Bad weather and the prospect that his transatlantic flight would be delayed for a number of days greeted Matevz upon his arrival in Gander. However, on May 21th, a favorable weather report predicted a break in the rain prompting Matevz to make his attempt the next day.

About 7:40 A.M. UTC the motor was started and at 7:58 he took off on the flight for Ireland. The field was a little soft due to the rain during the night and the heavily loaded plane gathered speed slowly.

GLWF team

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Slabo vreme po pristanku na letaliscu Gander je narekovalo, da bo njegov cezatlantski let zamujal za nekaj dni. Vceraj zvecer 21 maja se je pokazala ugodna vremenska napoved in Matevz se je odlocil, da bo nacrtovani prelet Atlantika poizkusil izvesti naslednji dan.

Ob 07:40 zjutraj je zagnal motor  in ob 07:58 ze bil vzraku, na poti proti Irski. Vzletno pristajalna steza je bila nekoliko mokra zaradi dezja, ki je padal ponoci. Zaradi polne obremenitve letala, je pocasneje pridobival vzletno hitrost, vendar se kljub temu uspesno dvignil v zrak in sedaj nadaljuje svojo zacrtano pot.

Ekipa GLWF

It was a real pleasure meeting Matevz the other day. I am very humbled as a pilot to see what he is doing. He is a True Aviation Pioneer! Best wishes with the rest of the Journey! I will keep watching your progress and be inspired by your voyage.
 

Looks like you are about to land in Saint John's as I write this.

Here are some photographs I took as we crossed paths. The first one is from Resolute with the Resolute Welcome! Snow Canon in the back ground! I was in my ATR taxing out for departure from Yellowknife. Just dropped off the goods from Samo. The rest are from Iqaluit, where I actually had a chance to meet Matevz.

Take care and Safe Travels,

Jason Miller

BaffinPhotography.ca

Today’s flight is planned at 18:20 UTC . Short flight from CYJT to Gander CYQX will last 1 hour and 20 minutes. Gander airport is the starting point for the flight across the Atlantic.

Flight across the ATLANTIC is next. The planned route is from Gander to Shannon, Ireland. The distance is 1,722 nm. Depending on the weather situation alternative route is from St. John’s, Newfoundland to Santa Maria in the Azores and then to Portugal.

GLWF Team

Less than 4 hours were needed to turn a mission impossible into the reality! Due to a technical problem Matevž was grounded in Havre-St-Pierre, a little town in Northern Quebec, which opened a window of opportunity to get him in Montreal as a surprise guest speaker at ICAO.

Matevž Lenarčič (1959 Slovenia), a graduate in biology, author of 11 books, alpinist, paraglider, mountain climber, environmentalist, photographer and pilot, took time out from his current GreenLight WorldFlight black carbon mission through the Canadian Arctic to visit ICAO HQ in Montreal on the occasion of the UN aviation agency’s 4th Environmental Symposium, Destination Green.

Instead of continuing his flight to Saint John’s-Canada and later on over Atlantic to Kerry-Ireland he impressed more than 400 participants of the Symposium as a guest speaker. Matevž shared his real-life experience of flying numerous hours in extreme conditions collecting utmost valuable black carbon data all along. His presentation skills were at least as good as his flying ones for which he earned a huge round of applause. He passed several important messages; among them the incredible usefulness of small, private aircraft such as Pipistrel Virus-SW equipped with sensitive Aerosol instruments which can play a pivotal role in helping to bridge key data gaps, particularly at low altitudes. This is an excellent example of aviation’s important role in assisting the global community’s understanding of climate change.

Thanks to Matevž May 15 has been a great day not only for the Slovenian aviation community and industry but also for its diplomatic missions in Ottawa and Montreal. The latter two certainly deserve to feel glorious over his performance as they swiftly organized his arrival to Montreal on such a short notice.

Short was also Matevž’s stay in Montreal as he left early morning the following day, equipped with some Rotax spare parts which he “by the way” purchased from an old friend of his. Upon receiving a DHL shipment from Pipistrel-Slovenia in the following days, hopefully hours, only the sky is the limit for the Slovenian extreme pilot.

Klemen Ferjan, ICAO

New photos from stage 6: Iqaluit - Havre St. Pierre

After snow storm, weather in Iqaluit improved on May 9th, but it was still very windy with blowing snow around the city. The new front just hit Labrador peninsula, what made easy decision to wait in Iqaluit for another day. Next morning wather was better with just thin layers of broken clouds, which later disappeared. Mark, whose working day starts at 4. AM, was there, when I came to the hangar. Big ATR72 stood in front of “my little one” so we had to maneuver with both aircrafts to get it out. It was quite chilly outside at minus 18 so this must be a stress of 30 deg. difference for aircraft. Everything went smooth and soon I climbed out and above the clouds. I noticed that aircraft was flying uncoordinated so I must have lost plastic seal on vertical stabilizer due to the temperature difference, or between wings and cabin. It turned out to be unpleasant flight as I had to push the left rudder the whole way down. Cloud cover became broken when I flew over Ungava Bay which was covered with broken ice in icy water, so no way to lend in one piece in case of engine failure. Over the Labrador there were solid clouds with tops up to 7000 feet. It remained cloudy all the way down to the coast except around Wabush, where I was able to see airfield and mining town where I was grounded due prop failure back in 2004 during my eastbound Round the World Flight in Pipistrel Sinus. It was a real pity not to stop there, because I have a good friend there, one of them is Mike Power, who is a reporter for CBC. Domen sent me a good VFR METAR for Sept-Iles Airport so I proceed along the coast and then direct to iceland Anticosti. I descended down to 5000 feet in between the cloud layers for a while. Then I flew into solid clouds with outside temperature around 7 without any ice. Ice can build on the aircraft surface between +5 and - 15 deg C. Domen sent me information about icing conditions over Labrador from 3000 feet above the ground and higher. I had a red light, so I diverted towards Havre St. Pierre. As I was in the clouds I called Radio on 122.00 and requested change my flight from VFR to IFR, but the controller was not sure if this is possible so she had to ask somebody.  I remained over the airfield at 5000 feet waiting for instructions. Finally I got info that she can’t clear me from VFR into IFR, but as this is uncontrolled airport I can do whatever I want. So I flew back to joined ILS for runway 08 with inoperative glide and I used LOC approach 08 and safely landed. After discussion with Domen regarding weather conditions over Newfoundland  I was back in the air with plan to fly low level below the cloud base and south around the NF iceland. When I was about to head out over the 5 deg sea, I experienced very strong high frequency vibrations on my pedals and they did not stop for a minute or two regardless change in speed, RPM or prop pitch. I reported engine malfunction to the controller and diversion back to Havre St. Pierre. I was asked about declaring emergency. Vibrations repeated twice on my way back, but I landed safely without incident.

Matevz

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Po snežni nevihti, se je vreme 9. maja v Iqaluitu izboljšalo, vendar je še vedno bilo zelo vetrovno. Veter je pihal sneg vsepovsod okrog po mestu. Nova fronta je zadela polotok Labrador, kar je olajšalo odločitev, da počakam še en dan v Iqualuitu. Naslednje jutro je bilo vreme boljše, bile so samo tanke plasti razbitih oblakov, ki so kasneje izginile. Mark, ki začne svoj delovni dan ob 4h zjutraj, je bil tam, ko sem prišel v hangar. Veliki ATR72 je stal pred "mojim malim", tako da smo manevrirali z obema, da smo ga dobili ven. Bilo je precej hladno zunaj, okoli minus 18, tako da je moral biti kar velik šok za 30 stopinj razlike za avion. Vse je potekalo gladko in kmalu sem splezal ven in nad oblake. Opazil sem, da je letalo letelo nekoordinirano, verjetno sem moral izgubiti plastično tesnilo med vertikalnem stabilizatorju in krmilom, verjetno zaradi temperaturne razlike, ali pa med krili in kabino. Izkazalo se je, da je to kar nrepijeten let, saj sem moral pritiskati levo pedalo ves čas poti.

Oblačnost  se je prekinila, ko sem letel preko zaliva Ungava, kjer je zemlja bila prekrita z plastmi leda nad ledeno vodo, torej ni bilo niti slučajno mogočnosti, da bi pristal v enem kosu, v primeru odpovedi motorja.

Nad Labradorjem so bili kompaktni oblaki z vrhovi do 7000 čevljev. Naprej je bilo oblačno vso pot obale razen okoli Wabusha, kjer sem bil sposoben videti letališče in rudarsko mesto in kjer so me tudi ustavili v letu 2004,ko sem letel okoli sveta po vzhodni smeri z avionom Pipistrel Sinus. Res mi je bilo žal, da se nisem ustavil tam, saj imam tam dobre prijatelje, tudi Mike Powerja, ki je reporter za CBC. Domen mi je poslal lepe vremenske podatke VFR METAR za Sept-Iles letališče, tako da sem nadaljeval vzdolž obale in nato se usmeril proti ledeni deželi Anticosti. Spustil sem se do 5000 čevljev med oblake za nekaj časa. Potem pa sem se povzpel nazaj, v nekoliko bolj kompaktne oblake z zunanjo temperaturo okoli 7 stopinj in brez ledu. Led rad nastaja na površini letala pri temperaturah od +5 do -15 stopinj Celzija.

Domen mi je poslal informacije o napovedih zaledenitev nad Labradorjem od 3000 metrov nad tlemi in višje. Imel sem rdečo luč, tako da sem preusmeril do letališča Havre St Pierre. Kot sem bil v oblakih sem poklical Radio na frekvenco 122,00 in zahteval spremembo za moj let iz VFR v IFR, kontrolorka ni bila prepričan ali je to mogoče, zato se je morala obrniti na še nekoga. Ostal sem nad letališčem, na višini 5000 čevljev in čakal. Končno sem dobil informacijo, da mi uradno ne more dovoliti iz VFR v IFR, ampak, ker je to nekontrolirano letališče, lahko naredim, kar hočem.

Tako sem se vrnil nazaj do točke vstopa v ILS za vzletno-pristajalno stezo 08 z nedelujočim »glidom« in uporabil LOC prilet 08 in varno pristal. Po pogovoru z Domnom o vremenskih razmerah v Novi Fundlandiji sem bil spet v zraku namenjen leteti nizko pod bazo oblakov in južno okoli otoka NF. Ko sem bil na tem, da se nagnem za 5 ° proti morju, sem doživel zelo močne visokofrekvenčne vibracije na pedalih ki so vztrajale minuto ali dve, ne glede na spremembe v hitrosti, obratov motorja RPM .... Kontroli sem javil okvaro motorja in odletel nazaj do Havre St Pierre. Vprašali so me, ali razglasijo izredne razmere. Vibracije so se še ponovile dvakrat na poti nazaj, a sem varno pristal brez incidenta.

Matevž

Yesterday some vibrations appeared during the flight. After the consultation with the Pipistrel mechanic Leon, he and Matevz decided to discontinue the flight and make a landing in Havre Saint Pierre. The reason for the vibrations is unknown as of yet. According to the information he received from Matevz, Leon estimates the vibrations are probably coming from either the engine or the propeller.  According to the signs it will be necessary to perform a few checks . The very basic ones Matevz will be able to perform himself, following the instructions he received from Pipistrel. If he does not discover the reason, a Rotax distributor from Canada will have to intervene and visit Matevz.  We have already contacted him. The bad luck with all this is that the expert is located very far away from Matevž, about 1200 km.  As soon as we have more information, we will publish them here.

IvoB & Pipistrel Team

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Vceraj so se med poletom na letalu pojavile vibracije in po pogovoru s Pipistrelovim mehanikom Leonom sta se odlocila za prekinitev poleta ter postanek v Havre Saint Pierre. Vzrok je za enkrat se neznan. Po informacijah ki jih je prejel od Matevza, Leon ocenjuje, da vibracije verjetno izhajajo iz motorja ali propelerja, a je glede na simptome potrebno izvesti dolocene preglede. Tiste najosnovnejse bo naredil kar Matevz sam po navodilih, ki smo mu jih posredovali. V kolikor pa vzroka ne bo ugotovil se bo vkljucil Rotaxov strokovnjak in zastopnik iz Kanade s katerim smo v stiku. Smola je v tem, da je precej dalec stran od Matevza oddaljen pribilizno 1200 km. Ko bo znanega kaj vec sporocimo.

IvoB & Pipistrel Team

Flight from Svalbard to Eureka airport via North Pole.
There are a number of ways to fly round the world. This time, Matevz had successfully finished the fastest flight around the world ever before. ;) GLWF Team

Bad weather at Labrador has prevented me to fly out from Iqaluit. The most unconvinient situations for flying in light aircraft. Temperatures are around zero, rain, snow ...

In between I took the time to work on plane. With the help of Cirrrus, Urša and Peter I managed to set to work navigation through Garmin GTN750 again, since I loose it before the last flight from Resolute. Also the landing light was again set to work by Mark and Bob from First Air, which in general in all aspects care much for my aircaft, which is also in warm place in their hanger. If the airplane would be outside yesterday, the snow and ice would be stuck in all holes and today I would certainly not be able to fly out. Anyway, I hope that the weather improves as soon as possible to be able to fly south.

Matevž  

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Slabo vreme na Labradorju je preprečilo odlet iz Iqaluita. Najbolj neprijetne razmere za letenje z lahkimi letali. Temperature so okrog ničle, dež, sneg...
Čas sem izkoristil za odpravljanje napak na letalu. S pomočjo Cirrrusa, Urše in Petra sem spet usposobil navigacijo preko Garmina GTN750, ki sem jo izgubil pred zadnjim poletom iz Resoluta. Tudi pristajlno luč sta mi usposobila Mark in Bob iz First Aira, ki nasploh v vseh pogledih skrbijo za letalo, ki je na toplem v njihovem hangarju. Če bi bilo letalo včeraj zunaj, bi se sneg in led zagozdila v vse odprtine in bi bilo danes gotovo
neleteče. Kakorkoli, upam na čimprejšnje izboljšanje za pot na jug.

Matevž

Cameron McGreor has sent us some photos from the arrival to Iqaluit.