for his arctic survival training in a few weeks, he took the discussion very seriously. The temperature at DYE-3 was 26 degrees below zero. This was relatively warm. It could get down to 50 below. It gets cold enough to turn jet fuel into slush. As a matter of fact aircraft engines are never turned off on the icecap. Chances are you’d never get it restarted.
After climbing aboard the C-130 he was led up a short flight of stairs into the flight deck where he buckled into the jump seat behind the pilot. The crew buckled in and ran their pre-departure checklist. Clearance to taxi was given and the huge transport rolled out onto the taxiway. The jagged fjord cliffs dove into the waters of the fjord. Surprisingly, the fjord wasn’t the deep calm blue envisioned from a Norwegian postcard. It was brown and flowing turbulently and full of silt. It was about a mile wide at Sonde Stromfjord. Melt water from the icecap and glacier a few miles up the fjord was making its way the ninety miles back out to Baffin Bay.
The C-130 taxied onto the runway. It was given a hold while a Greenland Air Helicopter taxied across the other end of the runway to the Scandinavian Air Service (SAS) terminal. Takeoff clearance was granted and the huge cargo plane’s four turbo props spun up to full speed. The variable pitch propellers were tilted forward and started biting into the cold arctic air. The plane accelerated down the strange, saddle humped runway towards the west. As it climbed up and out of the fjord it made a steep bank for a full U-turn back to the east. The view from a C-130 cockpit is panoramic. The full view of Sonde filled the windows. There was actually some green in Greenland. The end of the fjord was now in view were the glacier sloped down from the icecap. A huge ripple was seen were the ice was calving off the glacier face as the plane soared over the edge and out over the icecap. The icecap at the coast is only a few hundred feet thick. It gradually ramps upward to over two miles thick a few hundred miles inland.
DYE-3 is about 250 miles to the east slightly below the Arctic Circle. Amazingly, navigation in this state of the art Air Force beast was on the crude side. Although it used an Inertial Navigation system to get them near the site, approaches and landings were visual. No navigation aids existed at the DYE sites. To give them an edge in times of low visibility, Major Boop was going to practice shooting a total radar approach. He explained the procedure to Dave, “DYE-3 is literally the only metal structure within hundreds of miles. Once we get closer, it will ping very nicely on the plane’s Navigation Radar (NAVRAD). We will also use a radar altimeter to find our way to the station.”
Major Boop continued, “This radar has extremely high resolution. As we get closer to the site at about four miles out we will be able to distinguish even the metal flag poles spaced every seventy-five feet apart along both sides of the skiway.”
As the plane soared over the glaciers, Boop clicked the microphone. “We’re coming up over the pressure ridges. The crevasses you see are up to a thousand feet deep. They’d swallow this plane whole if we lost power now. The glacier would grind us up and spit us out in about a thousand years. By the way, are they giving you hazardous duty pay, Dave?”
To this Dave laughed, “Hell, no. They even argued about giving me a flight suit and parka back in Colorado.”
Boop said, “You’ve got my sympathy, my friend. But they did have you prepare a will and power of attorney, right?”
Dave asked nervously, “You know something I don’t?”
“No, I just have the bureaucracy figured out,” Boop replied dryly.
The mighty C-130 droned on for the next two hours. Dave was mesmerized by the white desert-like scene below him. They were flying at 18,000 feet and Dave could still see huge drifts of snow and some shadows from a few clouds. The clouds were getting a little thicker the further they flew.
Major Boop hit the intercom, “Carl, these clouds are getting thicker. They are at about 13,000 feet. There is little danger of icing. They are relatively dry stratus. However, this isn’t going to be a visual approach.” The copilot responded “Roger that. I’ll set us up for a radar-assisted approach. Just then a radio call came in, “Raven One, Raven One…..Sob Story, do you copy?” The copilot responded, “Roger, Sob Story. Raven One’s with you,….four fiver miles west,…..inbound,…..descending through 16,000.” DYE-3 responded, “Roger, Raven One, I have you on the scope. Be advised winds are three four zero at one zero. Ceiling is about 2,000, visibility is 3 miles. Marginal VFR. Cleared to land at pilot’s discretion.” Rick handled this call. He was pilot in command, “Roger, Sob Story, Raven One is making a straight in approach using NAVRAD assist.” DYE-3 replied back, “Roger, Raven One, the flag poles are deployed. Will advise of winds and visibility.” Boop responded, “Roger, winds no factor. Will call you on the ground.”
With that, the plane was set up for a landing. The NAVRAD scope clearly showed the site now on the thirty mile band. The plane descended into the stratus layer. Boop turned to Dave and said, “This is why we get the big bucks and get to wear these nice flight suits.” The windscreen turned milky white and he had flashbacks to his first chopper flight back at Little Rock. But he kept his cool. The copilot started calling off the pre-landing checklist. The flaps were lowered, the throttle adjusted, and the nose tilted downward. The NAVRAD scope was now pinging the DYE site clearly. They were six miles out and 2,500 feet above ground level (AGL). There was still no visibility. The poles along the skiway started to light up on the scope at five miles out. Dave was amazed. The scope truly did look like follow the dots with a V-shaped taper towards the top. At three miles and 1,500 feet AGL the plane broke through the stratus. What he saw in front of him was a magnificent black mega structure sitting on eight massive columns with what looked like the world’s biggest golf ball sitting on top.
The plane slid in for a landing smoother than snot on a glass doorknob.
Boop turned to Dave and said, “Welcome to Hoth on Earth.” Dave smiled and nodded. He got the joke. This was a clear reference to the ice planet in The Empire Strikes Back movie.
The plane taxied back to the ice apron adjacent to the massive complex. Boop hit the intercom again, “Everyone, it is twenty five below zero outside. Bundle up. The wind chill factor will be fifty below in the prop wash.”
Sergeant Dylan Sheppard lowered the ramp. Dave was surprised to see a tracked vehicle pushing a large sled up to the aircraft for off loading the drilling pipe and equipment. Carl opened the aft side crew door and lowered the stairs. Dave pulled his parka hood up over his head and put on his fur lined gloves. He didn’t bother to take his fur-lined, sealskin boots, or mukluks, as they were called up here, out of his crew bag. After all he was only going to walk a hundred feet to the complex. Major Boop climbed down the ladder followed by Dave.
Sheridan felt the prop wash blast against his body. It was a challenge to stay up right. They walked over to the stairway and were met by the Site Commander, Vince Beach. They shook hands but it was very difficult to carry on a conversation with the props running. Vince led the way up the two flights of stairs and into the site. Dave’s eyeglasses fogged up immediately with a thick layer of ice as he hit the warm air of the entrance way. He pulled off his glasses to see. Vince welcomed him and Major Boop to DYE-3 and had them sign in on the site log. Vince then led them through a series of hallways into the dining room for a cup of coffee. He introduced him to the site’s chef, Olga. She shook his hand and then gasped, “Captain, do you know that your ears are bleeding?” He reached up to feel a smear of warm blood on his ear lobes. However, it wasn’t his ears that were bleeding. It was his temples. Apparently when he stared into the prop wash, his metal frame glasses froze to his skin. When he removed the glasses because they fogged up, he also unknowingly removed several layers of skin. He thought to himself, what a way to make a grand entrance by bloodying up the kitchen.
Dave soon found out the coffee in Greenland really gives you a jolt. It is a little thicker than back in the States. After Olga helped put on a couple of bandages, he downed
