Red Lake Departure to Churchill, via Gillam

Left Red Lake this morning at 9 am into a vicious headwind of 30 kts at 5,000 feet MSL.  Going lower wouldn't have helped much; not being able to lean the mixture and 4 hours of getting thrown around the cabin in low level turbulence would have made for a very long ride.  Filled the 3 belly tanks (95 gallons) and the wingtips (21.5 each x 2 = 43) and had to really manage the tank switchovers given the 30 kts headwind and having to factor that in to an already long trip.  After an hour into it I was looking to stop after one more hour on my route waiting to see how things were going to pan out, for better or worse.  This stop on my route was going to be at God's Lake Narrows sea base (no av gas for sale there) and beg the lodge owner to sell me a barrel, but with the new GEM (graphic engine monitor) I was able to really peak lean and using my trick of just before clock timed tank switchover - "staring down" the fuel pressure gauge for the first sign of the pressure drop before switching tanks (can't screw that up by the way, no day dreaming).  This way I am always able to use every drop and know exactly where I am at when comparing the computer's ETA's to what fuel I know I have left, including reserve.  I am not going to be the guy who glides into a lake somewhere short of the field and find out I actually still had 3 gallons left in one of the tanks.  Always know exactly what you have left in reserve so you can make bullet proof decisions while absolutely maximizing range.  Need to  do that especially up here.  Anyway, made Gillam with a plump 20 of 25 gallons left over in my final remaining tank.  Nice.

However, when I called in my approach in at Gillam, that I was 10 minutes / 20 miles out.  "Are you looking for fuel?" came the reply.  Didn't I check the NOTAM's?  Of course not.  Here we are - the one time Gillam had run out of AVGas.  My reply: "Guess we'll be filling up with car gas for this leg".  The "what-if's" again, I had thought of that ahead of time and had confirmed my radial could drink that.

No problem. The guys had a truck with 2 empty drums and off we went to the CANOP, 91 octane.  Used my pump and filtration system hooked up to the battery and it worked like a charm, even the auto fuel nozzle.  Sweet.  Except for the Bull Dog Flies attacking in swarms, it was all good.  Btw, Bull Dog Flies are every bit as big as hornets except much fatter and I am told their bites hurt more.  They are wildly attracted to heat (especially humans sweating).  The entire side of the pickup truck was painted with hundreds of these little monsters. Luckily there was a light breeze that helped and I was covered head and arms to toe.

Canada Bull Dog Fly - bite hurts as much or more than Hornet

I took off and then later landed - both procedures with the rear tank which had 100% avgas because I noticed the peak cylinder's EGT (exhaust gas temperature) was running about 100 degrees hotter - low level full rich at about 1,620 degrees.  A little hotter than the books say.

Flew up the Nelson River out of Gillam to the coast of Hudson Bay and up to the north all the way to Churchill.  About an hour and a half deviation.  What a huge swamp this land is - no hiking out of here.

Click here to see the endless swamp lands.

Found a couple of shipwrecks I previously saw, shot some better HD video and the old trading post on the north side of the river mouth.  Using a new HD Sony video camera (24.1 megapixel).  It is unbelievable to watch - stunning.  But on YouTube it is degraded, still good tho.

See video below for shipwrecks and trading post.

Then up the coast and out over the ocean looking for the "Polar Snout".  Well, there is still a lot of ice.  And where there is ice, there the polar bears stay.  In 2003 I flew the same route and saw a ton of bears on the sand flats, but that was mid to late August.  Right now in early July, they are still way out there on the pack ice.  I flew 5 to 10 miles out paralleling shore, but I didn't want to get stranded over the solid floes because that is truly no man's land if you need to land in any way, shape or form.  So....didn't see any Polar Snouts on land, and I'm sure I missed a few on the ice, they really blend in.

Click video above to see Hudson Bay ice floes - looking for polar bears.

Dodged a couple of squalls and landed in Churchchill.  Tomorrow take off for Baker Lake, then Cambridge Bay.  Not thrilled about crossing the ocean (Queen Maud Gulf) will surely be a jagged mess of broken icebergs and floes.  There will most probably be nowhere to land for that last hour of that flight.  I better be on the ball with headwind, ETA and fuel flow calculations.