Early morning before the last trip to Höganäs was very romantic with the full moon setting down in the west:
Getting up at 5 a.m. and leaving home at 6.30 is never a problem when you want to go flying! I’m not a morning person, not at all, but if you get up earlier, you tend to get more out of the day.
On several occasions, especially when the weather didn’t look very stable, I even got up around 3 a.m. like e.g. before the long weekend trip to Öland, a beautiful island in Sweden, together with my friend Henrik.
Before the sunrise at my flying club in Holbæk, the clouds were beautifully lit, and I took many pictures of them:
A large warm front was on its way from the west:
Flemming joined me for that trip, and we did our homework – we knew, the warm front was going to stay there over Jutland whole day. We had agreed to keep an eye on that, because sometimes the weather develops in a different way than otherwise anticipated. Once we had to do an emergency landing due to rapidly changing weather, though the metheorologist from the MET office we had consulted had a different view. It was a good lesson…
We were going to Höganäs, and soon reached Sweden. A huge anticyclone (a high pressure weather system) over the southern Sweden gave cold and sunny weather with very little winds, also over the eastern Denmark.
We appreciated the blue skies and views over Kullaberg:
Our landing was uneventful, though with many other aircraft in the landing pattern. We just gave each other good time to take off and land:
There were several pilots in the club house we said hello to; Flemming and I got our bikes and headed to the Höganäs marina:
Hamnkrogen, a very nice fish restaurant, was first going to be open at noon, and we used the time to hang around – seeing the Open Hand sculpture by Kerstin Ahlgren, among other things. The sculpture represents the escape of Jews from occupied Denmark to Höganäs during WWII, and is also a symbol for everyone who helps to take care of refugees.
It was a rather cold day, with notheastern wind, and around -5C. Our original plan was to buy some food for sandwiches in ICA, and spend more time out, but we didn’t have much discussion about it, and opted for a restaurant insted of. A stroll by the marina is always nice – the wall with ceramic tiles is a living art, with many new added from time to time:
Hamnkrogen served very good foos, as always, and we were happy to stay in a warm place a bit longer:
After lunch, we just biked around. One of my favourite old houses in Höganäs, so charming:
I took Flemming to Salthallarna, where lots of changes took place in the recent years – unfortunatelly not much to the better, but not bad either. The Saluhall closed down, no longer access to the old ovens where the tiles for the Sidney Opera House were produced. A new, smaller restaurant and a cafe, and the old red cat that has always been there:
We had a coffee al fresco, in a cozy outdoor setting:
The winter days are short, and soon we were airborne, on our way home:
Flemming and I did overflying of Kullaberg, before heading for Holbæk:
Kullaberg is such a wonderful place! I wish I could live there – but way too long to my office in Holmens Kanal in Copenhagen…
The seaside town of Mölle – I highly recommend visiting it during summer time:
The sunset at home was beautiful, despite some clouds on the horizon:
We landed late after the sunset, and didn’t wash the aircraft – a thin layer of ice was quickly forming on the airframe whilst on the ground.
My first trip of the year is often to Höganäs – they have two airfields, free bikes, close to the town, and welcoming people! Hopefully there will be many good trips abroad in 2023. Last year my OY-9797 logged around 55 hours, and I as pilot-in-command – 75 hours. Not bad, taking into consideration that I had to live without my aircraft for about 6 month.
Flemming and I had plans to go out dancing that night, but we were so full of wonderful flying experiences, and tired of freezing 🙂 that we decided to go dancing another time. It was such a good day in the air.