Delta G. David J. Crawford

109th ANG Squadron based in Schenectady, New York. They were proudly known as the Raven Squadron and nicknamed the Firebirds. These Hercules were part of a select few that were outfitted specifically for operations on the ice. They were fitted with several million dollars worth of retractable Teflon coated skis that allowed them to operate on both paved runways and the icecap. The nose ski was ten feet long by six feet wide, while the main skis were twenty feet long by six feet wide. Each ski weighed approximately a ton.

      The 109th is the only military unit in the world that flies ski-equipped C-130s. These cargo planes can carry 30,000 pounds for over 500 miles at 275 mph.

      The Greenland icecap is a foreboding place. It is a dome of ice twice the area of Texas. The ice is about 11,000 feet thick at the center of the world’s largest island. It is completely ringed with mountains with hundreds of fjords and glaciers making their way through them out to the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast and Baffin Bay on the west coast. The weight of the ice actually suppresses the bedrock to below sea level.

      Dave took time to read an article posted on the bulletin board concerning the icecap. He found the facts and figures fascinating:

       The Greenland icecap contains one eighth of the total global ice mass. The total ice mass on Earth is 125 million cubic miles; Antarctica has 112 million cubic miles; Greenland 11.5 million cubic miles.

       The average height of the Greenland icecap is 7,000 feet above sea level with 65 percent of the area above 6500 feet. That is why Greenland deserves the name of most extreme highland in the world.

       Lowest recorded temperature: -94º F (1953 Station Northice). Mean annual temperature: -22º F: So the Greenland icecap is without any doubt the coldest place in the northern hemisphere, even colder than the North Pole.

       Because the snow surface reflects most of the sunlight, the temperature is lowest near the snow and increases in upper air levels. This is an exceptional situation because usually temperature decreases in higher air levels. The dome structure of the icecap causes cold air to flow constantly to lower areas at the edges. So, crossing the icecap, you will always experience head wind until the top of the icecap and then backwind.

       Above the seas around Greenland, the air is less cold and thus creates a substantial difference in temperature and air pressure between the coast and the inland. This can cause terrible storms.

       At present the maximum thickness of the icecap is 10,500 to 11,000 feet. If the entire icecap should melt (which is extremely unlikely), the sea surface worldwide would rise 20 to 25 feet!

      The planes were being prepared and loaded with the supplies and ice drilling equipment. Timken and Rapp were working with the crew chiefs to get them loaded properly. He was met at Base Ops by Major Rick Boop. Dave gave Major Boop a crisp salute. Boop returned it and welcomed him to the Ravens’ Nest.

      Boop grinned a big smile and said with a southern drawl, “Good morning, I’m the mission commander for your flight out to DYE-3 this morning. Kid, you’re in for the ride of your life. People would fork over a year’s pay to do what you are about to do. Not many people have been to where you’re about to go. DYE-3 does exist. Unlike Dreamland it can be found on any air chart. Its coordinates are 65 degrees, 10 minutes, 57 seconds north latitude by 43 degrees, 49 minutes, 10 seconds, west longitude. Its code name is Sob Story. Don’t know why. To this day, the history behind this name is lost. Might have been some random string of names put together by some computer in the basement of the Pentagon. Anyway, it is 250 miles inland at an elevation of nearly 9,000 feet above sea level.”

      Boop continued with the mission brief and gave Dave a Flight Safety briefing. He familiarized him with aircraft safety features, systems, and what to do in the event of an emergency or crash landing. Since Dave was scheduled for his arctic survival training in a few weeks, he took the discussion very seriously. The temperature at DYE-3 was 26 degrees below zero. This was relatively warm. It could get down to 50 below. It gets cold enough to turn jet fuel into slush. As a matter of fact aircraft engines are never turned off on the icecap. Chances are you’d never get it restarted.

      After climbing aboard the C-130 he was led up a short flight of stairs into the flight deck where he buckled into the jump seat behind the pilot. The crew buckled in and ran their pre-departure checklist. Clearance to taxi was given and the huge transport rolled out onto the taxiway. The jagged fjord cliffs dove into the waters of the fjord. Surprisingly, the fjord wasn’t the deep calm blue envisioned from a Norwegian postcard. It was brown and flowing turbulently and full of silt. It was about a mile wide at Sonde Stromfjord. Melt water from the icecap and glacier a few miles up the fjord was making its way the ninety miles back out to Baffin Bay.

      The C-130 taxied onto the runway. It was given a hold while a Greenland Air Helicopter taxied across the other end of the runway to the Scandinavian Air Service (SAS) terminal. Takeoff clearance was granted and the huge cargo plane’s four turbo props spun up to full speed. The variable pitch propellers were tilted forward and started biting into the cold arctic air. The plane accelerated down the strange, saddle humped runway towards the west. As it climbed up and out of the fjord it made a steep bank for a full U-turn back to the east. The view from a C-130 cockpit is panoramic. The full view of Sonde filled the windows. There was actually some green in Greenland. The end of the fjord was now in view were the glacier sloped down from the icecap. A huge ripple was seen were the ice was calving off the glacier face as the plane soared over the edge and out over the icecap. The icecap at the coast is only a few hundred feet thick. It gradually ramps upward to over two miles thick a few hundred miles inland.

      DYE-3 is about 250 miles to the east slightly below the Arctic Circle. Amazingly, navigation in this state of the art Air Force beast was on the crude side. Although it used an Inertial Navigation system to get them near the site, approaches and landings were visual. No navigation aids existed at the DYE sites. To give them an edge in times of low visibility, Major Boop was going to practice shooting a total radar approach. He explained the procedure to Dave, “DYE-3 is literally the only metal structure within hundreds of miles. Once we get closer, it will ping very nicely on the plane’s Navigation Radar (NAVRAD). We will also use a radar altimeter to find our way to the station.”

      Major Boop continued, “This radar has extremely high resolution. As we get closer to the site at about four miles out we will be able to distinguish even the metal flag poles spaced every seventy-five feet apart along both sides of the skiway.”

      As the plane soared over the glaciers, Boop clicked the microphone. “We’re coming up over the pressure ridges. The crevasses you see are up to a thousand feet deep. They’d swallow this plane whole if we lost power now. The glacier would grind us up and spit us out in about a thousand years. By the way, are they giving you hazardous duty pay, Dave?”

      To this Dave laughed, “Hell, no. They even argued about giving me a flight suit and parka back in Colorado.”

      Boop said, “You’ve got my sympathy, my friend. But they did have you prepare a will and power of attorney, right?”

      Dave asked nervously, “You know something I don’t?”

      “No, I just have the bureaucracy figured out,” Boop replied dryly.

      The mighty C-130 droned on for the next two hours. Dave was mesmerized by the white desert-like scene below him. They were flying at 18,000 feet and Dave could still see huge drifts of snow and some shadows from a few clouds. The clouds were getting a little thicker the further they flew.

      Major Boop hit the intercom, “Carl, these clouds are getting thicker. They are at about 13,000 feet. There is little danger of icing. They are relatively dry stratus. However, this isn’t going to be a visual approach.” The copilot responded “Roger that. I’ll set us up for a radar-assisted approach. Just then a radio call came in, “Raven One, Raven One…..Sob Story, do you copy?” The copilot responded, “Roger, Sob Story. Raven One’s with you,….four fiver miles west,…..inbound,…..descending through 16,000.” DYE-3 responded, “Roger, Raven One, I have you on the scope. Be advised winds are three four zero at one zero. Ceiling is about 2,000, visibility is 3 miles. Marginal VFR. Cleared to land at pilot’s discretion.” Rick