Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
joefremont

Around the world in 175 days part 33. Kangilinnguit Greenland, Icy Tickle, Canada

Recommended Posts

August 24, 1924:  The five navy ship had been searching for the Italians since they disappeared on the 21st,  they were about to abandon the search as they were running out of supplies when an observer on the Richmond spotted a flicker of light on the horizon from the Italians.  Locatelli landed in the sea rather that risk flying into an iceberg in the heavy fog, he planned to resume when the fog cleared, but heavy seas and floating ice damaged there craft so badly that he could not take off again.  The four Italians were so seasick from their ordeal that they had to be lifted up to the ship using the cargo nets.

The fliers next prepared for there next leg to the village and mining camp of Ivigtut, 150 miles further up the coast, they waited until the 24th when reports of good conditions at Ivigtut so despite the fog and rain at Fredricksdal, Smith and Nelson decided to go.  They flew for two hours along the fringed coast, through freezing rain, snow, fog and winds that increased to gale force before they sighted the fairly well protected harbor of Ivigtut with the cruiser Milwaukee anchored waiting for them.

For the next leg I am using the DHC-2 Beaver.  The de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver is a single-engine STOL aircraft that has been used for wide variety of utility roles.  Over 1657 were built between 1947 and 1967, hundreds are still in use around the world.  The model I am using today was made by Milviz and is very nice.  My flight today to Kangilinnguit Greenland, which is 5km away from Ivigtut, which was abandoned in 1987 when the mine closed.  There was no airport in P3D here so I created a simple seaplane port using ADE.  The weather for the flight was light snow with 7 knot winds, a temperature of -1C/29F and clouds at 6600 feet, relatively it was not bad weather for flying. I flew along the coast at around 3000 feet and except for one time when the engine quit and I had to restart it they flight was uneventful and I flew the 125nm in 1.2 hours. A shout out has to go to FlightSim Greenland where I got the scenery for the area around Narsaq Kujalleq.(Narsarsuaq X)

Here are the pics:

wc.6.5.1.jpg
Ready to go.

wc.6.5.2.jpg
Climbing out of Narsaq Kujalleq.

wc.6.5.3.jpg
Looks cold.

wc.6.5.4.jpg
i did mention snow, didn't I.

wc.6.5.5.jpg
Heading along the channels.

wc.6.5.6.jpg
You can see the remains of Ivigtut to the right and Kangilinnguit is center in the distance.

wc.6.5.7.jpg
Landing by the cutter.

wc.6.5.8.jpg
Secured.


August 31st, 1924: The town of Ivigtut consisted “of a few men and women and about 150 Danish miners” (apparently the miners do not count as men), and billions of tiny biting gnats who Nelson described as “the most troublesome brutes you ever saw – worse even than tropical insects”. There were some repairs needed to the aircraft and Smith decided that since they had engines available they would replace them as a safety precaution.  The work was done by the 28th but until the 31st that the navy was in position and the weather reports favorable for the 560 mile flight to Icy Tickle in Labrador, Canada.  Ten minutes out they hit heavy fog that required them to stay low until they broke into clear skies after thirty minutes.  Two hundred miles from Labrador they ran into head winds and Chicago’s fuel pump suddenly failed, a few minutes later the wind driven fuel pump failed also and oil started to leak out of the engine.  Smith switched to the 58 gallon gravity feed reserve tank but that would only allow 2 hours of flying, he yelled at Arnold to start using the hand pump.  He would pump for the next three hours, knowing staying airborne was his responsibility.  After what seemed like a lifetime to both men, Richmond was sighted in the calm bay of Indian Harbor.  It had taken them 6 hours and 55 minutes of flying to reach North America from Greenland. 

For the next leg I will be using the Grumman HU-16 Albatross.  The Albatross first flew in 1949 and was used as a search and rescue aircraft by the USAF, USN and USCG.  Developed from the Mallard to be able to land in open ocean situations.  At least 466 were built when production ended in 1961.  The model I am using today was made by Virtavia and is nice. The weather for the flight was cloudy; 18 knot winds a temperature of -2.7C/27F and clouds starting at 3085 feet.  I tried to find out more about ‘Icy Tickle’ but did not find much, helipaddy.com list an “Aerial Point of Interest” with reference to the world cruisers that allowed me to fix the location.  I used ADE to create a simple seaplane airport at the location and got ready to fly.

Heading out over the Ocean, we had to drop to 2000 feet to stay under the clouds but it was a fairly uneventful flight and the Albatross had no problem despite the 25 knot cross wind that became a head wind.  The 499 nm flight took just over 3 hours.

Here are the pics:

wc.6.6.1.jpg
Ready to go.

wc.6.6.2.jpg
Climbing out.

wc.6.6.3.jpg
Heading to the coast.

wc.6.6.4.jpg
Glamour shots.

wc.6.6.5.jpg
Few more small islands then open ocean.

wc.6.6.6.jpg
Clear finally.

wc.6.6.7.jpg
Our destination with the cutter waiting.

wc.6.6.8.jpg
Landed.

Thanks for reading.
ATB.
 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Very nice shots of the Beaver and Albatross...August in North America may be good weather!

HLJAMES

  • Upvote 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

After all those adventures they (and you) must have felt they were practically at home's front door.  Nice flights.

  • Upvote 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
19 hours ago, joefremont said:

The work was done by the 28th but until the 31st that the navy was in position and the weather reports favorable for the 560 mile flight to Icy Tickle in Labrador, Canada.

Hard times I guess; the area doesn't look very inviting.

Again superb pictures and a dramatic story: Three hours of hand pumping...

Regards

Harald

  • Upvote 1

   Harald Geyer
   Gründer der Messerschmitt Freunde Dresden v. V.

lYI9iQV.jpg

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
20 hours ago, HaraldG said:

Hard times I guess; the area doesn't look very inviting.

Again superb pictures and a dramatic story: Three hours of hand pumping...

Regards

Harald

He could not raise his right arm when they landed, I hope the admiral that greeted them did not mind that he did not salute!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

  • Tom Allensworth,
    Founder of AVSIM Online


  • Flight Simulation's Premier Resource!

    AVSIM is a free service to the flight simulation community. AVSIM is staffed completely by volunteers and all funds donated to AVSIM go directly back to supporting the community. Your donation here helps to pay our bandwidth costs, emergency funding, and other general costs that crop up from time to time. Thank you for your support!

    Click here for more information and to see all donations year to date.
×
×
  • Create New...