Staying in bed with a cold and fever mid-December, to cheer myself up, I decided to look at the pictures from my flying trips in 2017. And what a year it was! On the 15th January I became an ultralight aircraft pilot. During 2017, I was in the air around 120 hours as a pilot-in-command, did roughly 250 landings, made lots of new pilot- and non-pilot-friends, had many delightful experiences.
The weather in 2017 was exceptionally bad flying-wise, with summer colder than spring, and lots of rain throughout the year. I had to cancel so many flying trips, especially abroad… But I also had many lovely flights. I visited a number of places: the Danish islands of Fanø, Ærø, Samsø, Femø, Endelave, and Sejerø; the island of Föhr and Friedrichshafen in Germany; my beloved Kullaberg, and the Southern Sweden. Landings on small 200m long private runways, fly-ins in other flying clubs in Denmark and Sweden, once-in-a-lifetime landing in Kløvermarken in the heart of Copenhagen, and all these pleasant local flights at sunset time…
It was impossible to pinpoint something special out of all of these wonderful experiences; some of them were more fun than others, but not necessarily better.
With Thore and Bjarne, my flight instructors, and flowers of the season, after my solo flight:
In February we had some snow, and it was so beautiful to fly over the snowy landscapes. Take-offs and landings on a snow-covered runway were fun and challenging, and required snow shoveling in front of the hangar in order to pull the aircraft out:
Flying IFR, especially night IFR, as a passenger with Niels and Christian on a trip to Frederichshafen in April, was remarkable. It was a great learning experience to observe their work during the flights. Here we are enjoying a marvellous sunset between the two horizontal front systems, preparing to go down into the clouds:
I tried flying trike, as a passenger with Henrik (photo below). It was great; you feel the wind on your face, and control the flight by weight shift.
Landing in the last minutes of civil twilight in Måløv with Lars was quite an experience. We had both plan B and C ready, and were happy we didn’t have to execute them. Landed fine from the first attempt:
On the 18th August Danske Flyvere celebrated 100 years of their association with an event in Kløvermarken, Amager. I was invited to attend, and flew in a formation with 7 other aircraft. With just 1 minute slot time per aircraft (preceded and followed by other formations) we all landed safely and on time – but not on the designated runway! The runway 08/26 was prepared the day before, and well-marked. The challenge was we couldn’t see the markings from air, but we had the heading and new the location of the airstrip on the triangle Kløvermarken field. Safety of the spectators first: we landed on the left side of the runway (safety area), and since then have proudly called ourselves The Squadron 26L (L for left). On the photo below I’m trying to find out where the touchdown zone is:
Kullaberg, a place in Skåne, Sweden, I cannot live without (photo from an autumn tour with Jens):
To see the sunrise over Copenhagen was on my wishlist for a long time… Following our rules, we can first take off from Måløv at 08:00 on weekdays, and at 10:00 on weekends. So it had to be a suitable time of the year. Then you need the weather, arrangement at work or a day off, no notams restricting a flight, an aircraft… I don’t know how many times I prepared the aircraft the day before and got up at 04:00 just to cancel my plans because the weather forecast changed. Several times I was walking around our airfield in Måløv at 06:00 guessing “will this fog disappear before or around the sunrise?” to in a one-two hours conclude “it will not”, and drive to work. But – if you are persistent enough, you will get it, you know. The morning I waited for had come. I love this picture with the sunlight reflecting on the propeller blade and Copenhagen under me:
I’ve made a collage photo of all I had a flying tour with (either as a PIC, COP, or passenger) in 2017:
Thank you for this unforgettable year!
