No flying in FOG

Woke up this morning bright and early, to look out the window and
see Ilulissat shrouded in fog:




We suited up anyway, because you never know, and had breakfast,
getting ready to head to the airport to meet our pilot.

At breakfast, we heard the news that the pilot had called, and the
fog was forecast to remain through the day.  He suggested we check
in again around midday, but was not too hopeful about the
prospects for flying at all today.

So we lingered over breakfast, had that extra cup of coffee...

And then came the job of planning how to adapt to the loss of not
one flying day (Saturday), but two.  I spent some quality time
with the specs of our helicopter (cruise sped 120 knots, load
capacity 1300 pounds including fuel, fuel burn rate 300 pounds per
hour), and came up with, shall we say, an optimistic plan for
tomorrow, in the event that the weather allows us to fly (as I
write it is clearing, and currently the weather is flyable, so we
are hopeful).  We'll work in two teams of two; here's the plan for
our helicopter pas de deux (JAV is the designator for the
Ilulissat airport):


*** DRAFT new flight plan for Tuesday, 7 May 2012
    08:00 - depart JAV for 28N0/GULL with 2pax (team a), 365 lbs cargo
    08:30 - drop pax & cargo at 28N0/GULL (site a), return to JAV
    09:00 - depart JAV for QING with 2 pax (team b), 365 lbs cargo
    09:30 - land and hold at QING
    10:30 - depart QING to GULL with team b.
    10:40 - overfly 37N4 enroute.
    10:45 - land at GULL (site b), discharge pax & cargo (team b)
    11:00 - reposition to GULL (site a), pick up 2 pax & cargo (team
    a), depart to 22N1/FOXX
    11:15 - reposition to GULL (site b), land and hold. 
    - if needed, this would be a good time to refuel -
    12:15 - depart GULL (site b) with 2 pax & cargo (team b), move to FOXX.
    Land and hold at FOXX (both teams at FOXX)
    13:00 - depart FOXX for 25N0 with 2 pax & cargo (team b).  Drop at 25N0.
    13:15 - reposition to FOXX.
    13:30 - depart FOXX for 19N1 with 2 pax and cargo (team a). 
    13:45 - reposition to 25N0
    14:45 - depart 25N0 for 28N4 with 2 pax & cargo (team b).  Drop at
    28N4.
    15:00 - reposition to 19N0.
    15:15 - depart 19N0 for JAV with 2 pax & cargo (team a).
    16:00 - depart JAV for 28N4.
    16:30 - land at 28N4
    16:45 - depart 28N4 for JAV with 2 pax & cargo (team a).
    17:15 - land at JAV- end of day. 

  
And if we make it through all of that, we go home and fall over.

Fingers crossed!