Fly for MS

November 3rd, 2010
The last leg of our return over the Atlantic went relatively smoothly. Leaving Greenland, we did not have to fly as high, so extreme cold was not an issue anymore. After a few hours flying above the clouds …

… we were pretty happy to see land! It was Newfoundland, Canada.

We land in Gander, formerly a big hub for trans-Atlantic commercial flights, and stay there over night.

The following day was to be interesting … getting back into the U.S. While customs into Canada was pretty much a formality, that is never the case with the U.S. Andrea Jarabak, whose father has MS and who helped organize our events in Slovakia, was travelling with us. She had an entry permit into the US (as Slovaks don’t need US visas) but we just realize that this permit is only valid if she enters the US aboard a commercial flight. So she could not fly with us over the border.

We started calling immigration at various airports close to the Canadian border. One immigration officer was very helpful. You may land here, we will look at her papers, and we may or may not fine you $1,500. We asked for his advice. “My advice is she should stay were she is or go back to her country.” Really?!

We made more phone calls, but could not find an easy solution. So, we thought we could drop Andrea off close to the Canadian-US border, she could cross into the US over ground (that was OK), we fly to a US airport close to that border, do immigration there, and then Andrea can join us. Did not sound very easy, but it was the only solution.

We found two airports close to the border, one in Canada, the other in the US. We called the US airport to let them know we are coming, and gave them an estimated time. We then flew to the little St Stephen airport on the Canadian side of the border. There, the very nice airport manager agreed to drive Andrea half an hour to the border, and then from there another 4 minutes to the US airport were we would land. Great!

We get back into the plane, and in 10 minutes land at Princeton. There, we are “greeted” by three officers. They were tense. Did we announce we’re coming? When? Who did we speak to? One was quite upset. Keith filed a flight plan from St Stephen to Princeton Municipal while we were still in the air, the flight plan somehow got activated, and the agents thought we already took off without calling them. When they arrived at the unmanned airport, we were not there, so they thought that we sneaked back into the US! The most upset officer told us we were very close from being taken away in handcuffs! So, let us recap here: somebody who wants to sneak into the US does so with a pretty big plane, speaks several times to the immigration office to announce when they’ll get in, gives the planes registration number, and then … Hmmm …

We’re set free after about an hour. But Andrea was not coming. We spent a couple of hours in the airport’s “terminal”, were it was not much warmer than outside!

We wait for Andrea, but she doesn’t come. There was no cell phone coverage there, so I try reaching her from Skype … and this is how my laptop, brand new when we left, looks now …

When Andrea finally comes, her story made our experience seem very enjoyable. The officers there even threatened the nice Canadian airport manager with handcuffs. Now, I understand all the border security stuff, but isn’t this pointless nastiness and waste of energy and time?

But we forgot all that very quickly. We were finally back in the US after over two months! And we’re a very short way from NY.

We then fly over Boston, a beautiful sight at night.

And we finally arrive in New York, late at night. Our mission is not yet over, but we do realize that somehow we managed to fly more than around the world and came back in one piece!

November 2, 2010

The flight from Iceland to Canada was to be the most difficult part of our flight. The weather over the North Atlantic at this time of the year is notoriously bad, and the flight was long, over 8 hours of flying, 10 hours including the fuel stop.

The first half went better than expected. The weather was nice, and when we reached Greenland we saw some very spectacular views. The approach to Narsasuaq offered particularly amazing views as we flew through a ridge and glaciers.

In Narsasuaq, not only is the aviation fuel insanely expensive, like in all Greenland, but it was delivered by hand! All 150 gallons (600 liters).

Because it took very long to refuel we were very close to being stuck there for the night. We managed to take of 3 minutes before the airport closed at sunset! Then the tough part began …

We had to fly quite high as we crossed Greenland and then the ocean, at about 24,000, as a safety precaution (the higher you fly the more time available in case of emergency) and because we could not otherwise be in radio contact with control centers. But it’s November, we’re quite high up North, and the higher you fly the colder it is. So, very soon the planes heater could not cope anymore with the -31 Celsius (-21 F) outside temperature. It was brutally cold! All the windows iced up solid on the inside, and Keith and I were wearing two jackets each, plus a sleeping bag on our legs!

But we survived!

October 31st, 2010.

We left London on October 30th too late to be able to reach Iceland that same day, as the flight would take 8 hours including a refueling stop. So, we stopped overnight in the Northernmost tip of Scotland, in the remote town of Wick, population 8,000.

There we had a small celebration for Keith’s birthday, where he received his cute present.

October 31st was Halloween, and the date we wee initially supposed to return to New York. I am not a big Halloween fan, but somehow, having spent the past two months in the small plane and slept in over 50 hotel rooms made me miss Halloween, mostly because I was thinking how my friends in New York are getting costumed and ready for the big Halloween parties. So, all I could do is unleash my creativity and decorate the plane!

And that’s how we embarked on our “scary” flight to Iceland.