Flight 47: Nanisivik to Grise Fiord

Northward Bound in Admiralty Inlet

The next flight takes me well north of the Arctic Circle, to the northernmost civilian community in Canada:  Grise Fiord:

Located at the southern tip of Ellesmere Island, Grise Fiord is one of three permanent settlements on the island. Grise Fiord lies 1,160 km (720 mi) north of the Arctic Circle.

Grise Fiord is the northernmost civilian settlement in Canada,^[5] but Environment Canada has a permanent weather station (Eureka), and there is a permanent Canadian Forces Base (CFS Alert), that lie further north on the island.  Grise Fiord cradles the Arctic Cordillera mountain range.

Grise Fiord means "pig inlet" in Norwegian and was named by Otto Sverdrup from Norway during an expedition around 1900. He thought the walrus in the area sounded like pigs. Grise Fiord's Inuktitut name is Aujuittuq which means "place that never thaws."

There are no connecting roads on Ellesmere Island, so Grise Fiord is connected to the rest of the world by a small airstrip (Grise Fiord Airport) 1,670 feet (510 m) in length. It is one of the most difficult approaches for aircraft, and it is cautioned that only very experienced pilots and DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft attempt the approach.

Grise Fiord Airport (IATA: YGZ, ICAO: CYGZ) is located in Grise Fiord, Nunavut, Canada, and is operated by the Government of Nunavut. The only building at this airport is the Air Passenger Shelter and the companies that operate there are Air Nunavut using the Super King Air 200 and Kenn Borek Air using the DHC-6 Twin Otter planes. Flights to this airport are usually from Resolute and most of them only carry cargo with few to no passengers.

So, for this leg I am faced with a difficult approach.  This was interesting.  It was one of the more scenic and interesting routes I have taken in a quite a while.

Nanisivik Departure

This flight begins where the last one left off, at Nanisivik.  It has a gravel runway.  I fly at low altitude past Arctic Bay, but could not see the airport, perhaps because I did not load any scenery for it?



Society Cliffs to the East of Arctic Bay
 

I fly past the cliffs to the east of Arctic Bay.  However, they are not nearly as impressive in Flight Simulator as they are in real life:

Real World View of the Society Cliffs

After passing by the cliffs, I turned north towards Lancaster Sound, then  I flew over Devon Island and the Devon Ice Cap:



Over the Devon Ice Cap

Devon Island (Inuit: Tatlurutit)^[1] is the largest uninhabited island on Earth. It is located in Baffin Bay, Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is one of the larger members of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, the second-largest of the Queen Elizabeth Islands, Canada's sixth largest island, and the 27th-largest island in the world. It comprises 55,247 km² (21,331 sq mi) (slightly smaller than Croatia) of Precambrian gneiss and Paleozoic siltstones and shales.^[2] The highest point is the Devon Ice Cap at 1,920 m (6,300 ft) which is part of the Arctic Cordillera. Devon Island contains several small mountain ranges, such as the Treuter Mountains, Haddington Range and the Cunningham Mountains.

Because of its relatively high elevation and its extreme northern latitude, it supports only a meagre population of musk oxen and small birds and mammals; the island does support hypolith communities. Animal life is concentrated in the Truelove Lowland area of the island, which has a favourable microclimate and supports relatively lush Arctic vegetation. Temperatures during the brief (40 to 55 days) growing season seldom exceed 10 °C (50 °F), and in winter can plunge to as low as −50 °C (−58 °F). With a polar desert ecology, Devon Island receives very little precipitation.

The Devon Island Research Station was established in 1960 and it is maintained by the Arctic Institute of North America. It is located in Truelove Lowland, on the northeast coast of Devon Island

 WikiMiniAtlas

75°40′N 84°35′W / 75.667°N 84.583°W/ 75.667; -84.583 (Devon Island Research Station).

The Devon Ice Cap is an ice cap on eastern Devon Island, Nunavut, Canada, covering an area of over 12,000 km² (4,600 sq mi). The highest point on Devon Island is found at the summit of the ice cap, with an elevation of 1,920 m (6,299 ft). The ice cap has a maximum thickness of 880 m (2,887 ft),^[2] and has been steadily shrinking since 1985.

Approaching Grise Fiord

And...Crash!  This really is a hard approach.  The TBM is probably not the best plane for it.  The runway is very short and it is hard to slow down in time.  I tried it three times, and the last time I came closer, but ran out of runway.  Probably a Twin Otter, or a Beaver would be a better choice for this one.

There are all those packages for dangerous and difficult approaches, but they have missed this one!