I absolutely love this plane! It’s the de Havilland Canada Dash 7 and it features in so many of my stories as it was a huge part of our lives in Greenland. A visitor once commented that we called it the Dash 7, as if there was only one. I think there were seven in the Air Greenland fleet during the time we lived there. They have since been replaced with the two-engine Dash 8. Faster? Sure, but no way near as much fun.
This photo is from Upernavik with its fancy asphalt runway. But most of the runways I took off and landed on in the Dash 7 were gravel, just like the gravel to the right of Sapangaq above. Sapangaq is Greenlandic for pearl or precious stone.
Flying in a Dash 7 is noisy, deathly cold when waiting for the last passengers to board in the dead of winter in Kangerlussuaq (minus 40 Celsius), but gutsy. You get a real kick as it punches into the sky.
Actually, not so much a punch, but a determined charge for thirteen seconds, or, when fully loaded, as much runway as you’ve got.
The Dash 7 is one of the things I miss most about Greenland. It’s high on the list.
It’s a long list! 🙂
Chris
Love the comment about deathly cold waiting for the last passengers to board during winter. So true!
Yep. Borderline frostbite!