Well, although I am not writing this at the end of the day on June 18, 2024, I can guarantee the memories are still very fresh and pretty much unforgettable.
First, you must know that I hopped into an airplane I had never flown before, one that is extremely modern compared to all the old airplanes I have been flying. This means that there are many things to learn and modify simply to start the engine, fly it and land it. Luckily, the basics are the same.
Then, a second layer of difficulty was added: the survival suit I had to wear. Watch this video and you will understand what I mean. The featured photo will also help you understand. Imagine sitting in a small car (not an SUV) with another pilot to your right, and both of you are wearing huge neoprene suits, which barely allow you to feel the pedals beneath your feet. Moving around and repositioning yourself in flight is next to impossible and all the while you are both trying to fly an aircraft between 5000 and 10,000 feet for almost 7 hours over the cold, Atlantic Ocean.
And to add one more layer of difficulty, the weather turned out to be, well, to put it bluntly, normal North Atlantic weather! Cloudy, foggy, humid, etc. This meant flying IFR. For you non-aviators, that means using instruments only to fly because all you could see out the windows was white, white and more white (imagine putting your face in a bowl of milk and opening your eyes!).
The only thing is, yours truly only had 14 hours of SIMULATED instrument time BEFORE this flight. Well, when someone throws you in the deep end, the best thing you can do is swim! That’s what I did and luckily, I didn’t have to physically swim. We stayed high and dry. And, I had a great pilot next to me: Ray, a very nice FAA-licenced instructor from Belize who helped me keep the aircraft straight and level throughout all of it. It would have been really difficult to do this without him. I am very grateful.
Once we got through the first few hours of difficult flying in clouds and in between layers of clouds, we finally descended to discover the most beautiful fjords. This video will show you the beauty of the scenery… although, truly, these pictures don’t do the landscape justice. It was spectacular flying through these fjords at only 1000 feet. What a treat!
Finally, we landed in Nasarsuaq and were privileged to meet the great air traffic controllers in the tower who guided us so kindly to the airport.
When I stepped out of the airplane, I did a happy dance and was very excited. Later on, I returned to the airport when everything was quiet and made a video showing the beauty of the mountains surrounding the airport.
Below are some photos I took of Nasarsuaq and of us before departing Goose Bay.
Total number of hours flown on this day: 6.8 hrs.
Next up is the flight to Iceland… What a flight!
