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Atlantic Crossing
by Gerd Wengler

Part 3

On Monday morning, we were at the hangar at 4 am in bright daylight, as it never gets dark in Iqaluit during the summer. Now it was time to don the survival suits for the first time. We had drysuits (as opposed to immersion suits), which are not uncomfortable at all. You slip in and climb in the plane; once sitting you take off the upper part and peel it back over the backrest of your seat. The weather forecast was good with just a few low layers of clouds. We received our oceanic IFR clearance. For all flights across the Atlantic it is required to give a position report in regular intervals. The coordinates of these reporting points must be included on the flight plan together with their estimated time en-route.

The first leg (490 nm, 4 hrs.) would be to Sondre Stromfjord (BGSF) in Greenland. Sondre Stromfjord is a preferred stopover since it is much more inland than the other airports and therefore much less prone to fog. It also has the only civilian control tower and LOC/DME approach in that part of the world. The flight was absolutely beautiful. The first hour was still over Baffin Island followed by the crossing of the Davis Straight. Here we contacted Arctic Radio with our first position report. We generally flew at FL110 or FL120 (11,000 or 12,000 ft.) and we always had VHF radio contact to ground stations. I was fully prepared to have an overflying airliner relay our reports but that was never necessary. It is important to know exactly how to do position reports since they are basically a long string of numbers and letters which are transmitted and read back.

A yellow follow-me car waited for us once we had taxied off the runway. We were given a ride to the FBO while the airplane was being fuelled ($2.50/litre). As it is with all major airports in Europe, you are required to pay a pretty hefty handling fee; however, you will get a very good service for that fee. The handler at the FBO filed the flight plan for the next leg and gave us printouts of the weather. There would be high clouds for the first half of our Greenland crossing and blue skies thereafter.

The icecap in Greenland is up to 13,000 ft. high. For our flight from Sondre Stromfjord to Kulusuk (BGKK; 350 nm, 2.5 hrs.) the icecap is generally 10,000 ft. high and the lowest flight level is usually FL130 (13,000 ft.) but can be much higher depending on weather and traffic. Here is a word of caution: We found all clouds over the Atlantic or Greenland to have ice in them; in fact at one time we collected ice at -18°C. For airplanes not being able to get on top of clouds (which generally requires a turbo charged or turbine engine) an icecap crossing is not recommended if there are any lower clouds at all. Just wait it out or, if you have enough fuel, go around the southern tip of Greenland.

The flight over the icecap was breathtaking. Enormous mountains are poking through the ice on the eastern side of Greenland. When we first saw them we thought it would be just 10 minutes or so to reach them; they are so big, however, that it took us another hour to finally fly over and through them. There were lots of mammoth icebergs and large areas of ice gravel on the ocean. Kulusuk is the only (!) airport on Greenland’s 1,000 km long east coast and we were quite excited when we finally saw it. It’s a big gravel strip on the side of a mountain cliff. Again the airport personnel was very helpful in filing our flight plan and giving us the latest weather, which was VFR first and marginal VFR into Iceland.

This third leg of the day for us to Reykjavik (BIRK; 410 nm, 3 hrs.) is almost entirely over water. After leaving the unbelievable rugged coast of Greenland we settled comfortably on top of a solid undercast. We arrived in Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital, at 8 pm because of loosing four hours due to the time change. The airport hotel, the famous Hotel Loftleidir, is situated right across from the FBO. Unfortunately, everything is very expensive in Iceland. My usual after-landing-beer (ALB) had a record price tag attached to it – $14 per pint.

The last day of our journey would be to Ireland. The shortest way is with one stop on the Faroer Islands. This small group of islands roughly half way between Iceland and Scotland is notorious for its bad weather. It is not recommended for a fuel stop if the airplane does not have the range to return to either Iceland or Scotland because the weather can change so quickly. Plan B would have been to fly direct from eastern Iceland to Scotland, a distance of 450 nm, requiring one more fuel stop. But we were lucky with the weather again since the forecast for the Faroer Islands called for high broken clouds and good visibility all day. The flight from Reykjavik to Vagar, one of the numerous islands of the Faroer Islands (EKVG; 430 nm, 3.5 hrs.), exposed us to the striking ruggedness of Iceland before we finally made landfall again on Vagar. From there we had a relatively long leg of 530 nm or 4 hrs., half of which was over the North Atlantic.

It was delightful to hear the heavy Scottish accent of the controllers once we were handed off to Scottish Control. We were almost there! We had to descend through a broken cloud cover and finally spotted the typical Irish countryside. Ireland is called the Emerald Isle for a reason: Everything appears in wonderful shades of green. Our airport of choice, Weston (EIWT) is just a few miles outside of Dublin. It is the general aviation airport for the Dublin region. Landing and parking fees are very moderate ($20 per day) compared to Dublin International ($50 per hour!). We secured FDOW for her long rest while we toured the countryside for 11 days. The last thing we organized was for FDOW to receive a well-earned oil change.

We had a most enjoyable time in Ireland during which I tried to increase the output of the Guinness brewery as much as possible. On our return we found FDOW well rested and packed up for our return flight. The weathergods were good to us again and we reached Reykjavik about eight hours after we had left Dublin. The weather at the Faroer Islands was very good again. During this stop in Iceland we had some time to look around in Reykjavik. It is being called the hippest town in Europe and I can certainly attest to this.

The forecast for our final crossing of the Atlantic and the Greenland icecap called for clouds from a few thousand feet up to tops of 18,000 ft. A very strong Low was situated south of our route between Iceland and Greenland that would provide us with a good tailwind. After departure early next morning and initial climb we decided to climb all the way to FL200 (20,000 ft.) to be on top of the clouds and therefore out of any icing conditions. We picked up some ice on the way up but I was not too worried because of the freezing level over the ocean of more than 10,000 ft. We could have always descended below the freezing level.

Once at FL200 we were in blue skies as advertised. We had indeed a strong tailwind. After careful consideration and fuel calculation we decided that it would be safe to skip the fuelstop in Kulusuk on the east coast of Greenland and head directly to the west coast, Sondre Stromfjord. The distance for that leg was 740 nm, which we traversed in 5 hours. I flew at a very low power setting so that we still had more than two hours reserves upon landing. En route we asked permission and were granted to speak directly to an airplane that flew above FL600 (60,000 ft.). It was a U-2; the pilot sounded really different because U-2 pilots have to wear space suits.

We performed a vectored LOC/DME approach through the cloud deck into Sondre Stromfjord. It certainly increases your concentration knowing that you descend into a fjord with steep mountains on both sides. The last leg of the day and of the Atlantic crossing was beautiful over the sea and than over Baffin Island. It felt good to be back in Canada and to leave the ocean behind. We arrived in Iqaluit at 3 pm. After having cleared customs and having secured FDOW in the Polar Pilots’ hangar for the night, it was off to the hotel were I had the customary ALB, which tasted as good as never before.

The flight back to Burlington was uneventful and long (10 hrs.). Only at the very end some excitement was added. I had already seen on my satellite weather radar that a very big thunderstorm (tops of more than 50,000 ft.) loomed over the Toronto area. I kept a 50 nm wide berth around it. This was the exact moment when the Air France Airbus skidded over the end of the runway at the Pearson International Airport. We heard the closing of the runway followed by a lot of airliners diverting to their alternates. We approached Burlington from the west without getting a drop of rain or even feeling a bump in the air. However, those last fifteen minutes were the most tense moments of the whole 50 hour flight.

We quickly taxied into our hangar and that was the end of our great Cross Atlantic adventure. Everything had worked as planned and there were no unforeseen circumstances. The long hours of preparation had made this possible. We were especially thankful of our mode of transportation, our Cessna Skylane, which performed absolutely flawlessly.

For further information contact the author Gerd Wengler at gwengler@parkprop.com

Glossary:

100LL 100 [octane] Low Lead
ADF Automatic Direction Finder
ATPL Airline Transport Pilot License
CAR Canadian Aviation Regulations
DME Distance Measuring Equipment
ELT Emergency Locator Transmitter
EPIRB Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon
FBO Fixed Base Operator
FL Flight Level
GPS Global Positioning System
HF High Frequency [radio]
IFR Instrument Flight Rules
IMC IFR Meteorological Condition
LOC Localizer
NDB Non Directional Beacon
nm nautical mile = 1.8 km
STC Supplemental Type Certificate
TC AIM Transport Canada Aeronautical Information Manual
VFR Visual Flight Rules
VHF Very High Frequency [radio]
VMC VFR Meteorological Condition