Ken Borek. Renowned Transcontinental Flyer.
Travel, Times&Spaces, Antarctica: Greg's Files Add comments
You never know where this cute, but relatively small and slow going plane would eventually get over at the end of its flying day..
…when you see them holding position like this, on a perfect morning in Calgary; it might be they are just going on a humble mission of delivering some stuff to another oil well site in Alberta..
.. or, chances are, they would be about to set off for a long journey from here, and - in a couple of days - would end up as far as… at any of ‘only-god-knows-where’ places in Arctic, Antarctica, or right on either North or South Pole.
Well, there IS a unique PLACES on the globe, - there’s a spot down South from where you can’t go ‘any further South‘!
‘Never mind penguins’ laugh’ - you should understand them: these bored creatures are ready to make fun of anything looking different, it is just unimaginable how boring their life is! 
Or, maybe, they are laughing at people, who, despite the facts established about this place long ago, just keep coming in, as if expecting to see something ‘unseen before’, in this kingdom of ice, cold, and boredom..
Hopefully, they don’t laugh at the planes, - although they may find them a bit ‘clumsy’ - from judging the planes’ ability to move on the ground, - sorry, - on the ICE!
Actually, Twin Otter deserves a great deal of praise for its qualities making this plane a genuine ‘work horse of ultimate bush flying’ - in and out the places where there’s NO MORE BUSH at all!
This post will start a series from ‘Greg’s Files’, and it’s going to be a very interesting QUEST.
(to be continued..)
November 23rd, 2007 at 11:42 pm
Kenn Borek Air Contract To Adventure Network International, England. Base at Patriot Hills, Antarctica, loacted at 80 18 S 81 21 W.
The flight from Calgary to Punta Arenas, Chile takes about 6 days. Normally the airplane has 5 hours fuel but with ferry tanks it holds 11 hours. The crew was 1 pilot and 1 engineer (mechanic). We stopped in Montana (customs), Texas, Cancun, Panama, Ecuador, Chile. It could be very boring with no auto pilot, if you are nice to the engineer he will fly for a few minutes until he gets too bored. Going to the bathroom can be a challenge sometimes. Fortunatley, we had a CD player hooked up through the audio panel.
November 24th, 2007 at 2:42 am
Hi, Greg,
it is so nice to hear from you, thank you very my for stopping by here
Sorry about posting WRONG INFO, - I was just overly optimistic - speculating on how many days it would take to get to Antarctica (I said ‘TWO days’. We see now, it takes a bit longer
Greatly appreciate your ‘pitch-in’ - it is a very interesting set of details you shared with us. We’ll have more questions then!
What would be a kind of typical speed the Tween Otter cruises on an average day?
What kind of noise level is in the cockpit while en route?
As I told you before, I’m establishing communications with Russian pilots who flew to Antarctica. Hopefully, they’ll share their experiences too.
And little by little, we’ll have one of a good conversation here,
Looking forward to hearing from you again
C
November 24th, 2007 at 6:11 am
More of my aviation heroes.
I remember this story about the Ken Borek outfit:
http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1129
Back in 2001 their plane and pilots did a heroic rescue mission down there.
November 24th, 2007 at 7:00 am
Hey, Berni,
We’ll ask Greg to put some comments on your remark. He’s a pilot who’s been on both Earth’s poles.
Ken Borek is a unique ‘niche operator’. We don’t hear a lot about them, - despite the fact they may bea ‘all over the world’. By the way, Greg’s been to Russia, in one of his tours to Arctic.
I’ll read the thread on pprune,
Thank you,
S
P.S.
I started reading the thread, and there are pilots’ names mentioned there.. I flew with one of them (he’s now in WJ) for two times. He’s been on both Poles as well.