Dawn Ostrem
Northern News Services

Resolute Bay (Apr 24/00) - A 62-year-old open-cockpit biplane made it all the way to the North Pole from Maryland, but the plane used for the record-setting flight may have a bittersweet burial at sea after making an emergency landing near the 56th parallel.

Gustavus McLeod flew the 1938 Boeing PT-17 Stearman from Maryland and circled the North Pole, becoming the first to do so in that type of plane. Engine trouble forced McLeod to land on the pack ice. The impracticality and expense of recovering the Stearman means it will eventually sink into the Arctic Ocean.

"It's so difficult and expensive to get up there and work up there. The last I heard it was going to stay up there," said Bruce Kendall, the initial sponsor of the Mcleod-Kendall Polar Expedition Thursday from Washington, D.C. "Because it's on an ice pack it will break up in the next two to three weeks."

McLeod, along with a First Air refuelling escort that carried videographers from National Geographic, made it to the North Pole Monday, April 17 at about 7 p.m. and circled three times. On its way back to a 1,000-foot temporary strip created by First Air, the Stearman developed engine trouble and had to set down.

"That plane was never designed to operate in conditions like this," McLeod said from his hotel in Resolute Bay on Friday.

"We had a fuel contamination of some sort," he said. "The engine was running fine then all of a sudden it went to hell. It started quitting and the first time it quit, it started right up again. The second time it quit for quite a while. I was about 50 feet up and it started again.

"I landed hard in a snowbank," just before First Air's temporary strip.

The temperature was -25 degrees Celsius and it was in the early hours on Tuesday morning when the emergency landing took place.

"It's pure speculation as to what's wrong with it and with that short landing, how much damage has been done," explained McLeod. "But it hasn't sunk yet but we have to get it out within four weeks."

McLeod sounded skeptical, but explained that First Air has left a beacon on the airplane and will be returning to get the expensive piece of equipment.

"If when they go to get the beacon and find the ice unsafe then we'll abandon it with the elements."

McLeod was taken aboard the First Air Twin Otter, leaving the Stearman alone on the ice. He is currently on his way home to the Washington, D.C. area.

The expedition started April 5 when McLeod flew the Stearman from Gaithersburg, Md. to Ontario. From there he travelled to Churchill, Man., Rankin Inlet, Taloyoak, Resolute, the Eureka weather station, a fuel cache at the 86th parallel and to the North Pole.

Kendall, a former aviation mechanic and owner of a used auto parts yard, and McLeod, the owner of a wine and beer store, did a test run in 1999 when McLeod flew to the magnetic North Pole alone.

"My wife, Gus and I went to Ottawa to meet with Capt. Carl Z'berg, a 20-year veteran bush pilot with First Air, and discussed all kinds of things to expect and we took copious notes," Kendall said.

"We wanted to get far enough to see what it was like," Kendall explained.

"It was above the Arctic Circle but not so far that we couldn't buy fuel and things like that."

Kendall said he put up about $25,000 to get the project under way, sending McLeod and his Stearman to the frigid North.

This time round, several sponsors joined in. National Geographic, Kendall said, paid the $30,000 to have the Twin Otter accompany McLeod so they could film the voyage.

"In the long run, the best thing to do was to hire First Air along as a camera, fuel and rescue ship," he said.

"The test flight went poorly," McLeod added about the six-week run. "I learned a lot but it went badly."

The airplane had to be fitted with an extra fuel tank and wire insulation, for example.

But after the successful, yet bittersweet, voyage to the top of the world, McLeod said he is still fascinated with the North.

"The Pole was kind of anti-climactic but the trip up there was nice," he said.

"I'm still hooked on the Arctic."