Prince of Wales Fort - Cape Merry, at Churchill

Did some hiking around here in Churchill since Friday.  Here are a few pics.

Prince of Wales Fort - Cape Merry

(Left) I took this picture Friday evening at the cannon battery across the Churchill River from the Prince of Wales Fort.  In the distance, under a fog bank, you can see the  outline of the Fort.  By the late 1720s the uneasy peace between England and France threatened to disintegrate, and in 1730 the Hudson's Bay Company authorized the construction of a stone fortification here at the mouth of the Churchill River. Prince of Wales Fort was built in 1731-1771, at a time when its major shipment and supply route operated from Hudson’s Bay through Arctic waters. 

The fortress was constructed to be an impregnable English stronghold, and today it's imposing 12 m thick walls and 40 mounted cannon still survive along with this battery, cannon and powder magazine built to safeguard it on Cape Merry. As commander of the fort, Explorer Samuel Hearne surrendered it to the French in 1782, an act that terminated Hudson’s Bay occupation and terminated Prince of Wales Fort’s utility. 

Miss Piggy

Here is a pic I took yesterday of "Miss Piggy", a Curtiss C-46 Commando which crash landed in November 1979. The plane was  affectionately named because of the sheer abundance of cargo it was able to carry, also at one stage it did have a cargo of pigs.  On the fateful day, the plane had mechanical problems after taking off from Churchill Airport and was attempting to return to land, but came down several miles short of the landing strip.  it came  to rest on a rocky cliff after topping a few trees and taking out power lines. Fortunately there were no fatalities but two of the three crew were seriously injured. 

 MV Ithica Shipwreck

Here is a shot from yesterday while I was hiking the coast of Hudson Bay at a place called Birds Cove.  The MV Ithaca (below) was a British owned steamship, built in 1922 in, Quebec and is 80 meters long. It was heading to Rankin Inlet (Hudson Bay community) to deliver generators and plywood.  The ship ran aground after the engines failed and the 80 MPH gale-force winds pushed it to it's present location.  

The hull was punctured and ripped, and the prop and rudder torn off.  Local rumour says the MV Ithaca was deliberately run aground for the insurance money.  Lloyds of London investigated the incident and agreed that it was indeed done purposely. Consequently, no insurance was paid to the owners. 

When the ice is gone, in low tide, one can walk out there.  It's about a mile off shore.  Hurry back tho.  I think it's under 10 hours before the tide rises again.

Abandoned Structures

No shortage of abandoned buildings here. They come in all shapes and sizes, from little shacks to huge government scientific and military buildings.  On the right is a pic I took Friday of a little shack that is common on the coastline.  

As I mentioned previously, next week I hope to do some exploring for old HBC trading posts out in the bush.  Will get pics to post here.

Churchill Critters

From yesterday

First Stop - Churchill, Manitoba

Landed here in Churchill Thursday, June 2nd, at 5pm.  With great tail winds, it was record time for me in the Beaver.  On other trips, with huge headwinds and this plane only pushing 100 knot air speeds, I have been known to sometimes fly backwards.  But I love this bird, it's such a tank.

Taxiing to ramp after landing at Lakeland Airport, northern Wiscconsin.

Initially left Chicago to spend Memorial weekend up in northern Wisconsin with the family. - and to make final tweaks and preparations.  Had an interview just before departing with NBC at Campbell Airport.


Also had just recovered from some tail wheel issues related to a bad shimmy, which had caused some structural pain.  But thanks to a lot of people rallying, we turned around a 30 day job in 4 days, round the clock.

NBC interview at Campbell Airport

So, departed at 9am this last Thursday morning, June 2nd, IFR from Lakeland Airport in Arbor Vitae Wisconsin, a few miles  away from where we have a lake home - "Kodiak Lodge", on Fence Lake, Lac du Flambeau chain.  After a quick 2 hour flight, cleared customs smoothly in Fort Frances, after averaging tailwinds of 30 knots, at 8,000 feet.

Had a very close call from the Fort en route to Red Lake, my second stop.  At about 100  miles into the flight, cruising at 4,500 VFR, I observed a very long black thin line stretching across almost my entire windscreen at 12 o'clock.  I determined that it was a formation of geese, actually the largest goose group I have ever seen from land or air.  No big deal as I began a slow descent.  However, not fast enough as  in no time, within 200 or 300 feet, a pod of maybe 30 or 40 geese of what was probably a good 200 to 250 in total formation number, panicked and scatted in all directions, with many of them diving down straight at me.  I had to yank power to idle and nose over spiral turning around 60 degrees down.  Two of these birds just missed me over the top of my right wing, and whizzed by.

There was probably a speed rate of convergence of at least 150 miles an hour, so a bird strike of this magnitude would have probably resulted in structural damage or the "bird through the windshield" thing.  Funny, I always scoffed at the movie "The Edge" when the geese took the Beaver down.  Like how could you hit them?  I am now a believer.  I have never had a bird strike in 2,000 hours of flight time.  Luckily my geese here were the traditional Canadian type.  You can see them very easily in a white cloud sky.  If I was farther north and it were snow geese, I probably would not have been as fortunate.

During landing at Red Lake had a tough go of it.  Massive 90 degree crosswind and lot's of wind shear coming in runway 08; it started as a perfect two wheel landing tail up....which is what I prefer at airport  landings 100%.  I was loaded heavy so I came in fast with less flaps -  then pretty bad turbulence/shear...and it wasn't a pretty set down.  Took a quick fuel turn and loaded all my tanks.  With this tailwind, I figured i could skip Gillam and fly direct to Churchill.  The tailwinds actually picked up and escalated, so I made Churchill in under 4 hours.  

Red Lake to Churchill.  June 2, 2011, Tundra = SWAMP
 

After the first hour north of Red Lake most of the trees were now gone and it was pure tundra.  The only discomfort was looking down the whole way and never seeing anywhere to land with my big tundra tires.  That's because of the very wet year, the melt - the tundra was  nothing but a deep SWAMP.  100 miles south of Churchill I angled towards the railroad tracks and stayed within 5 miles parallel, just in case...you never know.

Welcome to the Arctic: Friday and Saturday the weather turned to normal Churchill -

Base to final - Runway 25, Churchill

Winds gusting 50 knots from the NW (the left).  Note the wing lifting.

20's and 30's F and 30 to 50 knot winds from the northwest, with blowing sleet and snow.  I was careful to secure the plane, but it was not good enough.  

Yesterday afternoon the winds really picked up  and started gusting from the northwest and it moved the tail several feet and was trying to flip the plane.

No tie downs here, just concrete tubs that slide around the wet pavement.  After securing more tubs, I went searching in the tundra and came up with some odd scrap  to use as additional wheel chocks.  Train rails, big metal sprockets and gears.  There is scrap metal chunks of every size and type laying everywhere in the tundra around here - it's like Mad Max.

Augmented my regular wheel chocks with scrap iron chunks.

When I get to Cambridge Bay, that ramp is gravel so I can use my hammer drill and generator; pounding in my home made three foot long 3/4" threaded tie down rods.  The plane won't move an inch there.

Will see what happens in the next week or two.  Supposed to hear yea or nae on the final permit to do this mission.  If I am turned down for some reason, have much to do here.   Investigating inaccessible abandoned Hudson's Bay Company trading posts sounds intriguing....like the one I found in year 2000 far out west of here.  Or maybe a flight up to Marble Island to see in the flesh the ruins of the doomed Knight expedition of 1700's fame.  Probably too many boulders there for a tundra tires landing, but I may just have a look see.  Weather is supposed to be clearing somewhat mid next week so planning to go into the bush for sure.  Will write more in the next day or two on present goings on - today was hiking  the  coast watching for polar bears.  It's still a little early here for that, but just might see an "early bird".  However, in 3 or 4 weeks, it will be swarming at Churchill with the white bear.  The pack ice is near to break.

Permits

The permit application review process has been in motion and expect to hear whether the expedition is approved or not approved by early to mid June.

2011 Main Objective

Just like the mystery of where the ships HMS Erebus and Terror may rest today on the ocean floor, on land there are many square miles to consider as possible resting places for the remains of Sir John.  Or was he buried at sea?  I think not.  But no one knows for sure.  And if on the land, he may not have had the benefit of the ceremonious keeping's of Torrington, Hartnell and Braine, who still remain buried today at Beechey Island, deep below the permafrost, intact in their coffins.  The Admiral's bones may be in a covered rock hollow, and/or scattered around.

King William Island, Nunavut

But according to the famous note left  by Fitzjames and Crozier, the Admiral died early compared to the majority.  Theoretically one would think that most of the men were still able at this point in time.  So it seems there is a decent chance that he is still out there well preserved in some form.

To date I have flown here locally many times testing the aerial thermal scanning techniques and then  executing subsequent image analysis.  The data storage is large and the careful inspection of each frame must be properly deciphered.  I have discovered that the amount of time to properly analyze data and images is  enormous.  Not likely I will have opportunity to properly sift through it all when up there, so although the overall objective is to find Sir John, the main goal this year will be to just properly gather all the thermal/photographic data.

Auxiliary Fuel Tanks for Extra Range

The DeHavilland Beaver has very long range with 3 belly tanks totaling 95 gallons, plus wingtip tanks on each side totaling another 42 gallons.  In addition, recently added this custom 35 gallon stand alone tank, lashed down in the cabin behind the front seats.  All seats are removed now except the front two.  Deep cycle Jell Cell battery between the front seats, just aft, powers the integral portable fuel pump (which can be disconnected and will be also used to extract 100LL from the 55 gallon fuel drums in the remote locations).  Jell Cell also powers other odds and ends when out on the land.  In order to use this final 35 gallons, will have to land and refuel manually, as this tank is not connected to the plane's plumbing.  Important that the tank is grounded to the plane, and when fueling, also that the plane is grounded to the ground.

On the front right seat the Toughbook is on a charger; mounted on a Havis tilt mount (used in police cars) strapped in and wired for thermal scanning, while coupled to a separate Garmin GPS system.

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