The annal MAF Fly-in a Starmoen was the best visited ever, with 50 people gathered for the sermon Sunday. Unfortunately a tradition of bad Sunday weather is evolving on this event. Last year I left the night before to avoid snow, the year before I had to follow the river, and today I left LN-NAG behind and got a lift by car back to Oslo. METAR SCT007 BKN009/TAF SCT009 BKN015 TEMPO BKN009 is below my limits.
Flying is always great, but there is something special about taking a short flight before breakfast. Margrete and her dad Gunnar joined me for a tour of the traffic circuit Sunday morning at Starmoen, and as you can see - it did something to them as well.
Kristoffer (15) was in for a surprise when uncle Jørn invited to MAF Fly-in at Starmoen. They started the 134 km drive from Nittedal, but stopped already at Kjeller, where I was waiting with LN-NAG. 
OurAirports is a great service developed by David Megginson, a Canadian instrument-rated private pilot and computer software developer, blogging at Land and Hold Short. Airport databses and Google maps are integrated with social network functionality, creating a unique service for pilots and travelers. OurAirports shows the closest airports to any address. You can also filter the search results to show only airports with scheduled airline service, only seaplane bases, etc. Feel free to take a closer look at the airports I have visited as a pilot, starting at my profile.
It is always good to know that someone is reading what you write, and according to Google Analytics there are a few souls reading Notam. Thus far this year people from 85 places in Norway have visited this blog. And readers from 146 US cities in 36 states left traces in the logs.
After Norway and the US, most visitors came from Sweden, UK, and Canada. Exotic places like Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and Libya are also among the 61 countries on the list. And in the Middle East I do have readers in both Israel and the Palestinian Territory.
Lars (over) after beaching LN-AEG at Baldersnäs. We arrived as plane #14 at the Swedish Seaplane Association Fly-in weekend and air show, celebrating the flying pioneer Albin Ahrenberg (1889-1968).
On the picture he is sitting next to the only person attending the Fly-in that had actually flown with Ahrenberg, when she was five years old. 
Line and LN-AEG ready for departure after lunch at Villa Fridheim. It was my third visit on floats, and I finally docked at the appropriate place. 
"Haga International Airport", a sign on the hangar of the 590 m/1936 ft grass field says. 
Farmer Ole H. Westby hosted the annual Gardermoen Flyklubb fly-in barbeque where former Chief Flight Instructor and soft field enthusiast Kjell Ødemark (white shirt) was named the first honorary member of the flying club, by president Jarle Espelund (red shirt). Ødemark always emphasized the importance of soft field landing skills in case of motor failure: The ability to land slow and short will reduce casualties.
Water was all around as I started the fall season on floats.
On vacation in Volda I drove the 20 km to Austefjorden, for a view of the new seaplane base.
Driving the 713 km. from Kristiansand to Volda we spotted the first seaplane at the least probable place; Nordfjordeid. The long and wide fjord is not the most forgiving place to land in strong winds, and Kjetil told me the touchdown with LN-ABK in fresh breeze was the most challenging part of a great flight over the mountains from Kilen, Oslo. The Smith/Daytona Cub has an endurance of seven hours, hence the lack of fuel supply at this part of the country does not represent any challenge for visits in this aircraft. It was fun to meet a fellow Kilen pilot in this neck of the woods.
LN-AEG's summer base at Tregde, a small village near Mandal, is only a three quarters drive from our first vacation stop in Kristiansand. Beautiful Blindleia is famous at sea, and in my mind even better by air. Combining the experiences in a float plane is plain pleasure!
Our great hosts, the Ødegaard family, got a taste of it too. From Tregde we flew to Kjevik (ENCN) for change of crew and fuelling, continued Blindleia to Lillesand, and then Grimstad. Return to base in 500 feet over the beautiful coast line of Southern Norway.
I pitched in for the first Norwegian flying club investment in a new C172, and have ever since joining had a strong feeling of belonging. I still drink my coffee from the SMFK cup.
If this were my only club membership, I would happily contribute. But I am member of a handful of flying clubs, and for me this trend of increasing the fees payable before first flight accumulated to NOK 14.820 (€1,800) this year, before the new fee from SMFK. I understand the wish to make passive members contribute more in order to have privileges of access, but I think the result will be fewer members, less use of the aircrafts, and even more to pay for the active few.
Monica flying over Oslo on my 2nd tour of the day, giving our holiday guests the Oslo-in-a-nutshell experience; a 20 minutes tour of the capitol city, included the Holmenkollen Skijump, Bygdøy (the Kon-Tiki Museum, the Viking Ship Museum, and the royal estate), the Oslo Fjord, Ekebergsletta (Home of the Norway Cup), before returning to Kjeller Airport. 
Anne, Simen and Martin joined me for a late night flight over Summer Oslo. Not too much traffic, a few seaplanes arriving at Kilen and the police chopper operating low level in Maridalen with a rescue chopper standing by at Holmenkollen, otherwise we had the airspace to ourselves, flying over the city, southbound following the fjord to Oscarsborg, and back via Tusenfryd. Simen (11) had his debut as co-pilot.
