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Our helicopter arrived later that day from Resolute, Canada. We were very lucky to get John Innis (on the right) as our pilot, a man with many hours of experience flying helicopters around the Canadian arctic. He flies for Universal Helicopters of Newfoundland, based in Goose Bay, NF. John was calm, capable, and flexible during our field operations. We flew in a Bell 206 Long Ranger (L/R), which has about as much interior space as a medium-sized walk-in closet. Enough for our operations, but not by much.
We awoke the next day to warmer temperatures (nearly freezing), low clouds, and snow. It proceeded to snow for 3 days. Not much wind, really, but essentially no visibility. Helicopters (or at least, the Bell 206 L/R) just don’t fly in these conditions. So we waited around in Alert. We practiced loading up the helo with equipment, we planned our field station locations and procedures, and we watched too much TV.
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