Midsummer
We are spending the day and day in Reykjavik (there is no night during midsummer!) It has been good to catch up on rest as everyone was either jet lagged or full of adrenaline sorting out last minute logistics and making preparations.
We did the usual in-town sites: Downtown, the Rock Church and the meteorological office. The latter to determine if we have a chance to continue the trip or if we need to abort. Strong jetstream winds might put Narsarsuaq, Greenland and Goose Bay, Canada out of range for Day 3. We have to be able to reach Narsarsuaq because there is no other airport en route and we must stop for fuel. The shorter route north via Kulusuk, Greenland is useless to us because of a fuel shortage. We've heard from other pilots crossing West to East that they are out of Avgas for the next two months in Northern Greenland.
We tried on our exposure suits for the first time in case we made any critical errors in the flight planning. Apparently you get about 30-45 seconds of consciousness in the water at current temperatures of +2c without these rubber bodies. We also have a liferaft which you need to survive for the hours necessary to wait for rescue. But of course we don't plan on requiring any of this. We are planning very conservatively and more importantly we spent an hour at the simple but powerful "rock" Church here in Reykjavik. God is with us!
Tomorrow, Wed 22-Jun-05, we do a final check on the winds and start for Greenland and Canada.
We did the usual in-town sites: Downtown, the Rock Church and the meteorological office. The latter to determine if we have a chance to continue the trip or if we need to abort. Strong jetstream winds might put Narsarsuaq, Greenland and Goose Bay, Canada out of range for Day 3. We have to be able to reach Narsarsuaq because there is no other airport en route and we must stop for fuel. The shorter route north via Kulusuk, Greenland is useless to us because of a fuel shortage. We've heard from other pilots crossing West to East that they are out of Avgas for the next two months in Northern Greenland.
We tried on our exposure suits for the first time in case we made any critical errors in the flight planning. Apparently you get about 30-45 seconds of consciousness in the water at current temperatures of +2c without these rubber bodies. We also have a liferaft which you need to survive for the hours necessary to wait for rescue. But of course we don't plan on requiring any of this. We are planning very conservatively and more importantly we spent an hour at the simple but powerful "rock" Church here in Reykjavik. God is with us!
Tomorrow, Wed 22-Jun-05, we do a final check on the winds and start for Greenland and Canada.
posted by David at 12:15 AM
3 Comments:
You look like super-heroes in your gumby suits! Much sharper looking than the old, worn-out ones John & I borrowed for our Bonanza crossing!
Glad you had a good day sight-seeing. I've never had a chance to do that in my layovers in Iceland.
Good luck with the winds tomorrow! On Universal's outlook maps, they don't look too bad at FL180 and FL240 for 12Z, though the surface WX in Greenland and Goose Bay doesn't look ideal. Guess you'll see in the morning, and let us all know what you decide!
Are Nuuk/Godhab and Sonderstrom also out of AvGas?
Tailwinds,
Doug
You two look positively devilish in those exposure suits. There even appear to be pointy ears!
Glad to see that Steve appears much better! A good solstice sleep perhaps.
Hope that your winds ease off. Strange that the jet is so far north. Doug and I had easterly winds on our BIRK-Greenland legs.
Cheers, John.
My search of the Airline Widget to track your flight proved to be fruitless..... lol.
Praying for westerly winds and a safe journey.
-pappa
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