Flying with Arne

Two bumpy flights in the afternoon and a smooth evening flight over Oslo today, flying with MAF International vice president Arne Nordahl and friends.

Every three minutes, an MAF plane is taking off or landing somewhere in the world. Enabling the work of aid and development agencies, missions, national churches and other local groups. Flying across deserts, jungles, mountains and swamps. Giving hope to far-flung communities which might take days or weeks to reach by land, where roads may be non-existent, or impassable for half the year.

Air show weekend

Jostein at MAF's pavilion on Jarlsberg Airshow Sunday, celebrating ENJB's 70th anniversary. Saturday I did also represent MAF at Rygge Airshow on the other side of the Oslo Fjord, as one of the 35,000 enjoying the spectacular and very loud display celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 720th Sqn.

Fairytale on floats

Tore and LN-UXC by Villa Fridheim, one of Norway's largest and most special timber buildings, located at the end of the Krøderfjord. Inside the villa there are a number of beautiful fairytale tableaux and decorations. The distinctive architectural style makes it look like a fairytale castle.

Unfortunately we docked at the wrong side of Bjørøya. Next time we will use the Villa's dock on the eastern side of the island. After Sour Cream Porridge (rømmegrøt) for lunch, we returned to Kilen.

In the sun at Sola

Co-pilots Unni and Hilde at Sola before returning to Kjeller in LN-NAG. It was a beautiful day to cross Southern Norway.
Route: ENKJ - DRA - NTD - Fyresdal - Lysefjord - Stavanger - ENZV. FL 85, return 75. Time: 1:35/2:15.

Flying from the right (and wrong) seat

Today I did my annual check ride at ENKJ in order to stay current at the two flying clubs. To add a little flavour to the flight, I requested right seat training. That felt weird, and the landings with LN-NAG at ENTO was not very smooth. I had to compensate with a short flight in LN-UXC afterwards (see picture) to get the good feeling again. In a Supercub there is no left or right up front...

First visit to Säve

Einar and LN-NRF (in the background) at Gothenburg City Airport/Säve after dinner at Hard Rock Cafe downtown. I got a few surprises on my last visit to the city, using Landvetter (ESGG). ESGP is definitely the GA port to Gothenburg.

We used 1:30 from ENKJ to ESGP, and 1:05 on the return.

Lunch on the beach

Friday lunch splash-in with Hilde at Holsfjorden was a perfect end of the first week of work after vacation.

Mountain flying on floats

Tisleifjorden (2750 feet, large photo) and Husodden was my destinations on an afternoon mountain safari on floats. Oset Høyfjellshotel offered chocolate, coke and ice cream á la carte, while Husodden Sea did only get a touch-and-go visit this time. Next time I will test the 600 meters grass strip. A beautiful place owned by a local farmer!

Photos by Valdresfly.no and Norskeflyplasser.no

Fly-in dinner at Baldersnäs

Only one hour flying time from Oslo (in a Cub), Baldersnäs welcomes guests on floats for dinner. The mansion owned by Swedish TV-personality Ingvar Oldsberg, is more famous among pilots as home of a former owner, the flying pioneer Johan Oskar Albin Ahrenberg. Today the place offers a decent a la carte and grand atmosphere.

Direct route: Kilen - Foss - AKIBA - Baldersnäs. 76 NM.

Sunshine on floats

We had the rainiest June since 1883, and July has thus far been very wet. But today the sun was finally shining in Oslo, and I decided to celebrate in LN-UXC.

Gert Nygårdshaug and the Art of Flying

I just spent a few rainy days reading Gert Nygårdshaug's novel Aphrodite's Pond. A fascinating story, but sadly damaged by extremely poor research on aviation and navigation. The author claims in an interview about the book to spend 80 % of his time on research, but he could not have spent much time on how to operate a light aircraft. The detailed descriptions of take-off, landing and navigation of the Cessna 180 Skywagon on floats make no sense at all.

10 airports after work

We had to cancel our planned Baltic Tour to Tallinn and Riga due to weather, and improvised an evening trip to small airports in Norway and Sweden. No time for meals en route as we had to get back to ENKJ before closing at 10 pm. [see pictures!]

Route: ENKJ - Bøverbru (Vestre Toten)- ENHA (Stafsberg, Hamar) - ENRI (Frya, Ringebu) - ENGN (Grimsmoen, Folldal) - Tynset - Sølenstua - ESUE (Idre) - ESVM (Malung) - ESST (Torsby) - ENKJ.

Ready for Plan B

I planned to take my dad for lunch at Airparc Fyresdal by seaplane, but it was not my lucky day. The weather was deteriorating, the plane had engine problems, and Airparc did not serve lunch today. We left Kilen for Kjeller and Plan B; some sight seeing over Oslo with LN-NAG.

Evening on floats

Irene joined my Linked-in network a few days ago and reminded me of my promise on Pål's 40th birthday party to take her flying. And since we are both linked to Teleplan, close to Kilen sea plane base, the natural choice was floats. At the picture she is in control of the LN-UXC Piper Super Cub.

Later Lars was my co-pilot on a low level coast wise slow flight around the fjords of Oslo, Drammen and Hol.

New layer of asfalt on Fyresdal

I arrived at Airparc Fyresdal by seaplane LN-UXC today and did not get the opportunity to test the new runway layer. I did also arrive on the wrong day for other services normally offered to the European GA community. The hotel had a day off after a very busy start of the season, and the café nearby prepared for season opening tomorrow. Lesson learned: Call Airparc when planning.

Great nature and friendly people mad the trip a nice experience anyway. I got some ice-cream at the café and was offered coffee at Ariparc.

Visiting Oslo from Beijing

Dr. Wang Yu is visiting scholar at OUC, and I recently met her and her husband Li Xiaoxiao in Beijing. Now they are both visiting Oslo, and last night we went sightseeing in LN-NAG. Great conditions aloft, and a bit more challenging at the ENKJ runway; crosswind 30 and headwind 12. We departed 30 on a slightly bumpy ride straight in to the low sun. Landing the opposite direction an hour later was very pleasant.

Starting the seaplane season

After a 0:45 check flight with Bjørn in LN-UXC, I was ready for the 2007 seaplane season. I continued solo 1:15 in the PA18-150 Super Cub, but had to return to base at Kilen after engine problems, probably due to water in the tanks after a few days of heavy rain. Next time I'll definitely drain properly!

First day of summer

Vice President of MAF International, Arne Nordahl, was my co-pilot on a promotional flight, with passengers Målfrid and John Ole. On the first day of wonderful summer weather, we left Gardermoen (ENGM) in LN-AGM for sight seeing over Oslo and Bærum, and made at stop at Kjeller (ENKJ) for ice cream on our way back.

Flying C206 with G1000

Cessna fly-in at Notodden (ENNO) offered Garmin 1000 course with Cessna's single engine chief pilot Kirby Ortega and demonstration flights in Skyhawk (C172) and Turbo Stationair (C206).

I got the left seat for 15 minutes and flew my first time in C206 from take off to the base leg. The G1000 displayed all flight critical data, and was very intuitive. Lot's of fun!

On a mission at ENZV

Dag Kjetil, Margaret and Fred at ENZV after a visit to Sola Flyklubb, informing about the work of Mission Aviation Fellowship. We had a beautiful trip back to ENTO in LN-MAJ, a C310. [More photos]