Stage 1 Final Preparations

Starting to assemble the equipment.  Lot's of details to go.

This morning completed final testing of the auxiliary fuel storage tank which will be within the plane's cabin, for the extra long runs.  Assembling portable electric fuel pump, generator system, gell batteries, solar collectors for backup power, and other odds and ends.  Everything is coming together well so far.  June is fast approaching.

Havis seat mount docking station for Toughbook (used for Police cars)

Auxiliary fuel tank - lower right

Did  obtain   Inuit Lands permission / permit. 
The NIRB, Canada's multi faceted agency representing local people, habitat; wildlife, water, etc. has no adverse issues thus far.  I will be hearing of final all around approval in early June, so have to wait and see till then to know for sure.

I will be planning on making extended stays in Churchill, Manitoba on the way up and, maybe on the way back.  Aside from checking out the abundance of unique wildlife, I plan on doing some general bush flying/exploring.  I should say "tundra and rock" flying/exploring, as there are almost no trees that far north.  This is about 2/3 the way to the ultimate destination of King William Island.  In 2000 I had found an old abandoned trading post from what looked like the 1800's, over 250 miles out of Churchill, in the bush.  Much was intact, like a new found ghost town.  It was only one structure....and inside, many relics to photograph.  Some type of butcher scale type thing with cobwebs was still on this broken down counter.  I hope it is still there because I am going to try to re-find it.  Unfortunately I had lost all my film pictures on that trip (kinda before digital camera's, or they were just coming out).  In addition I will explore for more intriguing finds.  It's cool to just set the compass on a heading and fly hundreds of miles scanning for interesting ground anomalies.  Here also are a few pics from a couple of interesting locations; an old Nike Missile range, from the Cold War days, abandoned long ago.  

Abandoned Nike Missile Base

Also an abandoned DEW line structure, intact with much equipment still in place...like all of a sudden everyone just quickly left. These particular sites are somewhat known, but was amazed by how much of the contents were still there and remained intact.

Polar Bears are to be Avoided

Yes, there are Polar Bears in the region of King William Island.  Maybe not as densely populated as in other arctic areas, but they are there in number.  After flying and hiking in the wilderness over the years, I have had a few  bear encounters.  And from my direct experience, the bear to be most respected -and avoided- is the Polar Bear.  Polar bears are not like other bears.  

Overview of the different bears (my own opinions):

Black Bears:

Black bears are the smallest in body size in general.  They are  mostly scavengers and seem to act like  giant raccoons.  Typically very fearful of man, except where conditioned by  humans - where given free food handouts and/or experiencing high human density habitat  and encroachment there of.  These bears are mostly cowards.  Even a  black bear sow with cubs will many times run from a confronting human.  However, they should be respected, because there is always a few exceptions to the rule, and there have been attacks, and even deaths.

I have never had a scary situation with a black bear.

Grizzly Bears:

I put them in two general categories - (1) Grizzly - Inland bears, smaller (2) Brown - same as a Grizzly, but coastal and much bigger.  

These bears, somewhat like the black bears, also tend to  shy away and avoid humans, if they feel  that they can maintain their self esteem in doing so.  They do have more "attitude".  They are bigger than black bears in general and the same escalation can be given to describe their  overall stubbornness and aggressiveness.  Grizzly sows will many times not run when surprised, or even worse, when cubs are threatened.  If you were hiking and would happen to hear the squeal of a Grizzly cub, get ready because you will probably be in a world of hurt within seconds.

My experience in direct close encounters with the Grizzly has been neutral with OK outcomes.

  

In Alaska, out on the peninsula, north of Kodiak Island, I was in an awkward position once while bent over caping  my caribou kill.  In this territory, when a gun is fired, it is like the dinner bell for any bears within earshot.  So after an hour or so, a very large dark furred Grizzly came to within 20 yards before I noticed that he was there.  But his manorisms did not indicate aggressiveness; no gnashing of teeth, no swinging of head side to side, etc.  So I promptly lifted what free parts of the caribou I could, then I started to whistle as calmly as I could muster.  And then I finally picked up my gear and rifle (all in about 30 seconds).  And  then I walked away slowly - BACKWARDS.  The grizzly just stood there and looked at me as if he were telling me that  I should leave now.  The hunting group came back the next day and from 200 yards away all could see that  same bear - and he was jealously guarding the kill site.  Now you could expect he had a different attitude, it was his  property now.  When he stood on his hinds and started sniffing the air currents, everyone crept away.

Polar Bears

Cute?  Yes.        Cuddly?  NO.

The polar bear is the most dangerous and deadly of all bears,  and they do go after humans.  They stalk.  And we are on the list.  They are meat  eaters and hunters and live mainly on seals and whales.  They are experts at patience and stealth.  These bears will sit patiently over a seal breathing hole in the ice for many hours in a row, motionless, even slowing their breathing down, in cold weather many degrees below zero.  They are on average much larger than any bears on the planet.

I have had some slightly unnerving situations with polar bears.

I first experienced polar bears while flying up the Hudson Bay coast from York Factory  at the confluence of the Nelson and Hayes's Rivers, up and around the Cape near Churchill.  This has the highest density of polar bears in the world.  My immediate thought was "Wow, all of these bears are huge, there were no small ones."  Many are close to or over 1,000 pounds.

Seeing polar bears in small groups, I noticed  a  pattern in their behavior to be a little curious of me, but keeping their distance and not confrontational.  They were probably mostly females.  The lone polar bears are the ones to watch out for.  And the young adolescent ones especially.  Males.

My first somewhat unnerving experience was when I landed in the partially melted ice pack  of Hudson Bay, in open water, to view a nice sized polar bear on the other side of that  ice flow, maybe 1,000 yards away.  I moored the seaplane and was out on the ice within minutes, but then couldn't see the bear anymore; he had gone.  I knew it was time to leave and sure enough, after I took off and circled the plane overhead, I could see that the polar bear had closed almost the entire distance by swimming  in the water cunningly on the pack edge -  the bear was almost to where the position my anchor had been clawed in the ice.

Another time, in 2003 (video clips online here) after a forced landing, a polar bear was sniffing around closely within 2 hours later.  When this  lone bear came, it was with a meandering zig zag path, like it was unaware of my presence, never looking, seemingly distracted, but ever getting closer.  This is how they stalk sometimes - arctic summer; no ice, no cover.   Best to sit on top of plane, not inside.  Was picked up by search and rescue, so avoided a total confrontation. 

Also in that same week, just to the north while there, an Inuk grandmother was devoured almost whole by a 2 or 3 year old polar bear boar.  The small grandchild in the tent was initially confronted and the old woman took a broom and beat on the bear's back in order to divert the attention away from the child.  I also still carry a newspaper article of the unfortunate Inuk hunter who, that same month, at his tent, was partially skinned alive by another polar bear, which was fortunately dispatched by his fellow hunters.

So, to conclude - Polar Bears do come to you.

Best defense of bears, in order of least aggressive to most aggressive:

1)  Bear spray.

2)  Cracker shells - Silencers from a 12 ga. shotgun, with an explosive (like an M80) that has a delayed fuse.  But one has to be careful as sometimes it can explode behind the bear and scare it towards you.  Not good.

3)  Slugs - In the the shotgun's magazine, in line behind the cracker shells.

4)  High powered rifle.  A last resort and it better be big.  I carry a .460 Weatherby (500 grain bullet traveling at around 3,000 feet per second - good on Cape Buffalo and Elephants).

Oh, and by the way, if you think you can just go ahead and shoot a charging polar bear, try not to because you will be in big trouble with the law if you injure or kill one.  You see, it's your fault.......because "you were there."  Just know the consequences before you pull a trigger.

Again, these are only my opinions from first hand experience.

12 Ga.  Defensive Shotgun - Mossberg "Persuader"

.460 Weatherby - A very high powered rifle with 500 grain ordinance  +/- 3,000 ft/second (wear a life vest when practicing)

.460 Weatherby Shell - Bullet is 500 grains

Aerial Thermal Pics of Simulated Tomb

It worked.  

These aerial thermal images of the simulated tomb were taken  during a recent late afternoon.  Altitude was approximately 3,000 feet MSL, with an ambient ground temperature of approximately 50 degrees fahrenheit.  

Note that the thermal image does clearly paint the colder grade (darker blue) which is the simulated tomb, compared with the adjacent undisturbed grade (lighter blue).  The size of the tomb is approximately 2.5' wide x 7' long x 4' plus deep, which shows up  clearly here as a small dark blue slash. 

The curving image just to the left of the tomb which has a lighter blue line is that of a golf green with rock formation. These small boulders in the back of the green form the curvature that still possessed some latent heat.

The larger red, white and pink images are the thermal images of the adjacent homes and roads, which have a more intense stored latent heat load from the earlier sun.

Below - This is the image that was shown in an earlier post of the simulated tomb - when it was under construction a few months ago this winter.

Gjoa Haven - Closest Civilization to Search Area

Roald Amudnsen

Gjoa Haven is in present day a hamlet of a little over 1,000 people.  Inhabited almost entirely by Inuit, it is located about 100 miles to the southeast from where the Franklin men began their death march in the late 1840's.  It was established in formality after the acclaimed Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen passed through sometime between 1903 and 1906.  After staying there for 2 years, Amundsen famously then went on, in his ship the Gjøa, to become the first to sail through the fabled Northwest Passage.  Amundsen learned from the local Netsilik people about arctic survival skills like how to use sled dogs and to wear animal skins in lieu of heavy, woolen clothing, like Franklin and his men wore.

Some of today's direct descendants of the people of Gjoa Haven are the ones who bore witness to the slow death of the men of the Franklin Expedition.  Although at times they did  try to help them, there was fear and caution.  In addition, the crew had a substantial lack of knowledge of the best ways to hunt and survive in these harsh arctic climates, combined with their practice of the traditional Victorian ways of challenging winter.

Here are some of my images from Gjoa Haven on the 2003 trip.  It was early September and the wind never seemed to be less than 30 knots, and many times much more.  One landing in particular had the wind 80 degrees perpendicular to the runway from the left at 55 knots and gusting.  I landed  on the far left runway side, with no flaps, on the left wheel - and danced down the runway in a slip that had the left wingtip almost on the ground to prevent from being blown off the prescribed path.  Having a gravel runway helped as the plane skidded the last 50 feet sideways to a stop.

Typical high arctic late summer day

Most days also had low ceilings, low visibilities and fog, not to mention the gales.  One must always have at least one out, in this region maybe two.

Gjoa Haven beach area 2003

"Clear day" at Gjoa Haven Airport 2003

Drilling into the permafrost for tie downs

Over Ocean Flying - Dangers

Many of you have asked about how one would deal with an engine problem with the plane over the extended ocean flying that I will have to do, or worse, in the event that I would end up having to ditch the aircraft.  The answer is simple - a very unpleasant and cold (literally very cold) "get wet".  Although the DeHavilland Beaver's Pratt & Whitney 985 radial engine is almost bullet proof (even when more than one cylinder blows, which in itself is a rarity, this engine keeps running with surprising power).  But one never knows 100%.  There for, as I am one who tries to think of all the what if's - of the "what if's" - I will have a 2 hour immersion suit on with a specially geared ELT hooked to  the suit ("Emergency Locator Beacon" with plane and description registered to NOAA), and within arms reach, a 5 man CO2 charged inflatable life raft with shelter/beacons and a survival gear pack (with Satphone in HD Ziplock inside).  If I were to be descending and preparing to ditch, I would pull the compact raft to my lap protecting my chest from impact and hopefully be able to grab the survival gear too on the way out.  The key though is to get the raft out and deployed as I would probably have only a matter of minutes before the plane would disappear.  Pictures of my actual equipment.  The suit is custom fitted.

Forensic Findings Just Out

A new report from the Journal of Archeological Science has just come out shedding more light on the personal identification of a skeleton of a member of Sir John Franklin's doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic.

Facial reconstruction from the skull

Some of the Franklin crew (Click to Enlarge)

These skeletal remains were sent back to England back in 1869 and interred beneath the Franklin Memorial in Greenwich. They were originally found and recovered by Charles Francis Hall when he was searching in vain for Franklin survivors.  It had since been widely accepted that the remains were that of Lieutenant Henry Le Vesconte.  But that is changing now.  In the process of  undertaking renovations to the monument in 2009, it had allowed for the opportunity to reexamine these artifacts with new and state of the art technologies and techniques.  And now that this new initial research is finished, which includes a facial reconstruction from the skull, it seems that it is doubtful that the bones are that of Vesconte after all.

One thing of particular interest is that one of the molars has a gold filing.  This drove conclusions that it had to be an officer, thus narrowing the field of prospects for identity.  But now, part of the new research includes isotope integrity testing of tooth enamel and those tests conclude that the type of drinking water this person had access to while growing up didn't match up with the area  that Le Vesconte had grown up, but rather Henry Goodsir.  Along with the facial reconstruction, this so far says that Assistant Surgeon of the Erebus - Henry Goodsir, leads the pack as being the identity owner of this skeleton.

Unfortunately, there are no surviving photographic artifacts of most of the officers and  none of the rest of the crew, so there can be no solid conclusions drawn from this work.  Only DNA testing from the descendants can help here.  And that work seems to be commencing.  We will stay tuned.

Less Ice in the North These Days

Melt Off --- There has definitely been a bigger  snow and ice melt off in recent summers in the far northern regions.  On the left is an Envisat ASAR mosaic of the Arctic Ocean at summer's end of 2007; early September (an unprecedented thaw).  This satellite image clearly showing the most direct route of the North-West Passage open (orange line) and the North-East passage only partially blocked (blue line). The dark gray color represents the ice-free areas, while green represents areas with sea ice. (Image courtesy of European Space Agency). 

If only the Franklin men could have been so lucky to have these summer days.

Fly the Planned 2011 Route to King William Island via Google Earth

  Flight Plan:

  Chicago's Grayslake to Woodruff, Wisconsin -     262 miles
  Woodruff to Fort Frances, Ontario -                     256 miles
  Fort Frances to Pickle Lake, Ontario -                 240 miles
  Pickle Lake to Gillam, Manitoba -                       385 miles
  Gillam to Churchill, Manitoba -                           166 miles
  Churchill to Baker Lake, Manitoba -                    390 miles
  Baker Lake to Cambridge Bay, Nunavut -            414 miles
  Cambridge Bay to KWI (Victory Point) -              175 miles
  Total One Way Trip -                                       2,288 miles

Click here to Fly to King William Island

The Officers

Here are some ACTUAL images of some of the key members of the Franklin Expedition.  

These  images were taken with cameras that represented one of the earliest forms of photography, called "Daguerreotype".  Mercury vapor from a pool of heated mercury would be used to develop the plate which consists of a copper plate with a thin coating of silver rolled in contact, which has previously been sensitized to light with iodine vapor.  This is to form silver iodide crystals on the silver surface of the plate.

1850 Daguerreotype Camera

The image is formed on the surface of a silver plate that looks like a mirror. It could easily be rubbed off with the fingers and would oxidize in the air, so from the outset daguerreotypes were mounted in sealed cases or frames with a glass cover.

Interesting note - Look closely at the images below, at the  shiny hat bills.  One can actually see the reflection of the masted ships in the background which means that they were posing at the ship dock. Perhaps a refection of the Terror or even the Erebus itself? James Fitzjames had 2 images taken (one is below).  As he shifted slightly for the two portraits, experts have determined when superimposing the pics, that not only is there the image of the ship reflecting, but also an image of Sir John Franklin himself standing there watching!  This enlightenment is thanks to  Russell Potter's blog (highly recommended viewing) "Visions of the North" and author William Battersby, from his book - "James Fitzjames, the Mystery Man of the Franklin Expedition"

(Per William, apparently Daguerreotypes do not have a grain like photographs do – the layer of metal that is developed is at the atomic level.  Therefore with some of them it is possible to blow up the eye so large that you can see the reflection on the retina – i.e., the full picture of what the person was looking at.  Let's hope someone might try that soon with these images.)

Sir John Franklin, (59) Captain - Erebus

James Fitzjames (33) Commander - Erebus

Graham Gore, Commander - Erebus

Francis Crozier (age 49) Captain - Terror

Lieutenant James Fairholme, Erebus

Edward Couch, Mate, Erebus

Lieutenant H.T.D. Les Vesconte, Erebus

Dr. Harry Goodsir, Assistant Surgeon, Erebus

James Reid, Ice Master, Erebus

Dr. Stephan Stanley, Surgeon, Erebus

Aerial Thermal Imaging

Thermal camera

The goal of this undertaking is to find artifacts that tie to the Franklin Expedition of 1845.  The main artifacts sought after for this mission relates to finding a container that holds the written records made by those doomed men, or the buried coffin location of Sir John Franklin himself.  No one knows if either of these entities exist.  The existence of Sir John's tomb is not as probable as one might hope because anything that might stand out from a standing visual sight line on the ground would have seemingly already been found by any one of the previous searches that have already been conducted there by others.  But that would assume one is looking in the usual places.  Will NOT only be looking there.  And should something exist and is buried in colder dirt, sand and rock, “on the land”, it is not only possible, but probable, that it would show up on the thermal camera from the air.

John Hartnell (previously discovered by others)

Planning includes flying over areas of King William Island to thermally and visually examine the topography for potential signs of a tomb, earth cavity of ice or hollow, or any anomaly that may be still frozen underground - where surrounding grade tundra or rock may be ice free and slightly warmer during a warm summer arctic day.   On the left is a photo of John Hartnell, one of the first 3 to die on the Franklin Expedition.  He died on January 4, 1846 and is here almost as he appeared then - frozen in time.

The key to the theory on how to find it - The ground surrounding a target will thermally image slightly WARMER (red/yellow) on the sensing spectrum than the section of terrain that is partially frozen or the sub terrain ice that it might be encapsulated in, which would image slightly COLDER (blue).

Image on left - Taken at 3,000 feet AGL from Beaver with thermal camera, inset pic 6x zoom of cold spots on ground

The thermal camera has a very sensitive imager which detects a 1 degree heat differential from as far as 10,000 feet away.  The camera will be custom mounted in the belly of DeHavilland Beaver airplane and exposed to the elements through a custom built cone integrated in the cargo drop hatch door.  Potential targets will be recorded by GPS coupled to the camera imaging system to facilitate ground searches with metal detection devices (including magnetometer) which include coil and blanket antennae configurations.

Tundra Tires = ON

Tundra Tires were installed on the Beaver today.  Thanks to Craig Manske, Ron Knudsen and our man with the crane, Paul Fries.  Their fine skills made the entire process flow smooth as silk. See this link for most of the sequential process - Installing the Tundra Tires  Video links are under pics below.

Floats disconnected & rolled away (Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SJ16d3RfNc)

Installing Left Strut (Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jjm_a_iZdQo)

Installing Right Tire (Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUHfO9ZrgEc)

Setting the Plane Down (Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF9-ar8orOI)

Podcast from NOVA on Franklin's doomed Expedition of 1845

This video podcast was produced by Susan K. Lewis and edited by David Levin and Gayle Anonuevo. NOVA is produced by WGBH in Boston. Funding for NOVA is provided by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and public television viewers.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/arctic/

Search Area

NBC may do a special on this expedition in May 2011.  Not sure when it might air, but it would probably be just prior to, or after departure - which is planned for mid to late June.  Stay tuned here and if they decide to do it, should be able to give plenty of heads up ahead of time on when.

Here is a satellite image of the planned work area:

Simulated Tomb for Testing this Spring

Well, the snow keeps coming down here in the Chicago area.  Had to delay the crane for hoisting the Beaver again so the main tundra tires can be installed.  Looks like the next best bet is  scheduling for next weekend, February 12th.

This picture was taken after the new snow today.  It is an in progress of construction simulation of  what Franklin's tomb probably would be like, if it exists.  The rectangular hole in the ground is 2.5' wide x 7' long x 4' plus deep.  The cavity is surrounded with a waterproof tarp, which was filled with water last fall up to 6" below grade.  Also within the cavity is a wood box, nailed top, brass buttons and other small pieces of metal that might also be found on a captain's uniform.  These are the type of targets that can be detected by airborne and ground penetrating radar and magnetometer.  The complete section of ice has been completely frozen for 2 months now; a solid underground ice block.  Soon stones and gravel fill will be poured in the last 6", then those remaining cavities will be filled with more water, so that the entire area is solid stone and ice.

If Sir John Franklin's grave does indeed exist up there, it most likely would have been very caringly prepared by his men after his death.  They loved their leader.  It stands to reason that his grave must have been at least as well prepared (if not better than) as the famous tombs that were found and exhumed from the first three men that died at the expedition's initial wintering grounds - Beechey Island.  Those men: Torrington, Hartnell and Braine, each were frozen in solid ice, even solid ice within their coffins, from water infiltration.

Within the notations of the only note found, that famous last note from the expedition's officers, Sir John was logged to have died 17 months after these three men.  His death was prior to the deaths of most of the men on this expedition. 134 men had set sail on two ships from England (see entire expedition's muster), 5 were sent home on their last supply pick up, leaving 129 to sail off  - never to be heard from again.  After Franklin died, most of the men continued on to later find their own slow doom from starvation, over the following 2 or 3 years.  Therefor, if Sir John were  to have been buried in that traditional manner, he should be to this day very well preserved.

And with him would there be a copy of the ship's papers?  The logs of what happened?  Maybe.  The Admiralty's orders had set forth that 2 sets of records be kept (Section 22).  Finding these invaluable papers would indeed be the holy grail of any search.

This spring, immediately after the snow melt off here, airborne scanning equipment  will be tested over this simulated tomb from 2,000 feet AGL and up.  These trials will be executed in order to confirm the sensitivity spectrum required, and then enabling correct settings for the final tuning refinement and programming for this summer's 2011 expedition.