Ice ice water ice and granite

June 28, 2013

Nuuk was much nicer than Goose Bay, but terribly cold and windy. Shops closed at 4pm and would open only at 10am next day. One can imagine why.

Because we did not wake up in time and because Aernaut had his phone settings wrong by one hour, it was only Urs who -as usual- was ready in time. We delayed the departure to 1100 local time.

From Nuuk to Reykjavik we would loose two hours, so even on a flight of three hours we would only arrive at 1700 local time. The day we gained by crossing the date line over the Pacific we are still paying for; in the same currency i.e. in hours.

We left Greenland, or shall we say Ungreenland, to get over the large stretch of ice cold water to Iceland.

During the flight we changed positions inside the a/c from time to time, so at one moment Aernaut and myself were passengers whilst Urs and Sophie occupied the pilot seats. I discussed mainly wit Aernaut the implications of his new role in the Dutch glamour magazine QUOTE.

Flying is a strange hobby really and I am sorry having probably given wrong impressions about our daily activities.

In the first place there is no glamour at all. The pilot suits, shirts and stripes may tend to this idea. We only wear the suits, the white shirts the black trouser, the crew badge and sometimes the ties to get easier through the customs and other bureaucratic offices.

It is a lot of work. Two to three hours of flying mean at least two to four hours of preparation. Then after the flight it takes usually one hour to get the a/c fuelled and one hour to get through customs and arrive at the hotel.

After a flight of say 4 hours we need a short but deep sleep of say 0,5 hour.

You will be surprised, but we also need to eat and drink something during and after the flight.

Urs gets up every morning at 0530 to check the FLP [flight plan], study it and check with Andy.

To fly 1.000 Nm or 4 hours means a full day of intensive work of at least 8 hours.

We must be extremely accurate and precise, forget nothing and be in time everywhere. Big boys do not cry, so we do not cry. Just facts.

We are now in Reykjavik where we celebrated Urs’ birthday in a rainy Reykjavik.

Tomorrow we intend to depart at 0730 LT since we will loose (once again) two hours and like to be in Budel early to reach Amsterdam well in time.

We have covered 93% of the entire trip. Today we had to refill the engine with one quarter of BP oil, the second quarter on the entire trip. We are not a profitable a/c to BP and we will not contribute much to their enormous oil-spil losses in the US Gulf, I am afraid. Life can be tough, even to giants like BP. Sorry BP.