There's plenty to do flying a Beech Baron to the North Pole, a place where no Baron has been before, but Douglas Cairns had one more hourly task that most pilots don't have. "Another hourly 'cockpit check' was blood sugar testing, and with additional continuous glucose monitoring, I was delighted to see blood sugars remaining in a tight and good range for flying," Cairns reported after completing a 13-hour round trip from Barrow, Alaska, to the Pole last week in his Diabetes Polar Flight. Cairns is a former Royal Air Force pilot who lost that job when he developed Type 1 diabetes. He's since embarked on a worldwide campaign to raise awareness and money for diabetes research. Cairns fought headwinds all the way to the Pole but the weather was otherwise good for the record-setting flight.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/news/diabetes-flight-reaches-pole