Weather or not! Reykjavík, Iceland

Reykjavík, Iceland Day 27. 18/July/2014 Weather or not! Day score 5. Woke at 6am to the sound of rain hitting the window. Went back to sleep, A quick look at the satellite shows that cloud has now filed virtually all the north Atlantic route. There is a low pressure system about 500 miles south of Iceland which is just throwing weather front after weather front towards us. Every time the depression weakens and starts to fade, another comes to join it from either America or Greenland and they combine and strengthen and off we go again… More rain. It has been the worst summer since last year apparently. Yet last year was the worst ever summer on record. Brill! I headed out to walk to town in-between the showers. I climbed the Cathedral tower for the view. There are a few Japanese tourists as ever everywhere, but some of them are still insisting on wearing their face masks. If I was Icelandic I would see this as almost insulting. These Japanese people clearly couldn’t distinguish between the clearest Icelandic fresh air, yet a little misty and smog. Good views from the tower… Inside the cathedral was a huge pneumatic pipe organ, reaching to the high ceiling and it was being tuned and tested, and the tuner could certainly play it, with a blur of hands pulling knobs, running the keys and his feet were a blur on the pedals too. I had another look around the docks. As with all of Iceland, there were no fences and you could walk right up to huge fishing boats being repaired or huge naval frigates. I grabbed myself another Strawberry Ice-cream from the harbour parlour Hawk had taken me to, as busy as ever. On the way back I stopped to watch a documentary film in an exhibition on Volcanoes in Iceland, fascinating. I did some shopping and came back via the less touristy part of town to see how the locals live. You could walk through the back passages. I keep coming across Banksi copies painted on walls. I believe they must be copies, very nice though. On the inner ring road I came across and auditorium with five huge posters of Icelandic celebrities promoting “Iceland’s Got Talent!” on them. That would be worth seeing, but… Its not me. Back to the field to continue this diary. I never get much done though because of talking to many people here. Back in Geirfugl, I heard that one of the pilots flew the rescue helicopters that fly out to Greenland. His name was Siggi and he had a lot of useful information about Greenland that will probably change my route once more. He said not to fly out to sea as I intended in case the engine stops and I need to ditch, but to fly just on top of the Greenland Ice shelf. It was only 5,000ft where I would be. He said it was smooth and there were better chances of survival landing on it with an engine failure than ditching in the sea. There were no polar bears on top and you couldn’t land in the water safely anyway because of all the shattered ice blocks. Ok… He gave me some helpful fuel supplier telephone numbers and pointed out some other emergency airfields. He had good maps of Greenland which I have not and said he would bring some spare ones in tomorrow. One of the problems I have in my head with this flight is that not only am I putting myself at risk, but I’m also putting at risk the safety of the people who would come out to hopefully rescue me if the engine stops. I think its quiet selfish what I am trying to do. So here was a good opportunity to ask one of the rescue helicopter guys what he thought. He replied that “No no, don’t worry! It would be a good laugh, we’d probably race the Greenland boys to see who could pick you up first. It would be a good sortie for us. Something interesting to do!” That reply has cleared my head problems… Siggi had no worries about flying his helicopter any time, anywhere and in any conditions… Ok… With that he and everyone left and I was alone again to tidy up and get some rest once more on the sofa. But only after checking if WW3 hadn’t started from the downing of this Malaysian 777. Thought for the day: I’m impressed with how much enthusiasm there is for aviation in Iceland and the members, all 180 at this club. They are flying most aircraft everyday in average weather. You wouldn’t find or see this in the UK.

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