AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2014 - 59

The mission in July was to supply the
station, dubbed the Flashline Mars Arctic
Research Station for an erstwhile sponsor, and verify that it remains habitable
after four years of dormancy. Spencer
and Sugden, meanwhile, volunteered primarily for the rare chance to visit the top
of the world, just 800 miles south of the
geographic North Pole.
"It sounded kind of neat," Spencer said.
'IT'S JUST THE WEATHER'

BAKER VAIL

Miles rolled by slowly, the Kodiaks cruising just shy of 160 knots, their speed limited
by a combination of loading that required
a 2.5-degree nose-up pitch for level flight-
and the need to conserve fuel. That point
had been driven home on the flight from
Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, where the
mission cleared customs, to Slave Lake,
a fuel stop on the route to Yellowknife.
Spencer's left tank fuel gauge
plunged to zero an hour out of Slave
Lake. Spencer had seen this gauge
problem twice since he bought the
Kodiak in 2011. He had also watched
the Lethbridge line crew pump his fuel
on the ramp, and knew there should be
plenty of fuel remaining. Still, he said,
"there's nothing worse than staring at a
red blinking empty fuel indicator."
Sugden was given permission to
close in and visually verify all four fuel
caps were in place, demonstrating the
value of having a wingman.
North of Edmonton, thick forest
stretched to the horizon. The transcontinental network of roads was far behind.
Spencer carefully scanned the route ahead
for landing options (there were no good
ones), occasionally sparing a moment to
cycle the pages of the Garmin G1000 to
watch the fuel gauge drop and the projected range circle shrink, receding like a
slow-motion ocean wave from beyond Slave
Lake to well short of it.
"I had plans," Spencer said, safely on the
ground and annoyed by an issue that had
THE HOOD RIVER plunges nearly 200 feet
through Wilberforce George-viewed here
from north facing south-before meeting
the Arctic Sound at Bathurst Inlet. Named
by Sir John Franklin, Wilberforce Falls
is one of the few major waterfalls in the
world north of the Arctic Circle.

bedeviled technicians. "I was in the Marine
Corps. I always think the worst, imagining
[what can happen]. It's not pessimism,"
he continued, wondering how pilots flying anywhere can afford not to spare some
attention to contemplate worst-case scenarios in the interest of being prepared.
North of Yellowknife, crossing the
Arctic Circle, the magnetic compass
became a cockpit decoration and trees
gave way to scrub and tundra. A vast emptiness was broken only occasionally by an
isolated outpost. There are widely scattered
diamond mines; gold and other metals also
are pulled from the ground. A fuel stop in
Cambridge Bay was required before press-

ing on to Resolute Bay. Gaulton had spent 16
years working in Resolute Bay, visiting the
North Pole twice during his tenure there.
"Both times were going up to pull people
out," Gaulton said. For all of its remoteness,
Resolute Bay-the northernmost location with scheduled air service in North
America-can be a busy place. "I had the
pleasure of meeting Sir Edmund Hillary and
Neil Armstrong. Everybody lands there."
Back in Yellowknife, Joe Andrews, a
Summit Air pilot with years of Arctic aviation under his belt, had pointed out on a
map the location of Wilberforce Gorge-
one of very few known waterfalls north of
the Arctic Circle, where the Hood River
makes its final plunge from the North
American mainland into the Arctic Sea. It
was a scenic highlight of the trip.

"Resolute's great. It's just the weather,"
said Andrews. Hazards, he said, are generally manageable. "The big one is fuel. As
long as you've got fuel...."
Sugden and Spencer had done their
homework before making the voyage,
studying charts and tapping knowledge
of pilots like Andrews. "We called a lot of
pilots that fly up here and just asked them
questions," Sugden recalled.
The Kodiaks slowed to 60 knots with
flaps deployed, approaching a narrow strip
of Devon Island dirt that was barely distinguishable from the snow-patched dirt and
mud all around it. A rock formation rose just
to the right of the final approach, the landing target a patch of mud marked with
tire ruts in the midst of rocky terrain.
Sugden and Spencer reversed their props
as soon as the wheels touched, slowing quickly before the terrain dropped
downhill. They had about a thousand
feet to work with, more or less.
Relatively few aircraft could (or
should) attempt to carry a ton of people
and cargo to Devon Island, a place where
polar bears roam and summer mud can
snare a landing aircraft the way ice
snared HMS Resolute, and never let go.
The Kodiaks made several trips to
Devon Island, delivering a crew of three,
with two more to follow in the coming
days. They returned to Yellowknife for
more food, supplies, and equipment
before fetching the volunteers for the
trip back home the following week. They
laid the groundwork for a more ambitious
mission that Zubrin and the Mars Society
hope will begin in the summer of 2014-a
scientific enterprise intended to test the
ability of humans to operate in a hostile
environment and endure the most extreme
isolation Earth can offer. The society is
working to raise $1 million to support the
mission, and recruit volunteers to crew it.
Zubrin said help from pilots is critical-and appreciated: There will be
much more to carry, and air charters
in the Arctic cost thousands of dollars
the nonprofit group does not have. "Pilots
can help get us to Mars," he said.
AOPA
EMAIL jim.moore@aopa.org

WEB

www.marssociety.org
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2014
