DO24 flies over GreenlandAfter all the press and coverage in Europe how did Iceland receive you? Actually we were met by a handful of re-porters asking for interviews, but I fett frozen from the inside out! lt was too cold to talk. We hitched a ride with a former airline pilot to the hotel. One of the most interesting things I discovered in Iceland was that they have hot water from the underground volcanic activ-ity. They also have some fu n nightlife. The next day, thankfully, the airport waived our airport charges, and we left Iceland for Greenland.
How was your experience in Greenland, and isn't there some Dornier history there?
The flight going to Greenland was extremely beautiful, with sunny clear skies, and calm oceans below. Our vistas were huge icebergs floating by.The flight took us about four hours and 40 minutes. On arrival our visibility had de-teriorated and it was cloudy over the airport. To compound the Situation, the airport was sur-rounded by mountains and the navigational ap-proach into the airport was guided by an anti-quated system called NDB (Non-Directional Bea-con) which was basically a needle in the aircraft pointing to the airport using a radio station fre-quency. I know now what it must have felt like when the German explorer, Captain Von Gronau flew into Greenland with the Dornier Wal f ying boat in 1930, during his famous cross Atlantic flights from Germany to the USA We were able to safely negotiate the steep approach and we decided to spend the night. We also found Greenland very cold, but the airport manager said it was warm compared to winters with -60 degrees celsius. Being so remote, every-thing here needed to be imported and it was veiy quiet. We were looking forward to the next day's flight, and heading out, we en-countered poor weather and icy conditions which we avoided by changing altitudes. We were very happy to have made it across the Atlantic! l~
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