Flying priest in crosswind

Thomas the Flying Priest at Starmoen MAF Fly-in, the summer version of Vermundsjøen. A great weekend for fellowship and flying. Landings in 15 kts crosswind and flying Aerostar from the right seat were some of my highlights.

$100 Seaplane Burger

The chic new restaurant at Sjøflyhavna Kro is not the typical $100 hamburger destination for pilots. They are however true to their proud history of being the terminal building for Oslo's commercial seaplane base, hence serving Seaplane Burgers. Einar and me arriving direct from landing at nearby Kilen Seaplane Base, our choice for lunch was obvious.

Working on the new AOPA.no

AOPA Norway president Santi and I flew to Sandefjord, meeting AOPA's Norwegian tech guru Torkel and initiating the process of redesigning the looks and contents of AOPA.no. Feel free to submit ideas for the new site!

Happy B-day

Jostein gave Lara a flight for her birthday several months ago. Today it was time to open the present, flying over Oslo on a beautiful Saturday morning. Being seven in seventh heaven is not bad at all.

Lightning in vicinity

Bad weather on the move from the North Sea has been a repeating story this summer.

Today Emil and Jostein got half an hour in the air before Emil spotted the first lightning south of Oslo, and we returned to Kjeller.

See current SIGWX chart published by FPC Sweden. More flight planning tools on Arne's Flying Page.

Landed just in time

Professor Høyer and I flew to the Nordmedia09 research conference in Karlstad, and managed to return a few minutes before the bad weather hit Kjeller. I was prepared to divert for Arvika in case we did not succeed in our rain shower slalom.

The 50 minutes flight was our definitive preferred choice for traveling to Karlstad, and my former professor at the Norwegian School of Management did a great job flying LN-NAG.

Welcome to MAF Summer Fly-In

Join us for a Sunday at ENHN or a full week-end with MAF friends.

Flying Fun in FAG

Ten flights in two days among beautiful mountains, fjords, and islands of Western Norway from my holiday base at ENOV: The C172 LN-FAG of the local flying club are back from major refinishing in Balitcum, and I colud take family and friends for great trips to Kristiansund (top right), Runde, Stadt (bottom right), and Hakallestranda.

Summer morning splash-and-go

My brother Erlend joined me for an early summer morning splash-and-go in LN-AEG, touching down at Håøya, Drammens-fjorden, and Holsfjorden, before returning to Kilen. Then it was time for coffee.

Ulf the teddy bear meets ULF the airplane

Ulf the teddy bear (left) and his friend Pilot Bjørn are family members, and joined us for our first GA vacation. Today Ulf had his first flight in LN-ULF. Tomorrow he will meet Pippi at Astrid Lindgren's World.

Traveling from Oslo to Vimmerby by car was no alternative: 7:14 via Gothenburg or 8:31 via Karlstad (see image from Google Maps).

Flying time in a C182 was 1:55.

Waiting for summer to return

Low pressure, low sky base, and thunderstorms. Not my favorite weather prognosis for flying VFR. Tonight's booking is cancelled, and I am looking forward to the return of summer.

(Image from LFV Group Swedish Airports and Air Navigation Services. See current SIGWX chart).

Mountain flying to Geilo, Kabul next

Tonje is offered limo service by her dad at Geilo Airport Dagali (2618 ft.), going to see her grandmother before leaving for Kabul (5900 ft.), were she will be working for the United Nations. Co-pilots Ingrid, Anne Helene, and myself were Tonje’s co-workers as online pioneers at Dagbladet.no in the late 90’s. We have all looked for new adventures since, but Tonje is definitely the most adventures one.

Unfortunately I do not have the bravery of Sky Sister Simone, flying from Denmark to Kabul in her own Piper Colt (see trailer below). Today we flew Gardermoen – Torp – Dagali – Gardermoen. Fun, but not at all dangerous.

Splash-in lunch at Krøderen

Unn and LN-AEG at the dock of Villa Fridheim, one of the country's largest timber building, a museum of Norwegian folk tales, and one of my favorite splash-in destinations only 30 minutes from Oslo. We enjoyed lunch and the beautiful scenery, contemplating on academic life.

Flying home for coffee and svele

I got my pilot's license 10 years ago, and for all this time I have wanted to fly home to my parents for coffee and svele*. However, the weather conditions seldom allow for VFR flights over the mountains from Oslo to North Western Norway. A 2006 attempt was not successful. Hence the tour of Wonderful Western Norway this weekend was very special for me.

Einar, Tore and I flew to Bergen early Saturday morning and spent a great day and evening with friends. Sunday morning we continued to Molde, via Førde, Sandane, and Geiranger, before landing at Hovden (ENOV) for coffee and svele! On return to Oslo we did not manage to establish radio contact with Stavanger before reaching 8000 feet. Pretty high mountains around...

ENKJ-ENBR 2:00

ENBR-local 1:00/0:55

ENBR-ENML 1:55

ENML-ENOV 1:00

ENOV-ENKJ 2:40

* = My mom's svele recipe is a family secret. You might however try the MRF version served at fjord-crossing ferries in Western Norway:

4 eggs

2 cups sugar (4 dl.)

4 cups flour (8 dl.)

2 tsp vanilla sugar

1 l kefir (buttermilk)

1 tsp hornsalt

1 tsp natron (bicarbonat)

Slow flight over Nittedal

Tor needed a few pictures of Nittedal, and I needed to get back in the air after a month without flying (busy preparing my Ph.D. Thesis defense).

The pictures will be published by the local newspaper Varingen. I used to be Editor-in-Chief of the regional newspaper Romerikes Blad, but my knowledge of local sites in Nittedal did not match the journalist from the local paper. Our model of collaboration ended up being me flying where Tor was pointing

The mental distance to Hagfors

Einar fueling at Kjeller before our first visit to Hagfors. ESOH is only a 50 minutes flight from ENKJ, but the mental distance to this destination over the Swedish boarder has obviously been longer, since it took us more than ten years from getting our PPL certificates to making the journey.

The airport was opened in 1986, and since 1993 there have been daily flights to Stockholm. No landing fees and a 1510 x 30 m runway makes Hagfors Airport a great destination (#93 in my logbook).

We had no problems flying slalom between the CB´s today, but thunderstorms in vicinity made us postpone the plan to also visit Østre Æra for the first time.

Towing 30

Øyvind at Flyteknisk Notodden towing LN-AEG from the seaplane base to his hangar for service.

My first solo on floats this seson was a ferry flight of 35 minutes from Kilen to ENNO. Then 2 hours return by bus, bogging this on the TIMEkspressen wireless.

Checkout with a flying legend

Kjell Meum explains the flying pattern at Kilen Seaplane Base after my season checkout in LN-AEG. He is head of the seaplane school and a true flying legend. The former fighter pilot and SAS captain got his license in 1948, and have more than 21.000 hours in his logbook, including quite a few crossings of the North Pole on transatlantic flights. Today we crossed the Oslo Fjord to do five landings at Håøya for me to be current for my 5th season on floats.

Rescued by friendly Danes

Tore doing DI on LN-NAG before our return from EKRK to ENKJ. I attended a MAF Nordic Board Meeting while my co-pilot explored Copenhagen.

We got dispensation for an early start from Kjeller (07:15), and arrived Roskilde 09:55, flying REGMA - XENTA - NOL - TOPLA - KULUD - NOA - VALBY.

Headwind on the return to Kjeller added 30 minutes flying time, and landing only five minutes before closing (10 p.m.).

The Oslo NOTAM Office forgot to submit our return flight plane, but we were rescued by friendly and service minded officials at EKRK.

With numbers in hand

In my 582 hours of flying in 49 aircrafts (7 different types) to 92 destinations, I have had 906 day landings and 34 at night. Statistics are easy to generate from my new digital LogTen Pro logbook. Transferring all the 579 flights from my 3 traditional logbooks (Norwegian, American, and Australian) took a few hours, but represented a great travel in time with lots of good memories of fun flights coming back to me as I typed.