My Top 5 Aircrafts

LN-NAG (Photo: Lisbeth Klastrup)

[Updated July 2019]: There are 127 airports and 86 aircrafts in my logbook. This is the five I have flown the most:

#	ID	Type	Hrs	Comment
1	LN-NAG	P28A	164	My first airplane (I was co-owner)
2	LN-DAH	C172	75	A favorite for years
3	LN-AEG	C172 Sea	65	The $100 Hamburger machine
4	LN-VYC LN-FAG	PA38 C172	51	I learned to fly in this one The mountain flyer

At the bottom of the list are LN-TSW (C150, 0.3 hrs), VH-DMP (C172, 0.6 hrs), and N5432G (C172, 0.7 hrs).

The listing is made possible by my electronic logbook. Generating statistics and browsing my pilot history in other ways than page by page in the paper edition is great fun on a rainy day.

Flight Review Down Under

Moorabbin Airport, Melbourne (Photo: Andrew J. Cosgriff)

Francesco (left) gave me a hard time on my first Australian Flight Review in 11 years, challenging me on vintage navigation techniques. Last time I visited Melbourne, my base was Point Cook across the bay - and I remember the thrill of doing a touch-and-go at Moorabbin, the main airport for light GA traffic in the area, with no less than five runways.

This time Moorabbin Flying Services were my host, and the instructor sent me this task on e-mail to plan the night before:

"MB-EN-DCN-YLEG-WON-GMH-MB".

That is Moorabbin (MB), Essendon (EN) for a landing, then out via Doncaster Shopping Town (DSN), Leongatha (YLEG) for a landing, Wonthaggi (WON) as a way point, then back into Moorabbin (MB) via the approach point GMH.

To solve the puzzle I used the tools listed below, with some assistance from the Melbourne Visual Pilot Guide and AirNav Pro on my iPad.

We departed YMMB in beautiful summer weather and went directly to YLEG for two landings before a diversion and return to base. I celebrated my review with a burger at the beach and a visit to the RAAF Museum at Point Cook before heading to the northern hemisphere.

The basics you need to fly in Australia:

• SPECPL (Special Pilot License, intended to allow pilots holidaying in Australia to validate their overseas license and fly short term. Issued by CASA)
• AVID (Aviation Identification, show that the holder has a current security check, valid for up to 5 years. To fly solo from security controlled airports you need an ASIC issued by CASA)
• ERSA (The En-route Supplement Australia, a joint Military/Airservices publication that contains information vital for planning a flight and for the pilot in flight. It contains pictorial presentations of all licensed airports. The ERSA is updated four times a year)  
• Visual Terminal Chart (1:250.000)
• VNC (Visual Navigation Chart, 1:500.000)
• AUS PCA (Planning Chart Australia)

Happy B-day, Emil!

Jostein gave Emil a flight for his 9th birthday. It was Emil's 2nd flight in LN-NAG. 18 months ago we only spent 30 minutes in the air due to lightning in vicinity. This time the flying time was 1:25 in CAVOK, including three touch-and-go landings at Rygge and sight seeing over Drammen and the Holmenkollen ski jump.

APPsolutely fabulous

Something old, something new, might be an appropriate headline for my first flight in months. The good old 1976 P28A and my portable glass cockpit (iPad & iPhone) took me to Rygge for touch & go landings, and I am current to bring passengers again.

Fun and useful pilot apps on today's flight:

• AeroWeather
• AirNav Pro (absolutely the best value for money aviation GPS-app on the market!)
• Jeppesen Mobile TC

After landing an e-mail from Sporty's tempted me to buy the brand new Study Buddy App. I'll be extremely well prepared for the next Flight Review...

Atlanta, New York, Copenhagen, and finally Oslo

Landing at Kjeller after sight seeing over Oslo is documented by Lisbeth's colleagues Torill and Terje at the IT University of Copenhagen. What is more appropriate than taking a meta picture of media and communication researchers taking pictures?

Lisbeth and I was visiting scholars at Georgia Tech a few years ago, and we have flown together over Atlanta, New York and Copenhagen, before Oslo. The event was celebrated with tea at the Seaplane Base.

Hudson River chart for big birds

Click to view.

Skyhawk over Manhattan

I gave my cousin Kjetil a flight over Manhattan for his 50th birthday, and I hope it was as much fun for him as it was for me. My first flight up the Hudson River was six years ago, but this magnificant route gives me the same thrill every time.

Kjetil lives in New York this fall with his wife Astrid and their son Magnus. 

They joined me at Linden Airport, just south of Newark International, for the flight over New York City. The Hudson River Corridor (Hudson River Class B Exclusion) northbound starts at the Verizano Bridge and ends at the Alpine Tower, with the Statue of Liberty as one of the mandatory reporting points. [Slideshow]

I'll do it again. Any day!

Flight Reveiw in Boise, Idaho

After a three day MAF Internatioanl board meeting in Nampa, Idaho, I had the opportunity to fly a VFR Flight Review with an instructor frequently used by the MAF US headquarters.

Cammie, the owner of Glass Cockpit Aviation, has given over 4000 hours of instruction, and is a fun, knowledgeble, and highly regarded FAA designated Gold Seal Instructor, and a NAFI designated Master Flight Instructor. She is  Citation Mustang instructor, a Cirrus Standardized Instructor, and a member of the Columbia Recurent Training Program Steering Commitee.

In addition to being a commercial and general aviation airport, Boise (KBOI) is also home of the Idaho Air National Guard on the Gowen Field portion of the airport. The United States Forest Service uses Boise Airport as a base for aerial firefighting air tankers during the wildfire season, and the short distance to challenging airstrips in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains makes the locaton ideal for training MAF bush pilots.

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.

Many people, few planes at Fly-in

It was good meeting new and old friends (like André and the aspiring pilot Margrete) at the MAF Norway annual Fly-In this weekend.

Low stratus and rain showers kept all visitors but me on the ground as the Fly-In at Starmoen started Saturday. We spent four hours waiting at Kjeller for conditions to be better. As we left a restaurant in Lillestrøm after a late lunch, a bit of sun came through the low sky base. The AeroWeather app on my iPhone said VMC at ENGM, and we called our friends at Starmoen for an update to receive good news. At 3 p.m. LN-NAG was the 2nd plane of the day to leave the busiest GA airport in Norway, and we followed the Glomma river in 500 ft. AGL. A few showers en route made it good to have a FlightSim enthusiast as my manual autopilot, and a pastor in the back seat was also nice. 1:55 of airtime. Only 0:30 going back on a direct track transiting ENGM CTR the next day.

A great weekend with good people doing very important work, 3:40 flying time, and a new airport in my logbook: ENAE at the national parachuting centre became my #93.

Good clean fun

Erik washing our white swan after landings on the dirt strip at Hokksund. He wanted to take his son Rune along for a birthday flight, but the airfield was in too bad condition for all three of us to get up from the 600 meters.

Solution: First Rune and I flew over Drammen, then Erik and I flew back to Kjeller while Rune drove Erik's car the 85 km.

Plan B for splash-in lunch

My college Vilde and I had plans for a working lunch in the nice sorroundings of Villa Fridheim, but LN-AEG had only 16 gallons of fuel, and the Kilen Seaplanebase were out of Avgas. Plan B became a short flight of the Oslofjord, and lunch at Sjøflyhavna Kro. Worked quite well.

Something old, something new

Øyvind (left) gave me a demo flight in the posh SR20 during the Cirrus gathering at Kjeller this weekend, and then Petter (over) joined me for my first flight in the good old C150. Quite different experiences. Both to be repeated.

My first G1000 solo

Einar studying the G1000 Cockpit Reference Guide after having joined me on my first glass cockpit solo. I remembered the basics, but the manual will be a dear friend for some time to come.

Glass Cockpit Checkout

Completing the G1000 checkout with CFI Odd at NRFK, I now know the basics about PFD, MFD, GDU, GMA, GIA, GDC, GRS, GMU, GTX, GEA, and GSD. While enjoying the integrated autopilot and a wealth of flight-critical data at my fingertips, I barely remembered to look out the window...