics, although there are virtually no places for AM spotting for the likely runway they're using anyway.

TEAM CHARTERS?
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL1822
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL1858

CARGOS
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/GTI5442
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/GTI5446
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/GTI5440
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/SQC7969

Nice. Just saw one of the Atlas 744s land from my office.

Can't wait to go see 747s @ AUS!!