Like astronauts do when they are confined in their ship for long periods of time, Alex and I work out on Tuesday and Friday mornings since the beginning of our lock-down. We have set-up a little gym in the back of the garden and created a routine. I think we are actually fitter than before! Carmen and Tobias also use the gym but never at the same time as us of course. It is bad enough to be stuck with your parents 24/7, no need to also be in the same part of the house at the same time...
Part of our routine is to jog around the garden -our habitat, for now, is considerably more spacious than the astronauts'- and yesterday again, it was perfect flying weather: blue sky, almost no clouds or wind. It's been perfect almost every day since March 19th, which makes my readings in preparation for the trip, about Aeronautical Risk Management and other such topics, very unreal. Indeed, many accidents are related to bad weather, more precisely Visual Flight pilots entering IMC (Instrumental Meteorological Conditions), or more simply stated: they can't see a damn thing and have no idea where they are or which side is up.
Well, there was no chance of that happening here in the almost 60 days that we have been inside... but no chance of flying either, unfortunately. I am worried that I'll forget my brand new flying skills: by now, I almost spent half the time since my pilot license on the ground and a take-off is not in sight yet. Fortunately Alex' skills are much less embryonic. He has licenses from Argentina, France and the US and has flown over 1000 hours. He is also "instrument rated" and therefore equipped for IMC.
Our plan is to fly from Iqaluit in the very North of Canada to Greenland in the months of May or June, to take advantage of the warmer temperatures. Every tourist guide or flight account we look at mentions the unpredictability of meteorological conditions in Greenland, as well as in Iceland, our next stop. So, we have started to look at current weather forecasts in Greenland to better understand the patterns for when we are ready to make the great crossing from the Americas to Europe. They also mention giant mosquitoes, but we will deal with those when the date gets closer. For now, we are into weather forecasts and videos of small airplanes crossing to Europe (sorry Netflix!).
On the pictures: yesterday's weather forecast for Olivos (Buenos Aires) and Nuuk (Greenland). The latter doesn't look too bad, right now might actually be a good window to travel in, but of course we would need to check the weather and temperatures along the whole route from Canada to Greenland. And pack mosquito repellent.
