The Pillars of Creation

I love doing fitting checks, though it takes lots of extra time. It’s the same as with clothers: you want your new dress or suit to fit perfectly. I assume, my customers also want their aircraft to look good in a new canopy cover.

Besides checking, fitting also gives me a chance to further develop my product. I always do some small enchancements here and there, get new ideas.

I had heard an aeroplane landing, and went to see who it was. Morten came on a short stop by in his L-4:

After Morten left, I took off as well. It was going to be a local flight, no sunset from air – I wanted to have the time to wash my Aeroprakt afterwords, and do a little hangar work.

I decided to see Kalundborg – it has been a long time – and headed west. The island of Nekselø on the photo above – wonderful place to visit. About 10 km hike around the island, hilly on its western side, it’s a perfect place for a day trip (inclusive driving and ferry). This photo is from one of my trips to Nekselø on foot:

My flight continued, and soon I reached Saltbæk Vig, which is a protected area of approx. 28 km2 with abundant bird and plant life, completely closed for public. It looks very beautiful from air:

When a friend of mine saw that picture of Saltbæk Vig, he said it reminded him of The Pillars of Creation – which is the famous picture of the interstellar gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula – and indeed, I agreed. The Saltbæk Vig is also a kind of place of Creation, where birds, animals and plants have their paradise.

The mentioning of Pillars of Creation reminded me of another friend of mine – Peter, a Danish pilot living in Sweden, who I met on my summer flying vacation in 2020 in Älvsbyn flying club (read more here). In the last couple of years, Peter has been pursuing one more of his passions – astrophotography. I deeply admire him for doing that – just imagine how many days of work are behind every image! Here is one of his latest, The Orion Nebula:

I wish I could do astrophotography! It is so fascinating!

Well, back to my flight. I flew west of Kalundborg over the Røsnæs (one more beautiful hiking destination), and did a round over a cargo vessel in the Kalundborg Fjord:

A beautiful panorama of Kalundborg opened up when I turned back:

The unique Church of Our Lady in Kalundborg, with its five towers:

It was built most likely in the beginning of the 13th century. The central tower of the church, 44 m tall and known as the Mary’s tower, collapsed in 1827 due to structural flaws. The restauration work started first 40 years later. The church is quite small inside, and worth coming by.

I tried to google after five-towered churches, to see how many of them are in the world, but I didn’t find anything, and my partience was quite limited that day. There is a church in Germany called the St. Mary’s Church of the Assumption in the town of Waldsassen, which is sometimes referred to as having five towers. However, technically, it has three towers and two smaller spires, which some people count as towers. If you ask chatGPT, an AI chatbot, it would apologise for not having an answer. But it did recommend to have a look at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the See in Seville, Spain, which has 15 towers!

The altarpiece in the Church of Our Lady in Kalundborg was made in the 17th century by Lorentz Jørgensen, an exceptional Danish woodcarver:

Lorentz Jørgensen normally left his works unsigned, but he had such a distinct and easily recognizable style with repeatedly displayed statuesque figures, that it gave little doubt about the origin of his works. His talents were well above all evident in the ornamental rococo framework throuout the panels of his many altarpieces and pulpits, in total around 30 in Denmark. One can spend long time looking at them and admiring the timeless genius of Lorentz Jørgensen. The photo above is from one of my visits.

I headed back home, and flew by the coastline of Sejerø Bay:

The Aviator was very happy about the flight, too:

After we landed, I did a thorough cleaning of my OY-9797, and The Aviator kept praising me for doing that. He is a real friend!