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I am back in Minneapolis after an excellent experience riding along on the Crimson route trip with my friend. Awe inspiring! I flew back commercially from Glasgow May 14. I am in the process of organizing my notes and photos into a more detailed summary but want to address some of the questions raised in the thread.
1. As Mark said the fuel situation at Iqualit is unchanged. Maybe 6 55 gal drums left as of may 6 when we were there. New batch arrives on ship in July. Actually my friend is coming back in about 4 days and is a bit concerned that there will be any left. Talk to Garth or Lewis at Frobisher Bay Flight services to get the current quantity remaining. Very helpfull, professional FBO.
2. This trip was strictly for fun. No higher motive or even ferrying an aircraft for profit. Simply the realization of my friend's longtime dream. Regarding the issue of liability in the event of a rescue situation, an excellent point has been raised by David in his post. The cost of rescue is staggering. A very knowledgeable pilot I talked to in Reykjavik said the price for SAR is $15k PER HOUR in some cases. The liability insurance for the trip amounted to $3000 which I know didn't cover hull on the airplane and I really doubt covered SAR but I just don't know. Basically I decided midway through the journey I was risking my neck as well as my financial future. If I had it to over I would have researched all the legal what ifs more carefully. Of course then maybe I wouldn't have gone at all and that would have been a shame.
3. As Mark let on the cost of this route is staggering - especially in Greenland. At Ilulissat the "official" policy was to charge $100 per hr (first half hour free) to plug the 400 watt engine heater in! My buddy said "that's not really fair" to which our host in town replied grimly "nothing in Greenland is fair".
Thanks guys!
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