Oshkosh 2023: The Journey Day 2

The replacement starter took longer to arrive than we’d hoped, with FedEx deciding that the best way to get the new motor from London to Reykjavík, on their highest priority service, was via Germany. To save a day or two, as soon as it had cleared customs on Wednesday lunchtime we went to the depot to collect it rather than wait until “11:30 – 18:30” on Thursday for it to be delivered. Just before 2:00 we had the new starter and made a beeline for the airport. The plan for a Formula 1 style fitting and departure, including filing the flightplan to Greenland and another for the flight to Canada was made on the 20 minute journey. We’d both remove the screws holding the engine cowling on – one side each, then Dave would fit the starter while I prepped the aircraft for the flight. Once fitted, a FaceTime call with the aircraft’s engineer back in the UK confirmed that everything was in order and we were started up and taxying the aircraft at 3:00, only to be held for a few arrivals before finally getting airborne at 3:20.

The new starter motor fitted to N302MC’s right engine

Greenland closes all its airports at 7:00 local time which meant we didn’t have time to get to Kangerlussuaq as we’d originally planned, so the route changed to go to Narsarsuaq at the southern tip of Greenland and then onwards to Goose Bay in Canada. The original plan of arriving at Iqaluit was also restricted by the late departure from Iceland making the more southerly route the only one that would work to get us to North America that day.

The flight from Iceland to Greenland at 18,000 feet was a simple one, routing via points of latitude and longitude – 64 north, 30 west then 63 north, 40 west – rather than the named points that are familiar from flying around more popular areas. Creating the route with ForeFlight had put those into our flight plan for us already so it was no harder to fly, particularly since N302MC has the ability to upload the planned route straight from an iPad into the navigation system over Bluetooth.

A map showing the route between Iceland and Greenland
The route from Reyjavík, Iceland to Narsarsuaq, Greenland

Greenland is stunning. As the cloud layer under us gave way to reveal the Greenland ice sheet, with rocky peaks poking through, we were both in awe. Iceland has some glaciers but even across just this very southernmost part of the country, neither of us recalled seeing anything like it.

The southern end of the Greenland ice sheet, with rocky peaks rising through the glacier

Flying what was effectively a straight in approach to runway 24 at Narsarsuaq, we did use the RNP A approach which would have ended in a circle to land on 06 but with VFR conditions we were able to continue the descent and land on 24. It’s easy to see why the minima are so high on this approach as there’s plenty of rocky terrain very close to the flight path.

Approach to Narsarsuaq – the runway is at the end of the glacier, just before the water

After parking the aeroplane we quickly fuelled up, went up to the control tower with its breathtaking views across the Tunulliarfiq Fjord to pay the bill and ensure our flight plan to Canada was ready. We also placed a call to Canadian customs to let them know when and where we’d be turning up in case they wanted to come and see us. After holding for 20 minutes we really had to depart as the airport was closing. A pilot friend back in the UK was pressed into service to call CANPASS for us, with details such as ETA and confirmation numbers passed back and forth over the Golze text messaging service, all worked out and we had given the required 2 hours notice of arrival! Thanks Niels!

Before that took place, the friendly controller sorted us out and we were on our way again, climbing from runway 24 along the fjord all the way up to 25,000 feet for the crossing. We were higher on this leg as being any lower would mean we had to carry an HF radio in addition to the VHF radios we normally use. As the aeroplane’s engines are turbocharged we were able to fly high and avoid this requirement, though this did mean that we’d have to wear oxygen masks rather than cannulae as they can deliver more oxygen to the body, and have to be used once over 18,000 feet.

Oxygen masks in use at 25,000 feet

Dave was monitoring the gauge on the oxygen tank and it was falling quicker than he’d like, projecting that we’d run out of oxygen before reaching Goose Bay. Whilst keeping a very close eye on our blood oxygen saturation with a pulse oximeter, the oxygen flow was turned down. My SpO2 stayed high but Dave’s started to lower and he began to exhibit some of the classic signs of hypoxia. Everyone has a first sign that they need to be aware of, and in Dave’s case this turned out to be hysterical laughter – he found everything incredibly funny! A quick decision that if I laughed at anything my first action would be to dial a 1,000 foot per minute descent into the autopilot and we carried on. Before long it was time to begin the descent anyway and sure enough once we were under about 15,000 feet Dave perked up and was back to straight back to normal.

The long straight approach along the water to Goose Bay as the sun went down on a pleasant Canadian evening was a welcome and beautiful end to a day of travel that had only just worked out. Customs didn’t come to see us, instead a phone call to them once on the ground got us a reference number we could quote to avoid trouble and we were free to head off to a hotel for the night.

Sunset approach along Goose Bay

The Atlantic crossing was over – we’d made it to North America! Happy to pack the blobby suits away for a while, we looked forward to finally making it to Oshkosh the next day with just the small matter of 1,400 miles, 2 more time zones and US customs to come, not to mention to famous Fisk arrival into Oshkosh itself.


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