Life in the RCAF, Northern that is.

[Guest]

 

Resupply mission to Alert, Nunavut falls short as stubborn fog prevents RCAF transports from landing

 

‎Today, ‎May ‎19, ‎2017, ‏‎2 hours ago | Mitchell Thompson

Operation Boxtop, the Royal Canadian Air Force’s semi-annual re-supply mission to the world’s northernmost community, hit a snag earlier this month— fog kept RCAF planes from landing and left the site with one-third of the fuel expected.

On April 20, a CC-150 airbus departed from Trenton with a team ready to deliver 1.5 million litres of low-sulphuric and jet fuel to Canadian Forces Station Alert, Nunavut — the Earth’s most northern base.

Alert is “a listening post for picking up radio frequencies from Moscow and wherever else,” says David Gray, a former resident and author of Alert: beyond the Inuit Lands, as well as an important hub for climate and ecological research.

But, 800 kilometres from the North Pole and 2,000 kilometres from the nearest grocery store, sustaining Alert is neither easy nor cheap.

Since 1956, the RCAF has been moving supplies to the base via military plane. This involves massive, annual shipments of fuel — usually in spring — and of dry goods including rations, construction and research materials and the like — in autumn. 

HandoutRCAF Hercules aircraft landing at CFS Alert

Most of the year, the RCAF says, blowing snow and frequent and, in some seasons, constant darkness “reduce visibility to zero.” This makes sending planes to deliver goods a non-starter. That’s why both re-supply operations run in the narrow window when the temperature of Ellesmere Island rises to a balmy -15 degrees Celsius and the sun doesn’t go down. These spring and autumn delivery dates are supposed to make for easy landing and a smooth process overall.

Not this time.

The main body of the 98-person team arrived at the Thule air base in Greenland on April 23, RCAF major Josh Leveque says. Though Greenland’s weather was cooperative, he’d been told in advance Alert was foggy.

When the first fuel planes arrived the following day, “you could see almost all of Alert, except the runway, which was covered in fog,” Leveque says. Dampness, water on the ground and a fierce wind from the Pacific created a “freezing fog on the runway” that made landing very difficult.

Still, meteorologists at Alert told the RCAF the wind would change direction, opening the runway for safer landing.

“I don’t want to throw Alert’s weather guys under the bus but they told us they expected a change in the wind. It didn’t change,” Leveque says. Though, in Alert’s defence, he says, “civilian weather forecasts get things wrong all the time.”

Courtesy: Royal Canadian Air ForceAlert from a military plane

Though the RCAF made its deliveries, with some difficulty, on the first day “after that, it was very sporadic,” Leveque says. After April 24, plane after plane flew within landing distance of Alert but, without a clear path, they hung in the air until fuel became a concern and they were instructed to return.

From April 24 and May 5, the RCAF planned to deliver four C-17s and two Hercules military planes full of fuel to Alert each day. It planned a total of 30 drop-offs to reach its target.

Eventually, it became clear Alert’s initial forecast was wrong and the cloud ceiling was not going to rise. “Based on how the later forecasts looked, we cancelled the next deliveries,” Leveque says.

On May 6, the team tasked with delivering fuel to sustain Alert for the year returned to Trenton. A total 561, 700 litres of fuel had been delivered to the base. That’s a little more than one third of the 1.5-million litre target.

Aside from the maintenance and weather problems, the operation went smoothly

Alert’s 62 residents will have to wait until October, during the second Boxtop re-supply, to receive the rest of the planned fuel. Leveque says the RCAF will combine the usual “dry lift,” with extra fuel in the planes’ wings to support the site. Should the October re-supply fall through, Leveque says the RCAF is “confident Alert has enough fuel in storage to last until January.”

This isn’t the first time Operation Boxtop has fallen short. Back in October 1991, Boxtop flight 22 missed Alert’s runway and crashed, killing five. The weather was so hostile that the rescue plane sent after it was unable to land, leaving the survivors, soaked in diesel fuel, freezing in Nunavut snow for hours, the RCAF says.

Comparatively, Leveque says of the most recent re-supply: “aside from the maintenance and weather problems, the operation went smoothly.”

Difficulties aside, Gray says “most would not like to see Alert closed, even if it becomes out of date and not very useful from a military intelligence point of view, because it is the most northern point on Earth.”

[Fido]

3 hours ago, Malcolm said:

fierce wind from the Pacific

Isn't Alert a long long distance from the Pacific

[Kip Powick]

4 hours ago, Malcolm said:

This isn’t the first time Operation Boxtop has fallen short. Back in October 1991, Boxtop flight 22 missed Alert’s runway and crashed, killing five

Well certainly they "missed the runway", they crashed quite a way from the runway. but the weather, at the time, was not a major  factor in the accident. A very sad case....easily avoidable.

[Canoehead]

Kip, I believe above you mentioned being a part of AIB's in the past.  Was the Alert crash one of them, or was that after your military days?

[Guest]

5 hours ago, Fido said:

Isn't Alert a long long distance from the Pacific

according to this , not far enough.

Quote

Pattern 2 - fall, winter, and early spring - This upper flow occurs when a warm
moist flow from the Pacific overrides a cold layer of arctic air. This creates a very
strong inversion. An upper front exists along the boundary between the warm
Maritime stream and the cold arctic stream. The surface front may or may not exist
in the area depending whether any of the warm air is able to penetrate to the surface.
The deck of stratiform clouds lies to the south of the upper front, trapped under the
strong inversion. This upper front exists at the level of the top of the clouds which is
typically 5,000 to 6,000 feet ASL.
Since the arctic airmass is dry and cold, the moisture to produce the clouds comes
from the Maritime stream. Enough mixing must take place to saturate the cold
arctic air. The northern edge of the clouds is usually sharply defined and parallels the
northern boundary of the Maritime stream at upper levels. The southern boundary of
the cloud is not so well defined, periodically breaking and then reforming.

[PDF]Chapter 3 Weather Patterns of Nunavut and the Arctic - nav canada

 

www.navcanada.ca/.../Local%20Area%20Weather%20Manuals/LAWM-Arctic-3-EN....

1.  
2.  

Weather Patterns of Nunavut and the Arctic. Introduction ..... until September 5th. At. Alert the sun sets October 14th and does not rise again until February 27th.

[Kip Powick]

1 hour ago, Canoehead said:

Kip, I believe above you mentioned being a part of AIB's in the past.  Was the Alert crash one of them, or was that after your military days?

The Alert crash was a couple of years after I started on the airline side.

I did three complete "Box Top" operations, each lasting about 5 days. The normal run to Alert from YTR via Thule was called SF 85/86 and during my time on the C-130 I did close to 80 of those flights. Have some great memories of the Box Top operations and an awful lot of fun doing the SF85/86 flights but the weather could be daunting at times, especially in both locations. 

The accident up there should never have happened and it boggles the mind how it did happen. I was privy to the entire AIB report shortly after its release and to this day I find it hard to understand how things went so horribly wrong on that fateful night,

[Fido]

1 hour ago, Malcolm said:

according to this , not far enough.

and a butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil causes tornadoes in the US Midwest

[GDR]

Alert was right off the ice so it made it easier to get in when there was low vis. We could get down low over the ice and the navigator would pick up the barrels that led up to the end of the runway on the radar. He could then give us headings to track to the runway. The approach wasn't in the manual but it worked. 

[Kip Powick]

4 hours ago, GDR said:

Alert was right off the ice so it made it easier to get in when there was low vis. We could get down low over the ice and the navigator would pick up the barrels that led up to the end of the runway on the radar. He could then give us headings to track to the runway. The approach wasn't in the manual but it worked. 

Those were fun and like you said...not an approved approach but if you had confidence in the other driver, they could be done. On one trip into Alert I did 5 approaches, the last one "on the deck" and actually had to climb a bit to get to the runway !! The annoying thing was that about an hour later the fog was gone.

On one mission my navigator, who was an excellent photographer wanted to get some "berg" photos  so on a clear day another C130 driver, (Ken M), and I set up  a two plane formation on the return flight from Alert to Thule and the Nav shot some great photos of Ken and his Herc very low level flying among  icebergs. One of the best photos made an international magazine....those missions were a hoot