Horizontal attitude required Reykjavík, Iceland

Reykjavík, Iceland Day 31. 22/July/2014 Horizontal attitude required. Day score 10. I’m shattered. That took a lot out of me yesterday and I didn’t have a lot onboard. I took the A/H artificial horizon out of the plane and connected it to Gummy’s vacuum cleaner. Nothing worked, it was seized solid. Gummy set off to look at the back of his stores room. Low and behold, he only came out with another artificial, just like mine. He said I could have it. It had been taken out of a plane because it was unreliable. We ran it up on the vacuum. We both laughed as it sounded worse than mine a shook and vibrated like mad. But maybe some of the bits could be used to help fix mine. I took it apart, seriously apart. The rotating gyro centre drum was seized. I got into it through a little window and moved it with a screw driver. This sort of operation is done in a clean room with surgeon’s equipment and precession. Gummy and I were shoving it around with a screwdriver and spinning it by blasting it with an airline. It did free up though and I washed out the bearings and re-lubricated them. It seemed fine again? Success and I rebuilt it all and refitted it to the plane. I re-did the engine tappets and it all looked good again. I added 94 litres of fuel to what was onboard. The plane was ready for Greenland, but I wasn’t and neither was the weather. I remember going somewhere for a kip. Just too tired right now… In the evening I started laying out individual sheets for the next 5 flight that would take me to Canada. There was not much point in going on from there as I was still uncertain of my route through Canada. I would ask some local pilots what was best if I got there. I knew I was going next to Kulusuk, east coast of Greenland about half way up, then a long flight to Narsarsaraq on the southern tip of Greenland and then up to the capital at Nuuk half way up the west coast. I then would cross to Iqaluit or Frobisher Bay, same place, different name. It was the local Inuit way of saying it or the English way. From there I would probably go south west heading straight for Oshkosh and a place on Hudsen Bay called Puvirnituq, then due south to La Grande Riviere, part of a Hydro Electric dam supply airport and then a massive flight to Saunt Se Marie just over the border in America to clear customs and then another 3 hours to Oshkosh. Right… Tonight the only place I was going was to sleep. Via Wheel TV, if only to hear some English language. Thought for the day: BBC entertainment digital channel are pumping out continual repeats of the Graham Norton show. They were fun to watch, just to remind me of how to laugh and joke. I can’t join in with the humour here as most of the jokes are said in Icelandic and don’t really translate very well. Except today they told me that the call Gummy, Grumpy, as he is always moaning and not smiling. I find him very humorous and indeed he is great for keeping all these egotistical pilots in their rightful place. There is a flight simulator set up in one of the briefing rooms and they all take it in turns to fly the biggest aircraft into the shortest, most difficult approach in Iceland, which is Isafajordur, the airfield I never got to. Gummy can do it every time…

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