40 SEPTEMBER 2019 ÇPlane&Pilot
C
AVU conditions are rare in Greenland. Today,
that’s exactly what I have in northeast Canada and
the giant ice cap continent. Three hours ago, when
I departed Goose Bay, Labrador, with the forecaster’s
promise of clear skies and tailwinds spelled out in the
weather package, I was more than a little dubious that
Mother Time and Father Nature would relinquish their
grip on southern Greenland just for me.
Fortunately, the tailwinds were there, and the usual
weather wasn’t. Now, the GPS suggests I’m 90 miles out
from my destination of Narsarsuaq,
and, sure enough, I’m well ahead of
my how-goes-it, flight-planned time
en route. From 17,000 feet, I can see
all the way down to the southern tip
of Greenland and well north toward
the capital city of Nuuk. If the Earth
were flat, I could probably see the
Eiffel Tower in the distance.
Slowly, the ice-capped mountains
of southern Greenland begin to mate-
rialize in the distance. Icebergs dot the
water below, becoming more numer-
ous and distinct as I slowly gain on the
mountains of compacted snow. My God, this place is
magnificent, and I’m far south of the highest part of
the ice cap.
Many years ago, on my first trip to Europe, I was look-
ing down from 35,000 feet, and the view of Greenland
was nothing but white on white. I was eastbound in a
747 on my way from Los Angeles to Paris to cover the
Paris Air Show. The pilot had just announced that we
were crossing the Labrador Sea and should be over the
western coast of Greenland in a few minutes.
Trouble was, the clouds below were confused layers
of cirrus that merged perfectly with the ice cap. Even
in early summer, the weather that far above the Arctic
Circle was marginal, obscuring practically everything
below 20,000 feet.At that time, I couldn’t possibly have guessed that
I would be visiting Greenland perhaps 50 times in the
next 30 years. Contrary to popular belief, Greenland isn’t
outside the range of many general aviation aircraft, and
its weather isn’t as bad as it is in northeastern Canada.
There are a number of blue-sky-and-sunshine days in
both summer and winter.
If you’re considering an Atlantic crossing to Europe
by the milk-run route through Labrador, Greenland,
Iceland and Scotland, you may need only about 700 nm
range plus reserve. It’s true the survival
equipment requirements for such a
trip are strict and significant, but you
can rent cold-water survival-suit rafts
and most of the other items in Bangor,
Maine, the last stop inside the U.S.
From the tourist’s perspective,
Greenland features some things you
won’t see anywhere else, unless you
can afford a trip to Antarctica. If you
stick to the bottom half of the “green”
continent, you’ll miss any possible
encounters with the polar bears of
the northern cap, but you’ll need to
surmount a massive accumulation of ice, over 10,000
feet tall, that grows out of the North Atlantic.
A friendly controversy up north is that Greenland
is mostly ice, and Iceland is mostly green. In fact,
Greenland is actually a ring of mountains that have
gradually filled with ice over the millennia.
Narsarsuaq, Greenland, resides near the bottom
of the island continent—okay, it’s not officially a con-
tinent, but why it’s not is more historical than geo-
graphical—and it’s one of the most popular stops on
the high road to Europe. The airport was built by the
U.S. Army in the early years of WWII as a refueling
stop for aircraft headed for the European Theatre and
was designated as Bluie West One. That’s the reason
its official airport code remains BGBW (B for NorthCROSS-COUNTRY LOG
By Bill Cox❯ ❯ “A friendly controversy
up north is that Greenland
is mostly ice, and Iceland
is mostly green. In fact,
Greenland is actually a ring
of mountains that have
gradually filled with ice over
the millennia.”It’s Not Easy
Being Greenland
Greenland is truly a treasure of the North Atlantic
but best if viewed in sometimes-friendly summer.