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But, one element of my present job in -77, is not accounted for. Being an ag-pilot is a profession with a clear and unambiguous element of operational danger, not so clearly found in many other lines of aviation. Accidents and invitations to accidents was part of a days work, and only your wits, your experience and training lies between you and disaster. 

I was thirty. Sure I could carry on for many years to come, gradually reducing the risk factor by inducing a greater distance between me and danger, meaning adding a bit of speed here, some yards away from obstructions there and not letting myself get to tired before having a brake and so on. 

But there was another "writing on the wall" to. The business as such was changing, and not for the better. Increased knowledge about the environment in general, created a pressure on the trade as such, and made it seek and develop other solutions. But, regardless, the writing was there, it would end, the question was only when and how. I decided not to participate in the demise, and went home to talk a couple of companies I had been writing with and which now invited me home for an interview.

One was called Troenderfly AS ( Trønderfly AS ). A small air taxi company in central Norway, based on ENVA / TRD Trondheim Airport / Vaernes, the airport for the city of Trondheim in central Norway.  I seem to recall I flew with Dan-Air from Newcastle to Stavanger / Sola ( SVG ), planning on catching a flight up the coast from there to TRD.

The other was venerable Wideroe's Airline AS ( Widerøe's Flyveselskap ASA ), but since they had their main office in Oslo at that time, I would see them on my return journey to the UK and Yorkshire. 

On tarmac at SVG, I had a few hours to kill and as many times before, time was killed looking out onto the tarmac. A couple of hours later I saw an all yellow Beech Queen Air rumbling towards allocated parking, and coming to a halt while shutting down. Only one man came out, and in doing so he sort of led my gaze towards its tailfin, on which was a stylized T. I realized that this was one of Troenderfly's  aircraft.

I quickly made my way through the terminal and on to the tarmac ( so much for security in those 
days ), and manage to catch the guy as he was about to enter the airport authority office. His name was Ola, and I was correct, he was on his way from Aberdeen to Trondheim empty, after a charter across the North Sea. Yes, he wouldn't mind having me as his copilot up to TRD, especially since I was going to see his employer anyway. 

I later learned   that Ola was a retired SAS-pilot, having flown DC-8's just before retiring, a fact that showed up on his approach and landing at TRD. We came over the fence at something more like DC-8-speed than a rumbling old Queen Air. Good thing the runway is long at TRD.

The next day I met up at Troenderfly's office at the agreed time and was greeted by Mr. Per ( can't remember his last name as I write ). He was the managing director, and to make a long story short, I got the job, it was February presently, I was to start early April, so it meant a lot to do by then, moving the family, finding new digs and so on. 

I was suppose to fly ambulance and being based at Bronnoysund Airport / BNN / ENBN, about an hour up the coast in the Piper Aztec I was suppose to mount. Having little or no twin experience and no instrument rating, I was somewhat taken aback by the very fact that they hired me to do this job. And as for any first aid or medical training or insight, forget it! But if they were willing to give me a chance, I certainly was not looking a gift horse in the mouth. But honestly!

I also met Tronderfly's Chief Pilot at the time, Cpt. Leif Westad. he became a good friend, checked me out in the Aztec eventually, and also showed me the ropes of Instrument Flying. But that was after me and my family decided on using Troenderfly as our stepping stone to a career in Norway.

But, some swatting had to be done, and quickly! I went on down to The Civil Aviation Authority in Oslo, came to grips with all the requirements for me to have an Instrument Rating issued, bought all the books required for the Written Exam, and shot off back to the UK, after having been to see Wideroe's, which anyway wasn't in the need of pilots before early autumn 1977.

Then we packed up and left good old England. I was really sorry to see it go, I had had a wonderfull time there, made great and long lasting friends, and is forever thankful for the fact that they gave me an opportunity for making a living in my chosen profession, when it was most needed.

The duty up at BNN was very interesting an varied. I was given a flat in the basement of Cpt. Arne Hegge and his wife's house, Arne had earlier held the position I now had in Troenderfly. They were a great couple to stay with.

I remember one of the trips I had up there rather vividly. It was short and intense, but one never to be forgotten. The day was ordinary, a blustery wind from the northwest, some showers giving both rain and snow, and with fairly strong winds surrounding the showers, but with long and clear, sunny spells in between. 

The call came about midday, I was to to bring a middle age man to hospital in Sandnessjøen, the township just north of us. It would take me about 10 maybe 15 minutes to fly up there. The man was on a stretcher and a nurse was accompanying the guy, which apparently had a heart condition, was in pain and didn't seem to notice what was going on.

The nurse however, a middle aged women, was very much alive and very, very frightened by the fact that she was to fly. During the process of getting the stretcher with the patient into the aircraft, she was no help at all, and one of the airport stewards had to give me a hand.

The Aztec is a marvelous aircraft, sturdy and dependable, but since it was not built to be an air ambulance, it was difficult getting a stretcher with a 220 pound / 5'11" guy into it through the rear side door. I had previously installed a sidewall covering of the hard laminate Respatex, hoping it would protect the wall somewhat from the stretcher as it was angled into the cabin.

When finished with getting the stretcher, patient and nurse onboard, the normal procedure for a VFR-flight up to SSJ was completed, and we took off, setting course direct towards SSJ, at 2000 feet. Both patient and nurse remained calm, the nurse having a look on her face of utter terror, and portraying an attitude resembling a patient in complete, mental stupor.

The turbulence became more noticeable, as we came closer to one of the CB's in the area, which didn't help the nurse any, but luckily the patient was reasonably calm, only waving his arms every now and then and uttering some incoherent words.

SSJ was contacted and as I already could see for myself, the weather was clear for miles around the airport and wind favored a landing straight in from the south. I had just confirmed the details given by the Tower in SSJ, and had just reset the altimeter, when a might scream almost pierced my eardrums, and made me sit bolt upright in my seat.

Catching my breath and swallowing my heart back to where it should be, I swung around only to see the patient grabbing the nurse by her bosom, pulling her towards him hard, whilst retaining the glazed look, obviously not knowing what he was doing. 

The nurse had no stamina left in her to fight back or try to calm down the patient, she was plainly going to scream all the way down. The patient continued to pull at her, luckily the seatbelts wrapped around him held him don somewhat, although they had stretched somewhat. 

I swung my arm around to see if I could put my hand on the patient and stop him from nearly choking the nurse, whilst still trying to steer the aircraft towards final, which also started acting up as the turbulence got more active as we got nearer SSJ. It normally did under these conditions. 

The patient continued to be unruly, and although I had to retard power and get the gear down and go through the descent and before landing checklist ( which I did mentally, I must admit ), I also managed to keep the patient from hurting the nurse any further. She was still in chock, still screaming and still trying to get out the side wall instead of dealing with the patient.

We got closer to the threshold, and although it was difficult to set up anything resembling a stabilized approach, I did manage to keep her running, and set flaps for landing. The man in the back still had a firm grip on the nurse, shaking her violently back and forth.

The aircraft bounced all over the place on short final, and the wind shifted from a headwind to a tailwind within only a few seconds, adding to the excitement as the aircraft swayed, descended and accelerated as the wind swung around. Just seconds before hitting terra firma, I left the two in the back to their own destiny, and concentrated on getting the Aztec down in one piece. 

The taxi into the terminal was of the rather speedy nature, and luckily I had been able to inform the tower of my difficulties, and to burly paramedics from the ambulance come to fetch the man onboard, was on the wing and side door before I had shut down the engines. In less than a minute the patient was out of the aircraft and on his way to hospital.

The nurse? Well, she finally made it out of the aircraft, went into the terminal and disappeared. I never saw her again, poor girl. 

That was  one of my last flights for Troenderfly. A few weeks later I was admitted to hospital myself and the lifelong story of my eye-ailment began. I didn't leave Troenderfly on a very good note though. They where a small, badly managed air taxi company, struggling to survive. Would probably be better if they hadn't. 

I am/was a family man. As such a regular income is vital, with emphasis on regular, not large. Waiting for my paycheck, and asking when it would come, I was told that I didn't have a future with them if I wasn't able to wait a couple of weeks for my pay. I got really angry, and uttered words to the effect that if that was the case, they shouldn't be allowed to survive, and they would have to try without me. Shortly after their general manager called me and said our mutual contract was cancelled, although I had never seen one!

8th August 1977, a couple of months later, I signed the contract with Widerøe's, and stayed with them for nearly twenty years.