After a good rest in our “boutique hotel”, a very nice breakfast and a very cold start into the day the next leg of our trip started by being “forgotten” by Iqualits airport employees who were supposed to pick us up from the hotel and drive us to the airport where the TBMs were parked. With some delay they finally arrived with 2 men in one pick up (that seats max 4) for 12 people. Obviously that did not work and they also made it very clear to us that we are not supposed to take taxis on our own as they are not allowed to drive on to the airport grounds. Understood. So we waited. Finally they came with a van that got us to the planes. We got the TBMs ready, performed our pre-flight checks and took off towards the west, crossing the Davis Strait and later the Hudson strait.
After a long 3,5 hours flight we just landed in the middle of Canadians nowhere called Moosonee for a fuel stop. We did actually not plan to land here but as David after calling the airport in the morning let us know they were out of Jet fuel and would only get anotherr load by train in the afternoon in Moosonee we had to change plans multiple times that day. Based on the information that there was no fuel we planned to fly further south toTimmins (CYTS) where fuel would be available however the weather was when we checked in the morning below minimus and with that the airport not an option. Some of us interpreted the forecast in a way that it would clear up by the time we arrive and hence we decided to give it a go. The weather however turned worse while we were en route.
Thanks to our well equipped plane which allows us to receive weather not only for our route but also any airport in the world via satellite data link almost in real time we had enough time to analyse the situation and take a firm decision. Some other planes of our group decided to skip the fuel stop entinerly and fly on to Sault Ste. Marie (Sanderson Airfield) directly while pretty much maxing out the TBMs endurance.
We decided to not take the risk as you never know what happens and if the airfield would get closed due to weather, an accident of another plane or any other reason we would have had a problem as we would not have had enough fuel to divert somewhere else again.
So we decided to not go to Timmins and divert – we did not know where to at that point in time as Moosonee aparently was out of fuel and the other airports would have been out of reach. Not a great situation – but we dont give up that fast. And we are creative. So we took the satellite phone (also a nice thing to have) and called Moosonee airport directly after getting the number from David who we called plane to plane before. The guy on the phone told us that he does have 1000 gallons of Jet fuel left which was enough to re-fuel 3 TBMs and get us ready for the rest of our trip that day. Perfect.
So we had a plan: Perform a short touch down in Moosonee, re-fuel, pee, file a new API (advance passengern information file) to the US authoroties so they know we are coming from somewhere else and when and take off again.
We informed Toronto Center Air Traffic Conttrol accordingly about our plan who changed our routing accordingly.
Moosonee is a uncontrolled airfield, meaning even though there is someone on the radio advising (who actually sits remote and not at the airport), the ultimate responsibility to watch out for traffic but also on which runway to take is with the pilot.
There are two crossed runways in Moosonee – one of them being half asphalt and half gravel. We wanted to avoid the gravel slope in order to protect the prop and asked air traffic control for a clearance for Runway 06 which seemed to be the best option. ATC came back advising that there are line painting activities going on on 06 meaning the runway is closed but that he would try to check with the airport if we could use it. After a while the controller came back to let us know that he was unable to reach someone at the airfield and that we would have to prepare for the unfavored gravel runway instead. Just shortly before landing Toronto Center called us again letting us know that someone finally picked up the phone and that 06 is usable. Lucky us. So we started our descent, called Moosonee traffic (who actually sits at Timmins) and explained our intentions. From the man on the radio we learnt, that besided our TBM friends there is also a Dash 8 commercial passenger plane in the pattern, intending to use the runway crossing ours. The Dash 8 crew (being impressed by our speed) was kind enough to let us go first and so we made our way down.
The promised fuel was really there and after filling the tanks, informing US Customs and Border Conrol that we will be coming to the US next and having some discussions on the radio with the remote “controller” we took off again and were on our way to the US.
Iqualit airport – take off to Moosonee
