Monday 19th February - Transit day

The official start of GFDex today, departing Cranfield on the FAAM aircraft at midday. We managed to leave just about on time, despite a comedy of errors involving lost car keys, forgotten clothing and a certain person, who shall remain nameless (Nina), 'misplacing' her passport - later to be found in the aircraft hold. The three and a half hour flight to Keflavik went pretty smoothly despite some forecasts of turbulence en-route, complete with what must be the best (and certainly the most plentiful) aircraft food we've ever experienced. On arrival in Keflavik it was noticed that Cranfield had achieved the coveted status of an international airport (photo).

By evening time most of the scientists from the UK, Norway and Canada had arrived, apart from Shun-Li, who due to some bad weather had missed his connection in London. The largely successful start to the campaign was celebrated with a fantastic buffet in the hotel restaurant, complete with soup, meats, salads and chocolate profiteroles in a dark, rich… gravy! Perhaps the less said about this the better!

After the meal and a bit of unpacking, we started to setup the conference room and printed out some hard copies of the forecast products which we will be relying on for flight planning throughout the campaign. We’ve had a bit of coverage media-wise, including an article in the Eastern Daily Press (featuring a beautiful picture of Ian the weatherman), a short article in the Times, and a Canadian press release making us sound rather dare-devilish! No flying tomorrow as we need a day to set up and make flight plans for our maiden science flight on Wednesday.