Page 62 - COPA_July2023

TRAVELOGUE (continued from page 57)
we’d never survive those seas if we went down. These were the worst conditions I had ever faced by a factor of 10 and all that came into my mind was my mentor/ friend/instructor Nick Gregory saying to me, “Wesley, fly the plane.” He beat that into my head from the first lesson.
My ground speed was significantly reduced and time to destination was way up. Fuel burn became a concern. By the time we turned inbound to Ilulissat we were at 1,500 feet and in and out of clouds just scraping the bottoms. At about the same time I received a ter- rain warning on the Garmin 430, which scared the hell out of me. I knew exactly where I was and what terrain they were warning me about, which were a few small rocky islands that were no more than 50 feet tall. I could see them right below, but that warning caused a pause when there was no time to pause. Right after that, the plane shook so hard that I thought the wings would fall off.
When that turbulence hit us, our heads slammed into the ceiling and at the same time the controller was calling out for distance and time. There again
I heard, “Wesley, fly the plane.” With that, I didn’t answer, I just flew the plane.
Once I passed the mouth to Ilulissat and the south of Disko Island, it let up and I could breathe. It was over but I still had to find the runway in low visibility. It took a few minutes but alas, we were there. I flew over the Titanic Iceberg field and inbound to the strip. When I landed, the tower asked if we were OK. I said we were but that “I got my teeth knocked out.” One of the Air Greenland pilots chimed in and said he got his knocked out the first time 10 years ago and “wel- come to Greenland.” As for Justin, he thought we were going to die.
We ended up staying in Ilulissat for two days due to the weather ... I didn’t complain.
Lesson Learned: The flight ended up being almost five hours. I should have filled the jerry cans and been prepared to go to Upernavik. If I had, as soon as the headwind and severe turbulence hit, I could have turned back. The low clouds weren’t such an issue but the low altitude forced us up against the wind shear created by Disko Island. It’s not
to say we never fly into turbulence, as we can’t always avoid it, but what I felt that day was extreme and it could have been avoided if I had planned better. We had the fuel there and it was dumb not to have it as a backup. Trying to save on weight in a short runway environment created inflexibility.
Day 18: Aug. 24
Return Leg 2: BGJN:CYFB (531 NM) Return Leg 3: CYFB:CYYR (676 NM)
The plan was to fly Ilulissat to Goose Bay via a fuel stop in Iqaluit. The leg to Iqaluit was to be VFR all the way based on the weather briefing. We fueled up and when I started the roll out of Ilulissat the airspeed indicator went to 30 and stopped. I thought I had left the pitot tube cover on but hadn’t. I taxied back, checked the cover and tried again. The runway there is short so there isn’t a lot of time to abort, but it kicked in and there were no more issues.
Crossing this time became a bit “nor- mal” in my mind as having done it made it feel that way. As we approached Canada, the expected weather was
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JULY 2023 COPA Pilot
View of mountains from south of Thule over Baffin Bay on the way home.