Time has gone by very quickly and now our US adventure is drawing to a close. Today we had two legs of the same length – 675 nm but a tailwind for the first leg gave a sector time of around two and a half hours while a strong headwind for the second leg stretched the sector time to well over three hours. Take off at Goose Bay was into low cloud which we soon broke through but with a fair amount of medium and high cloud including some cumulus development, it took time to find clear skies at our cruising level of 29,000 ft. The cloud slowly cleared as we crossed the Labrador sea and Greenland appeared on the horizon. The weather at Narsarsuaq was fair with a high cloud base which was good given that the weather for our nearer diversions was poor. We flew the Rnav procedure for runway 06 noting the proximity of high ground all around.
Refuelling was quickly accomplished and then we set off for Reykjavik. Again almost full cloud cover below for most of the route with an increasing headwind which moderated later in the flight. At one point halfway, we had an excellent view of a BA 747 going in the other direction just three thousand feet above us. We landed at Reykjavik on a pleasant summer’s evening and after customs clearance and refuelling, headed to our hotel in town. It was warm enough for a beer outside and then a great fish and chips dinner at a restaurant the Caigers had discovered on a previous family outing to Iceland. A walk round the lake in the centre of Reykjavik finished the day.
It is worth noting that the blue box housing the Delorme tracker in one of the above photographs was custom made by Ed on his 3D printer the night before our departure.
CYYR (Goose Bay) to BGBW (Narsarsuaq) 675 nm in 2 hr 33 min
BGBW (Narsarsuaq) to BIRK (Reykjavik) 673 nm in 3 hr 15 min