Day 3.
I don’t know what it is about the morning of a day I don’t have to fly but I always feel like shit when I wake up. I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that if I don’t have to get up early and fly I tend to stay out a bit later working on public relations. After dinner last night Stuart, Jack and I headed of to go visit the blind and read to the poor but somehow we ended up at a bar, I hate when that happens. Well, one thing led to another and before we knew it we were playing pool with the locals who had recognized me from Dangerous Flights, (if you don’t know what that is you must live under a rock, or have a life.) Anyway I’m a pretty big deal in Goose Bay and that means autographs and photos with my fans, which is hard work, which makes a third rate reality TV star thirsty, which leads to a fuzzy head the next morning. Where was I? Oh yes day 3. Anyway we managed to get in touch with a mechanic who fixed our flat tire with the spare tube Stuart was smart enough to bring along. He actually has the plane filled with spare parts which is smart because getting parts in remote areas can be a challenge. I’d love to say day 3 was filled with more exciting adventures but that pretty much covers it.
Day 4.
We arrived at the Goose Bay airport all raring to go to Narsarsuaq Greenland only to get a weather report that wan’t all that hot. The charts showed a low pressure system off the coast that was forecast to give us low clouds and strong winds in Greenland. That’s usually considered a bad thing when trying to get into Narsarsuaq due to it being nestled deep in a fjord surrounded by steep mountains. Strong winds create severe turbulence and low clouds could prevent you from making it in at all. Also a bad thing when there is no where else to go. There was another flight crew there trying get to the same place and we bounced ideas off each other for a while before deciding that it was just too dangerous to make an attempt at Greenland. To make matters worse it looked like that low pressure system was going to make flying to Greenland and then on to Iceland very difficult due to the thick clouds that would undoubtedly contain a moderate to severe icing hazard. As nice as Goose Bay is none of us wanted to be stuck there for the next week so we saddled up and headed north to Frobishure Bay and the equally lovely town of Iqaluit on Baffin island. Our evil plan from there was to fly across the Davis Straight to Sonderstrom and follow the Arctic circle across to Iceland thus avoiding the crappy weather. That was our plan anyway. When we landed in Iqaluit (Ill a qwat) I saw a good looking blond pilot of the female variety in a rather warm looking flight suit stepping out of a Twin Otter with “BRITISH SURVAY” stenciled on the side. It turns out she works for the company that flies the Twin Otters that haul around and supply the British scientists that study the Antartctic so of course I asked her if they needed any pilots. “Always” She said. That made suspicious. “Why is that?” “Because it’s a six month contract in Antarctica and that gets kind of long.” She had a point but I think I’d love flying a Twin Otter on skis in Antarctica, maybe not for six months, but still………..I had her write down the necessary information for applying for the job……………………. Don’t tell my wife.
I have a TON of great photos to post but the WIFI has been really poor the last few so please stay tuned.