Realizing that this could not have been the worst time to do this northern part of the flight, brought back to mind the wise words of Dave (aka Fly2e)..."Shows the importance of preperation." (thanks Dave, I will remember those words for my next adventure!)
And seeing as how the next 3 or 4 legs will be in complete darkness, those words ring true more then ever! ;D
Route info for this leg...
Current location to date.
So after saying my thanks to the trapper for picking me up and taking me to the nearby town, and for having a few Captains with me to keep warm, ;D I headed out to the Baron to get her warmed up for the next leg.
I briefly checked the weather report and the only issue for conscern was the cold. It was supposed to be about -25 Celcius for takeoff and about the same at Alert, so I was not too conscerned about that, but I was conscerned about what the temperatures would be like 10,000 ft up!
So, after warming up the engines and the cabin for a considerable ammount of time, I taxied down the runway. I was not as nervous about the take off as I was anticipating due to the fact that I got to take a good look at the surrounding area and knew how much space I had to work with.
To make sure I was going to get the max take off speed, I decided that I would do a "pop up" take off. I kept the flaps all the way up and held the brakes while I got the engines to full RPM's.
I picked up speed very quickly, but then realized that this runway was shorter then I realized! With only about 20 feet of runway left, I pulled down full flaps and did a quick pull back on the yoke. The Baron just seemed to "pop up" off the ground very quickly.
I kept my steep climb rate and banked softly to the right in order to miss kissing the side of the mountain that was directly in front of me. As I turned out over Baffin Bay, I was able to reduce my climb rate and get my speed up and get on course.
When I leveled off at 10,000 ft, the lovely Northern Lights came out to greet me again. This was a very welcomed site as I could not see ANYTHING below me!
As I was enjoying the Northen Lights dancing around me, I ran into some bad weather. Not knowing the terrain around me, I decided to gain some altitude to get out of it. Well...I climbed, and I climbed, and I climbed some more until I finally broke through the top of the clouds. Almost 20,000 feet! I then realized how COLD it was up here! -52 CELCIUS! ! ! :o And yet the Baron never missed a beat...
Getting closer to Alert, I could not help but wonder about this runway. Am I going to have another completly darkened runway?! Or is there going to be some kind of lighting to make this one easier on me!?
Running the different scenerios through my mind, I started my decent. Then I noticed something flickering below me! (just below my right wing) Could it be?! Oh Please let it be what I think it is! ! ! !
I also found it odd that the Northern Lights were BELOW me!
As I got closer, I breathed a very big sigh of relief when I spotted those lovely runway lights! ;D
I lined her up for final...
After touch down and going through my shut down procedures, I looked around and noticed two things that made me very conscerned.
1) There were NO buildings around! This airport is in the middle of freakin' no-where!
2) There is NO FUEL STATION! Although that gave me reason for great conscern, I was able to calm myself by realizing I will have enough to get to my next destination....
Happily, there were some locals out ice fishing nearby and they saw me coming in for landing so they generously offered to give me a ride into Alert. Alert is not a big town at all but there was a Motel and warm meal and right now... thats all that mattered to me!
I very happily kept telling myself that its ALL SOUTH-BOUND FROM HERE! ;D
Thanks for watching! Comments/Suggestions are always welcome!
Leg 1 - http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=screen;action=display;num=1060619320
Leg 2 - http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=screen;action=display;num=1061303323
Leg 3 - http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=screen;action=display;num=1061904684
Leg 4 - http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=screen;action=display;num=1062678263
Leg 5 - http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=screen;action=display;num=1063194538
Leg 6 - http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=screen;action=display;num=1063797354
Leg 7 - http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=screen;action=display;num=1063889659
Leg 8 - http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=screen;action=display;num=1064493814
Leg 9 - http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=screen;action=display;num=1064833735
Leg 10- http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=screen;action=display;num=1066820576
Leg 11- http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=screen;action=display;num=1068470111
Leg 12- http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=screen;action=display;num=1068636483
