More charter traffic and a visit from Malmö Aviation.

Today Simon headed out to Östersund airport for the arrival of two SAS charter flights, along with another charter from Malmö Aviation and the "normal" arrival of Freebird from Antalya.

The first arrival of the day was Frida Viking, LN-RRJ, one of the newer from SAS 737-800's with winglets. It was a charter flight from an unknown location, the last stop on its way was Arlanda and we don't know so much more than that.


LN-RRJ in action on runway 12 after landning as SAS7010 from Arlanda. LN-RRJ was delivered directly from Boeing in 2009 and was one of the first 737s to fly in SAS colors with winglets.

They arrived on time, 08:15 local time on runway 12 in cold and windy conditions and just 15 min later her sister LN-RRS arrived as the second charter from SAS this day! They where both fast to unload as they where to fly empty back to Arlanda. During the time they were getting ready we had a nowadays rare visitor from a MD-80, LN-ROT Ingjaid Viking, flying one of the daily scheduled flight for SAS as SK066. A lovely sight as always! We now had three SAS airplanes at the apron at the same time, even that is a rare sight at Östersund Aiport in 2012!

LN-RRS, Ymer Viking was delivered to SAS in 2001 as SE-DYM and has now been equipped with a WI-FI, Internet receiver on the roof.



Not every day that we see the lovely MD80 at Östersund anymore! Seen here on taxiway Foxtrot on it's way to the apron as SAS066. LN-ROT, Ingjaid Viking, was delivered to SAS in 1986 as SE-DFV, then later SE-DFR.


15 years ago you could see a line of MD80 and DC9 like this but to have three flights from SAS at the apron at the same time is not a common sight nowadays!


A nose view of LN-RRJ right before the engine start.

It was very stressful for me as a single photographer this day to capture everything on video and photos as one plane arrived and another departed. This was the case when I was shooting LN-RRJ starting up and I could see Freebird TC-FBV on short final runway 12. I had to move quickly and reset the camera with another lens to get some video of the landing! You can actually see on the vLog when LN-RRJ is taking of just as I shoot Freebird on her way in to the apron! I can say that we aren't used to have more than one movement at the time at this airport!


The captain "hands" back the final papers to the load master right before departure. Note the paper in "mid air"


The second 737-800 for the day is heading back empty to Arlanda after leaving off the charter passengers. Note the Wi-Fi module on the roof. (The landning can be seen in the vLog)

LN-RRS was soon to follow her sister down to Arlanda, so I got the departure on video and then I had to relocate fast to get the landing of the RJ 100, SE-DSR from Malmö Aviation! And just as they landed, the MD80 requested startup as SK073. Once again I had to act fast and move again to get the angle that I wanted of that departure! I got there in time and what a lovely sound as the MD80 powered down the runway!



Just look at that! The power off the Maddog taking of is something special! Seen here as SAS073 to Stockholm, Arlanda.


Malmö Aviation also had a charter flight to Östersund today, seen here before departure back to Malmö. SE-DSR was built in in 1994 and flew as N506MM for Sociedad Aeronautica Medellin before it was delivered to Malmö Aviation back in 2001. (The landning can be seen in the vLog)


TC-FBV, same plane as last week! Seen here after departure from runway 12, heading for Antalya. (The landning can be seen in the vLog)

Don't think that I could take a small pause now, no no! Once again I had to act fast and get back down next to the apron as the RJ-100 was getting ready for departure as well! I got there in time and got some photos of her at the apron and some video from the takeoff!

Freebird was parked on the other side of the terminal so I knew that I couldn't get any good shots from there so once again I headed up to the other side of the airfield to get a nice view from the takeoff! Again I was lucky and got up there just as Freebird started to move on the apron. I took a nice shoot from the angle that I liked and I could finally calm down after two hectic hours!
As always, everything is happening at the same time and then the airport gets quiet and has not another movement for a few hours, so it was time to head for lunch and then head home!

That was it for now and make sure you don't miss the episode of our Vlog from this day below.
A new feature in the Vlog now is that it is all in English now!



Simon Brygg
simonbrygg@osdphoto.com

Kungsair Flight Training in Norrköping Part Two

Simon has now completed his practical flight training in Norrköping and here are some photos and information about what has happened since the last report.

The last few weeks have been very hectic for me at the flight school so I haven't had the time to keep you guys up to date, sorry for that but i'm going to tell you all about it now!

This report will cover the flight training in the Travel Air, so it's the part in the multi engine airplane! I have completed 50 hours of instrument-training in the single engined Slingsby and spent my last 30 hours in the Travel Air with more instrument-training, cross country flying and emergency training flying with only one engine operative.


View from the porch at the flight school

We started of with some basic training, learning how to handle the airplane and it's systems with some basic things like stall, steep turns, short field landings and so on. We also had to do one full day on the ground for the technical course and a written test to make sure that we could handle it's systems before we could start the cross country flights.

On the first day of cross country flights we flew Norrköping-Göteborg-Bornholm(Denmark)-Kalmar and back to Norrköping. Martin flew the flight to Göteborg and then it was my turn in the "hot" seat for the flight to Bornholm. We got vectors for an ILS (Instrument landing system) approach in Bornholm and the weather was bad. It was low clouds and rain so I could only see the runway just 100 feet before the minimum altitude before we had to make a go around! Great fun and great training, it's very different to fly a approach like that in real weather and not under a hod, as we normally do for training!


Enroute towards Östersund FL100.


Jonas shoot from the landning in Östersund, seen here on short final runway 30.

After a lunch in Bornholm we had a very uneventful flight back to Norrköping via Kalmar. We made an instrument approach in Kalmar and ended the day with a visual approach in Norrköping.

We had no flying the next day, it was all spent planing the next eight cross country flights and also to complete another written test on general questions about flight dynamics, laws of the air and so on with questions about minimas, flight dynamics etc so our instructor could see that we hadn't forgotten everything from the ATPL theory!

It was now time for a day that I had been looking forward to, flying home, to Östersund to be specific! I took the controls for the first flight, Norrköping to Östersund via Sveg where we made a GPS-approach before heeding further north! I had called Jonas the day before so he was waiting for as as we arrived and got some shoots of the landing! Then we heeded in to town together for some lunch before we continued our trip to Vasa, Finland, via Sundsvall. I flew the leg to Vasa, it was just an hour long flight but a nice one! After a short stop in Vasa it was Martins turn to fly the last leg back to Norrköping, a two hour long flight with some bad wether on the route! I took the time to rest after a long day of flying.


Climbing out of Östersund on our way towards Sundsvall with the city in the background.


Enroute from Östersund to Sundsvall.



Martin at the controls on short final runway 27 at Norrköping after another long day.

Then we spend the next few days training on flying with one engine, this was done in the area around Norrköping. We also had to make a VFR (Visual flight rules) flight around the area and land on different airports like Linköping and Skavsta as this is a part of the the skill test. It's one part of VFR flying and one part flying on Instruments.

Then it was time for our last cross country flight before the skill test, we flew Norrköping-Bergen-Aalborg-Malmö and back to Norrköping. It was another long 12 hour day but it was fun! The first flight to Bergen was just beautiful! I flew the last flight from Malmö Sturup to Norrköping and this flight was very relaxed, the instructor know that we where ready and he could just sit back and relax!


Enroute Norrköping-Bergen, beautiful scenery along the route.





Short final runway 35 at Bergen.

Now we only had three more days before the skill test, we started to get nervous and our instructor was drilling us like never before! We did everything that we ever had done during the training, and now we should know it all, no mistakes! My last flight the day before the skill test was horrible but I think the nerves did theirs! Then we stayed up late that last night going through everything and prepared our selfs as much as we could for the oral exam and the skill test!

The big day was here, the examiner arrived early and had a look on all my papers and everything was in order, time to fly! I was nervous that morning but once i sat in the airplane i cold of! I felt like home, I had been here every day for the last seven weeks! He asked me a few questions about the airplane and some emergency procedures and then it was time to go! I can't tell you everything about the skill test but we started of with the VFR-part, I got tested on my navigation skills, short landing, landing on one engine and so one! I made a few mistakes but i noticed them and corrected them. All was fine and I passed!


City of Allborg


Me at the controls, climbing out on the instrument departure from Sturup. Got a direct routing so I hade to ad that in the GPS.

Then after a two hour lunch it was time for the skill test for my instrument rating. Same here, I can't tell you to much but I had to prove that I could handle the plane in low speed, stall, steep turns, limited instrument (Incase something breaks during flight) etc flying only on the instruments. Then we turned back for some holdings, ILS-approaches, NDB and circling. ILS is a instrument landing system where you can basically fly the airplane down to the runway without seeing anything! NDB Is also a instrument landing system but with a lower precision so you have to be able to see the runway before you land. During this time i "lost" an engine to prove that I could handle the instrument flying on one engine as well.


Me on short final 27 at Norrköping after a visual approach.

"I got my shit together" so to speak, the flights weren't perfect but it was way better that the last flight the day before! The examiner did't have to much to say, only a few small things, as always! I don't think that anyone is flying perfect during a skill test! But It was no problems, no written remarks and I had passed this flight as well! I am now a commercial pilot with a multi-engine and instrument rating, I have been waiting years for this moment and now it is here! After years of hard work with the theory and getting everything together I am finally here! He signed the papers, shook my hand and handed my license over to me! What a feeling, probably the greatest feeling that I have ever felt!

It's been a long and hard road to ride but now I'm done! It still feels weird, I have been working for so long for this and now I'm done, I don't really know what to do now! The next big break is of course to find a job as a pilot and that is probably the hardest part but I'm not going to give up now!

I just want to give a big thank you to everyone that has been with me through this, all my family and friend that has been there for me even during the tough times and all the time that I have spent away from home! And thanks to you readers of Osdphoto out there that has been so supportive as well and giving me good wishes along the way!


One happy guy at the airplane after passing my Skill test with my instructor to the right and the examiner to the left.

I also would like to give a special thanks to my mother who passed away in cancer in 2006, she was my biggest supporter of all! I know that she isn't here today but she has helped me allot, she knew that I could do this and I know that she would be very proud over me right now! She struggled like no one other, she knew that she wasn't going to make it but she fought for it every day. I knew that if she could do that, then I could do this!

Simon Brygg
simonbrygg@osdphoto.com

Two days of charter traffic at Östersund

The fall charter from Åre Östersund Airport is on again, so Jonas and Simon headed out on both Thursday and Friday to shoot Freebird and Corendon from Turkey.

Nowadays it's not every day that we all get a chance to shoot together, with work and studies always in the way. This week however Jonas and Simon was in Östersund at the same time, with Simon just coming home after finishing his commercial pilot training and Jonas about to leave town for new studies.

Thursday

On thursday morning we headed out to a perfect fall day with a clear sky and a temperature around 10°C. But as always when we are around, things tend to go the opposite of what we want them to. In this case, some clouds found an interesting spot over the airport and decided to stay for the most part of the day.
But we did find something that made us happy and it was something as trivial as a giant pile of pallets at our usual spotting location next to runway 30. You have to embrace the small things in life, right?
From these new pallets we were able to see more of the runway and from up there we shot the arrival of Freebird from Antalya, Turkey.


TC-FBV is a new registration for us and is also rather new to the company. It was delivered to Freebird in April 2011.

Next in line on the approach was SAS. LN-RPT was flying today and it is one of the most photographed airliners on Åre Östersund Airport.






Jonas on his way back to the car after shooting a video sequence of the SAS landing.

After a quick lunch in the car we headed to the ATC tower to shoot the Freebird departure from up there. As always the staff at the ATC is very helpful and often let us up for a chat and a chance to get a great view over the runway and airport.


Freebird departing back to Turkey. It makes you think about the Lynyrd Skynyrd song, doesn't it?



While we were up at the tower we also shot the landing of the Direktflyg arrival from Umeå.



Before leaving the airport for the day we photographed the take off of Mediflight, the air ambulance, from runway 30 and then went for lunch together with one of the the air traffic controllers.



Friday


On Friday we expected Corendon to arrive from Turkey at 13:10. They however got late and didn't arrive until 15:10.
Luckily we had the weather on our side all day this time and managed to get our photos of the landing on runway 30 two hours late.



TC-TJJ with the special Detur color scheme on final for runway 30.




Simon's lens served as a pit stop for a wasp.

Our thought was to drive to the terminal and get some photos from the apron as well, but today Cordendon parked on the other side of the tarmac on a location where you can't get a clean shot. So we called the ATC again and they told us we were welcome up today, too.
   Up in the tower there was a lot of activity as the usually so calm airport all of a sudden was busy. A SAS was on final and two business jets were under way in along with two helicopters. We had only expected the single charter today, so we didn't mind the extra traffic and a possibility to get some interesting photos.


SE-DJM, a Falcon 900 shortly after landing on runway 30. Probably carrying passengers here for the grouse hunt in the mountains.


The air ambulance helicopter taxing just below the ATC tower.


Simon up at the ATC tower.

Shortly after 16:00 Corendon was ready to head back down to Antalya with new passengers and tourists.






The last shot for this time was of the ever so common LN-RPS flying out from Åre Östersund Airport down to Stockholm Arlanda.

That was it for now and make sure you don't miss the episode of our Vlog from these two days below.
A new feature in the Vlog now is that it is all in English now!




Jonas Herjeby
jonasherjeby@osdphoto.com



Simon Brygg
simonbrygg@osdphoto.com