It was my first trip over the pole-the North Pole-or at least close to it. We were flying from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, to Seattle, Washington, in an Airbus A330-200. I don't fly the Dash 200 as often as I do the Dash 300. The former is a little shorter and has a center fuel tank. No one I know has ever carried fuel in the center tank, because once you start filling it you start leaving people on the ground, but it can fly forever.Our route would take us just south of Thule, which, in case you didn't know, is on the western side of northern Greenland. Being the most junior flight crewmember, I was on first break, so by the time I reported to the cockpit we were over the middle of Greenland.When a flight crosses the ocean south of Iceland the pilots generally receive the oceanic clearance through the computer. But when operating in the vicinity of that island, however, clearance is obtained via VHF (Very High Frequency) radio. I was relieved that I wasn't in the cockpit when this had to be done because I have great difficulty understanding Korean- or Icelandic-accented English.
展开▼
