Update: That second ferry flight from Western Canada was canned, with all the COVID restrictions the customer (some environment study) cancelled. So the income I planned on, all the maps I had ordered, lines I had drawn on those maps with multiple routings and fuel stops planned, my bags packed and ready to go, for three weeks - all for naught. So I started looking for work again, as sitting home don't pay. I tried to get on a maintenance test pilot gig in Addis Ababa (I was just there in December) when the same Canadian company asked if I wanted to go up to Baffin and replace a pilot already up there. Night shift. Here I am. Here's Northern Baffin Island at midnight...
Couldn't figure out how to embed the video but here's the link. Pretty bright for midnight!
https://photos.smugmug.com/Arctic/i-rfmRQfM/0/782a39df/640/IMG_0297-640.mp4They chased a polar bear out of camp with a helicopter the night before I arrived.
Not flying up myself, I had to fly commercial to a private airport near Montreal for a charter flight up. I check my bags and just prior to boarding I get paged. Security tells me they've x-rayed my bag and saw a knife and no knives are allowed. I claim to be a helicopter pilot and need a survival knife for my job, as I'm flying in very remote regions, and it's my CHECKED luggage. NO KNIVES ALLOWED SIR, please open your bag. So I sigh and open my bag and buddy fishes around and finds my small Dpx folder (that I have carried in some 35 different countries), looks at it, says its not that big so I can take it..... He fails to notice the 7 1/2" blade of my Randall Model 14 just a sweater below. Fucking Canada.... who the hell wouldn't bring a knife up here???