What is SAD about this image?

After a two day kick-off with the Media Innovations Research Group, @arnte and I flew to Holmsbu for a cup of coffee. A nice flight on a great day, but unfortunately my last day on floats of the season. Tomorrow the Harley go on winter storage as well. Hence I am ready for the Fall Depression, often called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

49 airplanes on the ENKJ runway

Today 49 planes was gathered on the runway to celebrate the Kjeller airport's 98th anniversary. The home base of LN-NAG is Norway's first airport, built in 1912. Now this great airport, located 9 NM east northeast of Oslo, is a GA and military aviation airport carrying out maintenance for the Royal Norwegian Air Force.

More images from the event.

Lunch in front of the cold front

Anders and I had plans for a water flying lunch at Kragerø, but a cold front with heavy rain moving from the south towards the eastern part of Norway came faster than originally forecasted. At Kilen/Fornebu (Oslo) we had to wait half an hour for the morning fog to disappear, and as we sat down for lunch at Havna Hotel Tjøme, the bad weather reached Larvik.

As we enjoyed our coffee after the meal, the rain started to pour down, and it was time to leave. The visibility was deteriorating by the minute, but only a few miles to the north, abeam Tønsberg, we were back in front of the bad weather, and the flying conditions were superb. After flying the Drammensfjord in 500 feet, we climbed to 1500 for Holsfjorden and a splash-and-go before returning to Kilen.

After our great flight over the Golden Gate last year, Anders has started to take flying lessons, and today he did most of the flying.

Dinner at the summer paradise of Koster

To the west of Strömstad lie the Koster Islands, noted for the beauty of its scenery. These are Sweden's most westerly populated islands. Around them lie the Koster archipelago with a large number of skerries and rocky isles. We landed west of Kostersundet and taxied to Bopallen harbour at North Koster, where we had dinner at Strandkanten restaurant. This summer paradise is less than an hour of flying time coastwise from Oslo.

Aviation afternoon

The boys helping my pilot cousin Stig (flying with SAS) on his home and garden renovation project in Grimstad got an elevated bonus. I made four local flights from Gullknapp with the great guys from the Olav Lindstøl Company over Arendal and Grimstad before returning to Oslo.

6 flights, 3.9 hrs total flying time in 4.3 hrs, departing Gardermoen 15:10LT and arriving Kjeller 19:30LT.

Monster lunch in Hardanger

Jørn enjoying a splash-in lunch at Brakanes Hotel in Ulvik, framed by high mountains, glittering fjords and emerald hills. Plans to build offensive monster masts and power lines extending over the Hardangerfjord have set off howls of protest recently. This gave us a perfect excuse to make some noise and enjoy the view before it is too late. The only monsters to be seen thus far are the towers of the new Hardanger Bridge...

Flying time: 1:30 Kilen-Ulvik. FL 95/75.