2020 was an exciting year. Approx. three years after I became a pilot, I finally was fortunate to rent a hangar place in Holbæk, 75 km from my home, and ordered an aircraft almost immediately – a brand new Aeroprakt. The aircraft was delivered by Simba and Steen from Danaero by the end of April, and we celebrated with a glass of champagne:
Buying an aircraft is easy. Finding a hangar place can take ages, and without a hangar you cannot have any aircraft. It was without a doubt the happiest moment in my pilot life so far. Finally freedom and independence!
2020 was the year of global pandemic, COVID-19. In Denmark, we could still fly, and I spent weekends in many nice places, especially in Northern Jylland. I loved the islands of Fur and Mors, where I stayed several times over weekends. Besides exploring the islands on bikes, on foot, from air, and by car, I visited lots of interesting places in Northern Jylland, met many nice people, and got new friends. Vigsø Battery from the WWII in Vigsø Bay, it was such a special place, with historical background and wild nature:
In my home flying club in Holbæk, we managed hosting our vintage aircraft fly-ins when the COVID-19 restrictions allowed. Those fly-ins were organised by Kenneth, and with the help of several other members became a great success. During one of them I was so lucky to have a flight together with Henrik in his irresistible KZ-II:
It was an unbelievable experience! Vintage aircraft are so exceptional.
Another highlight of the year was my 4-week trip through Sweden. It was supposed to be a 5-week tour in Sweden, Norway, Russia, and Finland, but Finland closed down its airports in Lapland, Norway forbid entry from Sweden, COVID-19 restrictions were everywhere. Together with Flemming, my co-pilot, we lost 5 first days waiting for a suitable weather to leave Denmark. And then we changed our plans, and decided to spend our vacation only in Sweden. It was an awesome tour. We flew around 4,000 km, drove 2,000 km, and explored many different corners of Sweden. But the most striking part of our trip was people we met there. Often we’d call an evening before arrival to someone from a flying club and say “Hey, we are coming tomorrow morning, can you help us with the fuel?” Pilots would take free from work, drive to a gas station to get fuel for us, and come to the aerodrome with a couple of jerry cans. We hope very much to be able to give back one day. You can read about the highlights from that tour here.
Our ultimate goal of flying in Sweden was reaching Kiruna – the northernmost airport in the country, and going flying over Kebnekaise, its highest mountain. We didn’t know whether it would be possible – none of us had had mountain flying experience – but we dreamed big of doing it, and arranged everything we could to make it happen:
When Flemming and I flew there, we wondered whether something more beautiful than Swedish Lapland existed…
In October, about 6 months after the maiden flight, my aircraft rounded 100 hours, and I did the service together with Lars, who helped with his advice and experience:
I enjoy to look good after my Aeroprakt, and it never let me down during all those flights…
I’ve always been a long haul traveller. Distant places and cultures attract and inspire me. I would do almost anything to go flying somewhere to Finland, Romania or Channel Islands, but flying locally – that’s not exactly me. And what do you do when there are COVID-19 limitations, or a suitable flying window is only a couple of hours, or you cannot fly away because of the freezing fog? I found out, I could go exploring castles, nature and history of the island of Zealand, my home, from the air!
Jægerspris Castle and its park, one of my favourite places to go for a stroll in:
Later in 2020, I was inspired by Simone and her artistic drone videos, and became a drone pilot myself!
The photo above is from a skiing in Sweden over the Christmas holidays time; updating my drone in between the skiing runs…
A photo collage of all my co-pilots and passengers with who I had some great flights & trips during 2020:
Aerodromes I landed on, at least once, 37 in total (if I remembered all):
In December, I was featured on the cover of our aviation magazine FLYV (photo by Ole Steen Hansen):
It was really an honour – FLYV is the oldest aviation magazine in Denmark that was published since 1928. I felt grateful for this occasion, and also surprised because I hadn’t done anything special – just flew and shared my happiness. I recently read a book “Night witches” about Russian female aviation combat units during WWII – those girls and their heroism were truly inspiring. But I appreciated the pictures and the article in FLYV very much.
And now the 2021 is nearly here, and new adventures are waiting. Happy New Year!