Aviation
Pictures
(
click to enlarge )
Feel free
to use as you wish, although I'd be glad to hear of it. I have about 10,000
pictures in my collection now, many of them mine, but many also found on the
Internet. I love looking at pictures, and if you recognize anyone as being
yours please forgive. If you want it removed just let me know.
If you want
paying, please let me know also, and I'll remove it immediately.
This DC-3 was the first "real" encounter with aviation. I worked for a maintenance outfit at Oslo / Fornebu Airport in 1964, and helped out the best I could with restoring this beauty to flying condition. As far as I know it is still around and I am trying via various forums to locate the old bird which was registered LN-LMK at the time. See the shining aluminium? I did that, with the help of some soldiers.
A Cessna AgWagon or Cessna 188. I flew an aircraft like this in the UK, in Norway, and in the Sudan. A nice, stable workhorse, a real farming tool. Probably pulled me out of more trouble than I'd like to remember! Some of them is found if you proceed to the Stories-page. I also ferried one from Norwich in England to Khartoum in Sudan. VFR.
DHC-2 Beaver
The Beaver. The dream machine. My friend Glenn in Miami and
I often talk about an unfulfilled dream of ours. Off to the bush i Canada. No
money-worries, no nothing. Just us, the bush and the Beaver. A marvelous airplane, one I
have found traces of in my experience with other De Havilland products.
Opa Locka Airport just outside Miami, just north of Miami International. Once the home of one of the biggest flying schools in the world, Burnside-Ott Aviation Training Centre. It operated over 150 aircraft. This is were I trained, back in 1967.
Cessna 185
The Cessna 185, the
follow - on for the 180. A beautiful airplane. Back in -67 a guy in
Miami allowed me to fly his 180, having to pay only fuel. I was working during the day, so
the flying was mostly done at night. I checked myself out in it, never forgetting the very
first takeoff or the first landing. In a taildragger! Since then several
thousand hours of tail dragging is in the book.
De Havilland Dash-8 from Widerøe's of Norway, outside the new terminal at Bodø Airport (ENBO/BOO). Widerøe is the oldest airline in Norway (1934), and Bodø is its home base. Widerøe is for me the company, providing everything in flying a guy like me could hope for. Livelihood, excitement, challenges, development, security, friends, scares (?), and a lot more.
Business Jet
My friend Glenn in Miami flies one of these all over the US.
A great aircraft he says. It is owned by a major US energy company, for whom
Glenn works as an Assistant Chief Pilot in their aviation department,
flying both helicopters and fixed wing. He is a Vietnam veteran, and many
stories has been told about that adventure.
A picture taken from my Twin Otter towards the southern tip of Lofoten, and looking across to the Island of Værøy. We are on a direct flight between Andøya and Bodø. taking a detour to show the islands to tourists onboard. Lofoten Islands are jutting southwestward out from mainland Norway up above the arctic circle, and the fiord on the eastern side of the chain is every spring, the home basin for the largest cod fisheries in the world.
And that was the end of that, another operator bites the bullet. Early 1999, the only Dornier 328 operator in Scandinavia, Air Stord, went bankrupt. This was one of their mounts. A great airplane, but maybe a trifle expensive to operate for a start-up?
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And this is is where it all started, for me. Back in the very late 40's, early 50's, my father ran a company that melted down metal to be reused by industry. We had, believe it or not,three of these magnificent aeroplanes lying in our back yard. Two the right way up, one upside down. Wings clipped off outside of the engines nacelles. Otherwise intact. If only I, at the time, had understood the importance of preservation, at least for parts of it. But no, alas, they all went into the smelter.
The
Ultimate Aerial Applicator
The Canadair CL-415 with PT-6
turbines skimming the water in order to fill its belly full of water, to be
dropped on a forest fire somewhere in Canada. A marvelous aircraft, sturdy,
built like a tank. Must be a dream to fly now that the PT-6 are on the wings.
Wish I could have tried it. It may be used in a variety of roles, from submarine hunting, surveillance, search & rescue, aerial application,
firefighting, oil spill dispersant application and so on.
One of the airports in the Norwegian short field network of airport, MEH / ENME, Mehavn in the County of Finnmark, on the shores of the Barents sea. Devised in 1965-66, the first field complete in 1966. Originally designed to be used by the De Havilland DHC-6/300 Twin Otter, 800 meters, to provide efficient transport to remote regions. Indisputable success. 26 airports made, all with instrument approaches and AFIS-service.
On final to 18 at Sandefjord Airport / Torp (ENTO / TRF), about 100 km south of the city of Oslo, along the western coast of the north/south running Oslo Fjord. Initially a relief airfield for the Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF), with a civilian sector. Initially a sleepy place, with some light aircraft activity. New terminal now, and expansion began at an extremely rapid pace in the late 90's, when Oslo/Gardermoen opened and anyone south and west of Oslo went to TRF than to ENGM. At present it seems like its opening new routes every day.
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MQN / Rossvoll
Mo i Rana / Røssvoll, ENRA/MQN approaching
from the north, sliding down the Svartisen Glacier en route from Bodø/BOO.
Confined in a narrow valley, and instrument approach in the east/west direction
with a visual 90 degree turn after having visual, or a 180 turn back and up the
localizer again. If taking off northward, a visual, light-guided steep turn in the
valley, then out into the localizer and climb. Interesting in a blizzard!
Namsos/Høknesøra, ENNM/OSY approaching from the west. Another interesting place on the Widerøe Network. Localizer down the other way. Until revised, another turn in a narrow valley at night and back up the localizer. Situated just north of Trondheim in central Norway. A timber-town, the area is rich in fir trees and renowned for its fresh water salmon fishing in the river. And a very good hospital too, I can vouch for it!
Narvik/Framnes, ENNK/NVK in Northern Norway. At the end of a wide fjord, and with a 180 required for a missed approach, and back out the fiord. The end of the localizer is pretty close to the mountains and for god's sake, do not try a climb straight ahead, unless you're able to go ballistic! The town saw fierce battles during the war, and was originally called Victoriahamn, as it was established with British aid, for bringing iron ore out from Kiruna in Sweden.
In the center of the picture (when you enlarge it), you can see Svolvær Lufthavn / SVJ in the Lofoten Chain of Islands in the north. A place with at least ten visits in a day, but the localizer is only from the south, so again; a 180 and back out if you take off northwards. Svolvær is a fishing town, rich in nordic culture and the administrative center for the area.´The network of STOL-ports is possibly unique in the world, with respect to being purposely built for the DeHavilland DHC-6/300 Twin Otter. 23 airports are presently in the network, all operated by Widerøe's, now with an all-Dash-8 fleet. In addition they operate to almost every other airport in the country.
LN-FKB
on the Ice
And this is another
Twin-Otter, LN-FKB, belonged to NFK AS, and was operated on Svalbard by me, doing
research work for Cambridge University, The Scott Polar Research Institute (
SPRI ), and
supporting a French female expedition to the North Pole. All
of this is told ( in
due time ), on the Stories-page. Be patient, there are
a lot of good stories from that period. The picture is taken on the ice out
from the "City of Ny Ålesund" home of the infamous Kings Bay mining
disaster way back. Now a well used place for many kinds of scientific research
projects.
This picture takes us back to -72. It was on my first job for the company in England, Mindacre Ltd. I was sent to do a job in Scotland, from East Fortune disused aerodrome, east along the coast from Edinburgh. But, that very same morning I flew down to Wiltshire west of London and did my first ever spraying job! And that was my check out! I then winged my merry way VFR up through the length of England, crossed the border into Scotland and landed at East Fortune. Ten minutes later I was on the job, spraying corn. And to make a long story short, later that same day I started on a field, went to far and into the next field, and pulled right up into 36.000 volt! An almighty bang and the aircraft banked steeply left and straight for the nearby town. I managed to straighten her up, went down the main street and out over the sea and in a wide turn back to the airfield and a safe landing! An aggie was truly borne (see story page for details)!
The Embraer E-120 Brasilia. I flew this aircraft from late -90 until I retired in -94. A great aircraft to fly, very good performance (300 kts average cruise), well equipped (EFIS, GPS). But, not very forgiving aircraft, it had to be flown by the numbers and you had to stay ahead of it. Once you got the hang of it, a really nice working machine.
The Twin Otter ´came in many guises, one of them being for The Maldives Air Service on floats. I think they have about 16 of these now, doing a good job around the Islands. The company is actually owned and operated by Danes.
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Modern times, a PT-6-powered 510 Turbo Thrush on a run. Average height for a cropsprayer, I spent about 3000 hours there, although I did not enjoy the obvious pleasures of a PT-6 in that role. But the venerable IO-520 or IO-540 wasn't all that bad either.
Piper Cub, but with outsize tires. With these you can land on a pretty rough surface if you wish. I have used tires like this on a Twin Otter. A strange feeling on touch down. Higher than usual off the ground, much higher. And it waddles as you roll.
Not a Cub, but nearly. It's ( aptly ), called a Sherpa. It's more the tires really. A sign of freedom and independence. A dream come true. The outback, alone, a strip, beach or almost any reasonably plain surface. The love of flying the airplane and the elements. Memories are made of this. I love this aircraft and wish I could own one. Look at: http://www.sherpaaircraft.com/home.html
This is from Værøy Airport/VRY in Northern Norway, an island lying 46nm due west of Bodø/BOO. The airport is now closed, after an accident with one of our Twin Otters back in 1990, in which we lost 2 crewmembers and 5 passengers. I worked in the Civil Aviation Accident Investigation Commission on this case, and it led me to reach certain conclusions on my own. The airport, as you can see on the map below, had a shear cliff face running along the runway on one side, and open sea at the other. The cliff reached 450 meters, starting at sea level,. and if the wind came from the eastern sector ( 225 - 045 dgr. ), rotors, downbursts and strong winds was the order of the day.The landing conditions then demanded the absolute utmost of the crew. Severe restrictions was placed on the operations to this place, particularly after we had a close call there one year before the fatal accident. One of our crew experienced being completely turned over and back up again in total darkness, but managed to continue onwards to Røst and land safely. It became evident the the airport had been built in the wrong place, although the Authorities had been warned beforehand.
This is a map of the Island. If you enlarge it, it becomes evident that the location of the airport will produce extremely difficult wind conditions, pending direction. In fact, almost any direction and almost any strength produced very specific operational challenges. A year before the accident there, another Twin Otter did a complete summersault in total darkness. Due to heaps of luck and good airmanship, the crew managed to get the ship upright again, and landed safely on the Island of Roest ( RET ), a few minutes after the incident. Oversped turbines and overloaded nerves was the result. No way this could have gone well without the trusty old Twin Otter.
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This picture provides a good view of the airports location and its proximity to the cliff face. A normal departure, according to the SID, would not take you as far out the extended centerline as this, it takes you straight ahead to 500 feet then immediate right turn out towards the sea and the north-west. The Twin Otter we lost there in 1990, did exactly this. The picture will show that this took him straight into the rotors created by the cliff, as the wind at the time came from the east.
LN-FKB in Long Year City, Spitsbergen, springtime 1986. As said before, we were supporting various expeditions and exploration on the Islands, and completing flights as far west as the airbase called North on Northern Greenland, the North Pole and east to the Russian border
Here a Twin Otter on the last stretch ( short final ), of the approach to runway 27 at Honningsvåg. HVG lies next to the North Cape, a famous visiting point for tourists. HVG is also a very special airport, lying across the bottom of a fiord. You fly the localizer in the fiord, and when you get to minima you choose which runway to use. Is the wind from the south, you will likely get a good beating getting down towards the runway, and you'll likely experience both tail- and headwinds.
This picture is taken the 22nd of February 1986, on our way to Svalbard to start a six months spell supporting various expeditions and explorations. As we slowly approached the high arctic, the sun started rising to greet us.
So, a complete change and leap into the future. The next generation is taking over! Look who is in the right seat! It's my youngest son Thomas, and we have just taken off from Jarlsberg in Southern Norway. He had gained his PPL, and was preparing to go to NAIA in Conway, South Carolina for further training. At the moment he has gained his CPL and is working on his twin-rating and Instructors Rating ( 010104 ) Thomas is back home, after having flown a year as an instructor in New jersey. he is now working hard on his conversion. (back to top)
In 1982-3, a debate went on in in Norway, about extending oil exploration north of the 62nd parallel, in other words, into Arctic waters. One requirements was that the Oil Pollution Control Capability had to be enhanced, as one was moving into a environmentally very sensitive area. Based on my knowledge and experience from aerial application, I suggested a "fire-brigade" of specially equipped Twin Otters, that could both detect and evaluate as well as disperse the spill, in advance of sea borne oil spill clean-up equipment. A company was formed, which developed a unique spray equipment for the Twin Otter, based on PT-6 bleed air. It was demonstrated several places, notably as a participant in the 1984 Farnborough Air Show.
This is were it all started, were it all grew out from. Its incredible when you consider what it became. If you go to Toronto today, you'll find a modern and efficient operation, consisting of thousands of skilled workers.
Transition
- 1990
Embraer E-120 Brasilia.
This is Widerøe Norsk Air's E-120 on the tramac at the old terminal at Sandefjord / Torp ( TRF ). The company grew out from a shipping operation, but was bought by Widerøe in 1989, and its name changed to Widerøe Norsk Air, as a preparation for a complete merger later on. Great guys flying there, I took leave from Wideroe, and climbed onboard late in 1990. Spring next year I took over as a Chief Pilot. Cpt. Tom Reichelt ( previously Busy Bee ), came onboard as Flight Operations Manager, Cpt. Leif Westad as Head of Training and Cpt. Hallstein Jacobsen ( previously Wideroe ) took charge of Performance and Technical. I really enjoyed working with the
crowd there, most of them now in Wideroe.
This picture was taken at a strip near the Ethiopian border, were I spent 5 days in a mud hut. My man on the site was the guy you see in the cockpit. He was well educated and on his way to become an entomologist at the university in Khartoum. A very nice guy. I sprayed a lot of "feddans" from this place, in a blistering heat well above +40°C. If it affected the performance? You bet! It felt like nothing happened when you gave it power, and when flying everything was sluggish and mushy.
Essex
County Airport / Laldwell - CDW
A not to good photo of the airport where my son was an instructor for just
over a year. About 20-25 nm from Newark, one og New York's main ports. The
airport is bursting at the seems with light aircraft, trainers, business jets
and helicopters.
A very interesting place to be. And with "The Bomber" restaurant
right on the perimeter, where you could sit and have your meal or beer, and
watch all the traffic coming and going. Whatever may be you standpoint,
private flying is greater in the US, no doubt in my mind.
My good and as time flies, old friend Glenn Jacobsen from Bodø way up above the Arctic Circle. He now flies in SAS Commuter, enjoying the power and performance of the Dash-8 Q400. Previously he worked in Widerøe, where I had the dubious pleasure of checking him out as a captain! And that, gives us many reasons for pulling out one incredible story after another when meeting. Glenn trained the same place as my son, NAIA. He has a hell of temper and a never-ending good mood. He flies like a dream, how could he otherwise; I gave him all I had didn't I. He is now moving to Denmark.
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An old friend from my days in Widerøe. He started there about three years before me and was a Captain when I came. He had the nack of making a rookie like me feel at ease. A real gentleman! A good friend with a deeper resonance than many. He is now based at Gardermoen in Oslo, has retired from Widerøe but continued as a captain and basemanager for the Norwegian mailoperator West Airs operation in Norway. And who is his assistant? My youngest som Thomas, now flying as a capatain for West Air!
I deliberately chose a "neutral" Dash-8 here, since those two distinguished gentlemen above both flies the type, but in different colors. The aircraft is only one in a long line of successful machines, coming off the assembly line in Downsview outside Toronto in Canada. One can only wonder what the Dash-9 will be like. A jet? Although DeHavilland has been down that route before. Need I mention the Comet, the Vampire, the Trident, the Venom?
I remember when I first came to the US ( no, second time ), and started Ground School at Burnside-Ott Aviation Training Center at Opa-Locka Airport just outside Miami. I have always felt that theoretical study was not for me, and was I glad to discover that they even in 1966 had graphic presentations. It certainly is a better way of presenting a complex subject, making it a hell of a lot easier to understand. Today, most things are presented that way. Here is one, pinched from ATR. A good way to describe the difference between turboprop and turbojet, don't you think?
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Dallas and Duncan having a rest in our back yard in Sudan. The picture is taken in 1974, during our six months tenure down there, spraying cotton in the Gzira area. I do not know where Duncan is, but I recently managed to track down Dallas. He is now in Kazakstan, flying helicopters for oil exploration companies. He has been there for five years, and is enjoying life with his Russian wife. I had some sort of responsibility for Dallas when he first started i Ag-flying in England back in 1972. I must have missed out on some of the things I should have told him, since he crashed with an Ag-Wagon later the same year. Actually it wasn't much else to do than tell him few of the things one thought he ought to know, and send him on his merry way! Didn't have two-seater Ag-Wagons in those days. If anyone reading this should happen to know a big, flying Kiwi by the name of Duncan
Gardner, please let me know.
From February to June 1986, at Svalbard or Spitsbergen as some say. Einar Sverre & Ingrid Pedersen is rather famous in Norwegian aviation. Among a heap of other feats, she was the first women to fly a single engine aircraft across the North Pole. Einar Sverre also became known for various exploits, flying across the North Pole ( i shan't mention who was with him on the trip ), developing a way to navigate safely across the Pole, whilst being a navigator in SAS, starting Norsk Polarnavigasjon, a venture in oil and so on. I got to know them at Svalbard. Their 185 was parked at Ny Ålesund, and Kåre Pedersen and I took it across to Longyear. My Twin Otter with a televison crew onboard flew alongside. We went looking for Polar Bears on this trip, and found them to!
The Man!
My man Kåre Pedersen. Aircraft Engineer, survival expert, one hell of a
guy!. He came onboard in NFK, and most definitely at Svalbard. Without him the
French Ladies Expedition wouldn't have come so far as they did. This picture is
taken at Phipps Island, the absolute northernmost piece of rock we could find on
Svalbard, and with a flat stretch of beach I could put it down on. Kåre tumbled
out from the rear, right emergency door just as I touched down, and ran the
length of the field to check for suitability and obstacles. I kept the old girl
running back and forth, until Kåre gave me the thumbs up. What we would have
done if I couldn't have stopped? Lifted off again and landed on the fjord ice
further out. We left the right engine running, offloaded the French Lady's
Expedition whilst being on guard with a gun, and took off again. More on stories
page!
Checking the oil on a Cessna 150 at Opa-Locka Airport just outside Miami in 1967. Opa-Locka was the home of Burnside-Ott Aviation Training Center, that at the time had about 150 aircraft on the flight line. I had a Dutch instructor at the time, his name is Ady Van Der Huynschlager, or something close. We shared an apartment for awhile as well. Ady was a nice guy. He had one hell of a temper, and gave me some good "workovers" whenever I did something I shouldn't do or didn't understand his somewhat crooked English.
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Now isn't this a beautiful photo of a situation which must be experienced to be understood. To land and takeoff from an untouched, powdery snowfield, high up in the mountains and on a slope, is an aviation experience that is not easily forgotten. Your senses has to be acute to know when your are in contact with the snow, and to see the fine spray of the purest white floating by, is an environmental experience not many will have. This photo is from my alpine flying collection. I have done the same all over Norway and also in a Twin Otter on skis on the Svalbard Archipelago.
Not really, but the photo may well be descriptive of 1974, as I was in Sudan at the time, completing a contract of cotton spraying for my British employer. A lot of companies from various countries was there at the same time, but at different bases. During windy or dusty days, we did go to visit each other, and we went down to see our polish friends an hour to the south by our 206. My friend, their Chief Pilot, took me for a ride in one of their AN-2's, which is an experience to remember! Big, rumbling, and and sloooow! On final it looks like its absolutely standing still! A great aircraft, I'd like to own one.
Definitely one of the more fun aircraft that I have ever flown! Type rating ? He, he... The Tipsy Nipper, fully aerobatic and of Belgian origin. Can't remember how big the engine was, I think it was close to 50 horses. I did a program of an Immelman, Cuban 8, Split S, Slow Roll, Snap Roll and loops with it. It's so cramped in the cockpit that I had to press my knees hard out into the fabric to get full deflection on the stick when engaging full aileron. (back to top)
Thomas has a well developed talent for drawing, one which he uses frequently for pleasure or for making a few extra bucks. At NAIA he was naturally allocated the task of equipping the hapy fliers with a suitable badge. Hope you'll be able to see the details.
As part of his job as a flight instructor in New York, Thomas had to fly sightseeing trips around Manhattan a lot. One day a Norwegian journalist showed up, and had some photos taken of lower Manhattan and the missing Twin Towers. This led to us being able to see Thomas on the center spread of a large, national newspaper in Norway. The angle on the story waqs not to Thomas's liking.
A two seater fun aircraft, to be homebuildt and purchased in the form of a kit. Would have been very interesting to build one of these, indeed. But, I suppose it will have to remain a dream.
My old friend Haakon. He started only a couple of years ahead of me in Widerøe, and we were neighbours for quite awhile in Bodoe, until he decided to accept a job offer in SAS, and moved to Toensberg, which we also did some years later. Recently Haakon and his new spouse Ingfrid joined us in Denmark, in order to celebrate our wedding and our joint 6oth birtdays. Haakon has now retired from active duty due to medical reasons, but has accepted a position as inspector with the Civil Aviation Authority, and is moving back to Bodoe, where the CAA now have their offices. Haakon is a great guy with a fantastic sense of humour, always with a smile on his face. A great friend to have...
Thomas has landed his first job as a pilot. Its with BenAir Norway AS, which is the Norwegian branch of a danish company, from Stauning Airport on the eastern shore of Ringkøbing Fjord, right on the western coast of Jylland. At present Thomas is studying for his type rating, and is expecting to start line training towards the end of January. BenAir serves newspapers and the postal services, and operates on regular routes through out Norway. Flying these routes provides excellent training for for young pilots, providing a learning environment second to none. (Now, june 2008, is hes employed by West Air of Sweden, flying ATP and just starting training to become a captain.
It is interesting to register that the Sovjet was actually working on the North Pole during the 50's and 60's. without anyone in the west knowing about it. Seismic, meteorological and geological registrations were carried out with great precision. The reason where their need for being able to navigate safely under the ice, but also because they discovered vast qauntities of valuable commodities in these waters. This work is also the reason for why the Russians have a different view on global warming and the melting of polar ice that us in the west.
Hotel North was a friendly place, and what could be better than passing time listening to tales from someone whose built their own airplane and is using it to boot. Mr. and Mrs. Ard of Goose Bay bilt this aircraft, and uses it every summer to roam the north in search of fish, tranquility and the sheer joy of seeing the world from above. Mrs. Ard worked in the reception at the hotel, and kindly sent med photos after I got home.
And what could beat this? Flying through one of the last wildernesses on earth, spot an absolute ideal place for fishing, land, secure the aircraft and go fishing! An afternoons catch?
And how about this? A native is coming to inspectwhatever it is that is disturbing the peace. But, he decided to retreat instead of advancing, and our fishermen could go about their bussines in peace.
Thomas soon landed a job in West Air of Sweden, which gained a contract with the Norwegian Postal Services. They operated a mixed fleet consisting mainly of British Aeerospace ATP's converted for freight, but also CRJ's and BAe 146. After a short period in the right seat, he gained his captaincy. He did about 4½ years with them before moving on to higher levels (see below).
Thomas was headhunted to a shipping company which also runs its own air operations, both helicopters and airplanes.