Some surprises were in store for us, however. The first surprise was the strength of the wind at the ARA pattern altitude of 1,500 feet above the surface of the snow [approx. 9,000' ASL (Above Sea Level)]. The student navigator attempted the first ARA to Dye II. He not only had difficulty making a rectangular "box" pattern but when the aircraft turned onto final approach the 17 degrees of wind correction he called for was too little and the aircraft was quickly displaced too far downwind to recover safely. A missed approach was made. As a second approach was attempted the student navigator doubled the final approach wind drift heading correction to 34 degrees. Again, the strong wind prevailed and a safe approach was impossible.

As the second missed approach was initiated, George Langfield, the Instructor Navigator, announced on the intercom, "I am going to conduct this ARA approach Colonel, and we are going to make it." Recognizing that we were experiencing an incredible 110 knots direct cross wind at pattern altitude, Langfield called for a 45 degree wind drift correction to our final approach heading initially to prevent the aircraft from being displaced from the final approach track. As the approach decent was commenced and the wind diminished in intensity at lower altitudes, Langfield began to reduce the crosswind correction. First to 35 degrees, then to 30 degrees, and at minimum approach altitude a crosswind correction of 20 degrees was required to maintain the desired track. The amount of crab indicated that a direct crosswind of approximately 50 knots prevailed at ARA minimum approach altitude. The extreme crosswind required far too much crab to effect a safe landing without knocking the skis off and causing a serious accident.

At minimums the runway was in sight and the 20 degree wind correction Langfield had given was holding. At approximately 75 feet above the snow runway the aircraft entered the thick layer of blowing snow and the visibility was reduced to zero. We could see vertically but not horizontally. At the precise moment before contact with the snow Larkins removed all wind drift correction, touched the main skis, then the nose ski, and brought the aircraft to a stop. We looked at each other and smiled, but no one said anything about cheating death. We never even thought about it.