Mother Nature is in Supreme Cotrol

Published on 26.04.2011 - Polar Flight 90

Eureka weather station

Art Mortvedt together with his 'Polar Pumpkin' Cessna could finally leave the small town of Ulukhatok and fly to Resolute and to the weather Station Eureka.

Flying at least ...

After many days of waiting, Art Mortvedt has finally received good news about the weather on the way to Resolute and Eureka (Eureka is a small research base on Fosheim Peninsula, Ellesmere Island, in the Canadian territory of Nunavut. It is the second-northernmost permanent research community in the world. The only one farther north is Alert, which is also on Ellesmere Island. The base consists of three areas, the Eureka Aerodrome which includes the quarters for military personnel maintaining the island's communications equipment, the Environment Canada Weather Station, and the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL), formerly the Arctic Stratospheric Ozone Observatory (AStrO). PEARL is operated by a consortium of Canadian university researchers and government agencies known as the Canadian Network for Detection of Atmospheric Change (CANDAC).

The 'Polar Pumpkin' refueling at Eureka weather station

He arrived in Resolute Bay some hours later ; he stayed in the famous 'South Camp Inn' managed by the not less famous Azziz Kheraj.

On 21 April, Art had good weather reports for the route to Eureka again. So he decided to fly and managed to arrive in Eureka safely.

If the aircraft ices up, one can only expect a crashed airplane...

But there, even if the weather stayed goldious in Eureka, Art received bad news coming from Barneo and his friend Viktor Boyarsky. Excerpts, of his last update : "...NAVCANADA produces what are called the GFAs - or Graphic Area Forecasts. These are excellent overviews of pressure systems and weather forecasts. Unfortunately a low pressure system has formed over Northern Greenland; and is tracking to the southwest -to position bad weather along the northwest coast of Ellesmere Island. This, along with the poor weather at the Pole, make flying the Pumpkin North impossible at this time. A warm air mass has moved in behind the Pole - on the Russian side - bringing the bad visibilities and precipitation. On some GFAs, it was mentioned that I could expect visibilities down to Ѕ mile with freezing fog. This is an extremely dangerous weather condition for the Pumpkin; since it has no de-icing capabilities. If the aircraft ices up -getting heavier- and descends in whiteout conditions into the rough pack ice, one can only expect a crashed airplane -and probably a dead pilot. ..."