Truly aviation at it's finest! (thank you India Four Two for your content)
http://i1047.photobucket.com/albums/...et/7863382.jpg

CBC News video of crew describing mission:

Daring South Pole rescue mission - CBC News | The National

Very substantial article in today's Washington Post about the rescue. Can't really find any faults in its accuracy. Canadian nature of Kenn Borek Air mentioned prominently :D.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...escue-mission/

Flying to the ends of the Earth on wheels, floats and skis
 

Kenn Borek Air: Canada's low-key, daredevil airline


Flying to the ends of the Earth on wheels, floats and skis

By Kyle Bakx, CBC News Posted: Jul 10, 2016 3:00 AM MT Last Updated: Jul 10, 2016 8:26 AM MT



Article




Pilot Wally Dobchuk recounts the rescue mission timeline from start to finish

Video Interview

Kenn Borek Air: Canada's low-key, daredevil airline?
 

Dunno about that.

I spent 8 years in the Beaufort Sea and Canadian High Arctic flying IFR helicopters in support of oil exploration.

I worked along side Kenn Borek Air on many of these projects. I also knew Kenn (RIP) personally.

KBA are probably the most professional, most knowledgeable and most experienced Arctic operators in the world.

Dare devil they sure as hell ain't!

oleary,

As a Calgarian and someone who has spent some time paxing in Twin Otters in the Arctic, I was annoyed by the daredevil headline.

I was going to post about it, but your post is much more authoritative.

The conditions at the South Pole are admittedly extreme, but KBA's experience in the Canadian High Artic makes the company uniquely qualified for this mission.

Have a look at the weather in Resolute (74°42' N 094°50' W):

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resolute,_Nunavut

The January daily mean temperature is -35° C and the record low is -52° C!

Even much further south, temperatures can be very low. For example, even in Calgary (KBA's HQ - 51° N - the same latitude as Gatwick), there are a few days each winter with temperatures below -30° C and the record low is -45° C.

I've spent time in northern Alberta and BC, and the Arctic on seismic crews in very cold temperatures. The biggest issue is not so much the actual temperature, but the wind-chill which sends the apparent temperature plunging. This affects not just people but machinery as well. Steel becomes brittle and hydraulic hoses fracture.

Vehicles are usually never shutdown and are left running all night, with an electric "block-heater" plugged in for good measure. With aircraft, the engines are covered with insulated blankets and kept warm with electric heaters or Herman Nelson hot-air heaters.

I liked the video interviews of the crews - very modest and professional. Well done KBA.

India Four Two
 

It's not just the cold.

When you are north of the magnetic North Pole in November, December, January (Panarctic Oils) and you know that there is nobody for 2000 miles to come and save you if you screw it up - it gets VERY, VERY lonely.

The boys and girls at Kenn Borek Air have been providing an Arctic and Antarctic service safely since 1970.

You don't get that record by being "daredevils".

oleary,

Very true. I still vividly remember hearing about the Panarctic Electra crash at Rae Point.

My Arctic experience was cushy by comparison - the Tuk Peninsula and Shingle Point, although I do remember feeling very lonely when I spotted a polar bear, while I was on the airstrip, 500 m from camp.

Bin to ...
 

.... Pat Bay on Herschel Island hundreds of times.

I have very fond memories of my 7000 hours in the Arctic. Mostly 212 and 61 but some 76 too.

Lots of night VFR (ya right :oh:) slinging for Imperial, Gulf and Panarctic.

"The biggest issue is not so much the actual temperature, but the wind-chill which sends the apparent temperature plunging. This affects not just people but machinery as well. Steel becomes brittle and hydraulic hoses fracture."

Sorry. but "wind chill" has no effect on machinery, Only on exposed skin and the moisture it contains.

bloom,
Mostly correct, particularly where animal life and moisture evaporation come into it.
However ... A fluid (in this case, air) moving over any surface will facilitate heat exchange.

bloom
 

Clearly, you have never worked on oil rigs in cold temperatures.

Absolutely correct. Not to talk about departing Rae Point for points even further north, to land beside a drill rig on the frozen Arctic Ocean at 82N for Dome Pete - in the days before INS and GPS were commercially available!

That good old Sperry Slaved Gyro Compass (a J-2 IIRC) was the reliable 'lifeline' in the areas of compass unreliability, with astro backup (LoL).

And, we won't even talk about communications (or lack thereof)!

True dat - no GPS or GNS
 

In the Bell 212 and Sikorsky 61 we had the Ontrac III (VLF) which promptly went into DR whenever we encountered P static (dry snow).

We also had a good Sperry compass, C-7 as I recall. They didn't usually precess more than about 15 degrees an hour.

We also had ADF's (when the ground station worked) but when you picked up a rig mat or Nodwell or trailer the needles lined up with the load - usually 90 degrees to direction of flight.

The first load in was a ground lighting station with the mercury arc lights pointed straight up.

Next was a trailer that you placed sideways for a good primary radar return. RadAlt was your go to for height.

All this meant we got awfully good at climbing up above the (low) clouds and lookin' at the stars.

I called it the "about yeah" method.

Wind is about "yeah", slow load so ground speed is about "yeah" and drift correction should be about "yeah". That meant Cisco (or Noice or Pat Bay or Cameron) had to be about "yeah". Time to go was calculated with your best guess of groundspeed and your watch.

Plug all the above into the old Mark I brain and give'r!

I will not regal you with stooging around at 300 feet in a 212 pitch dark searching for the ice stations to change tapes (daily) which we did for a month BEFORE we started any of the above.

Weather forecasting, of course, was an FA based on not much.

TC would have us all in jail if we did that stuff now :O

Twotter to the South Pole
 

Sorry for the new thread Mods - the old one is closed.


Well the Kenn Borek team who pulled off the trip to the pole in the middle of winter have been recognized and honoured by the Smithsonian - Well deserved for all.


'A mighty bit of flying': Kenn Borek air crews who pulled off daring Antarctic rescue honoured by Smithsonian - Calgary - CBC News

Excellent and well deserved!

Well done that crew!