And so the end is near!

Just handed in the first full draft of my thesis for scrutiny. Approaching the end fast now!

Hopefully there will be less need for coffee now and I will look less like this

Another couple ties the knot

Had the honor of being toastmaster at the wedding reception of two of my good friends, Ida and Benjamin. An evening filled with lots of laughs and tears. Congratulations to you both!

Special thanks to Marcus, Arash and Camilla for helping me with the preparations. It would not have been so epic without your help! Today has been a “chillaxing” day merely proof-reading my thesis preparing for the approaching hand in in addition to wrapping up some things that we did not have time to do yesterday.

Christmas countdown

In my case this involves a load of studying as I have the two last exams of my Masters degree coming up soon. Hopefully they will go the right way!

Christmas countdown has started this morning

With a “fika” at Café Linné in Uppsala and a Church service hosted by the Uppsala police choir

 

Coming closer to the end

Tomorrow I shall write the first of three exams this semester and if all goes well it will be the last three exams ever in my university career. But I still wonder who came up with the “great” idea of exams on a Saturday morning!? Only 28 days until Christmas holidays kick in!

Travel travel is what I was born to do!

Some fun journeys coming up within the next 6 months.

First:

Moscow in December

Then:

San Diego in March/April

Some collect rocks, some collect “monuments”…

…. I collect Starbucks mugs wherever I go and I find a Starbucks.

So far I have 13 from: Madrid, London, Qingdao, Beijing, Bangkok, Chang Mai, Chicago, New York, Northern Ireland, Zurich, Frankrfurt, Copenhagen and Kuala Lumpur. Still missing Washington, Paris, Nottingham and about 6 others that have been sold out at my visit. Hoping to catch one in Moscow in December and from Stockholm when they open at Arlanda early next year!

Spotted at work

Had the pleasure of seeing myself on Swedish TV3 and “Stockholm-Arlanda” last night. Brought back some good memories from an employment not to long ago. Quite amusing to see how two minutes of filming are cut down to two seconds of TV show.

(Snapshot from TV3)

To view:

Go to http://www.tv3.se/play

Select Stockholm Arlanda Säsong 2

Chose the episode from 11/11

Forward to 15:05 and hit play.

PC does his PC

As a PPL license holder, once every two years, you are required to either do an hour with an instructor or if you haven’t flown your 12 hours in the last 12 months, a proficiency check which is slightly more comprehensive. In my case, due to studies, it had to be the latter one.

After a number of postponements due to weather and the my instructors license expiring it was finally d-day. It would also be a bit different compared to an ordinary PC as L. had to have his PC examiner authorization extended meaning there would in fact be an examiner examining the examinor. This turned out to be my check-ride examiner B-A from the Swedish CAA.

L. picked me up and together we drove out to Sundbro. When we arrived there was not a cloud in sight and it seemed as if everything would go according to L’s plan. However during the briefing, clouds came sweeping in reducing the vertical visibility to merely 1600 ft. However, still within the limits I completed my PFC and taxied out requesting clearance from Uppsala tower to “play around” in the sector between Sundbro and Lake Tämnaren from 3500ft and below.

Departed and left the control zone via the well familiar Skuttunge church and followed L’s instructions of headings and altitudes. When we approached Lake Tämnaren he asked me to slow the aircraft down and lift the nose until the stall warning sounded followed by the recovery procedures. The next task was to slow the aircraft down to 70kts (normally 65kts at higher altitudes) and do maneuvers  as instructed. When L was satisfied I returned to normal flying mode before commencing 45 degree turns to the left and right. On the return towards Sundbro we talked through the VOR and ADF and used it to navigate towards both ARN (VOR) and UP (NDB).

Back in the traffic pattern I performed a normal touch and go landing followed by a flap-less full stop. Backtracked and did a simulated aborted takeoff before heading up in the pattern again. This is where I made the absolute worst power off approach I have ever done and I decided to abort. The second try was much better but still not up to par with what I know I can do. Up again and simulated and engine failure after takeoff before deciding that this was enough and returning to the clubhouse after exactly one hour airborne or 1.2 hours block time in SE-GON.

After a quick discussion both L and B-A decided that I passed and we went in to do the paperwork. Now I am good for another two years in the air. I must say my ego did get a boost when the only word written on the whole protocol was “beautiful” 😉

For those who wonder how L did, well, he passed as well and is now allowed to examine PCs on his own 🙂

I don’t like Mondays…

…was a hit by the Boomtown Rats. However I DO like Mondays (most of the time) and when having this scenery after dinner it can not be much better:

Also, this was the first time my father joined me for a trip and I think I satisifed his old pilot genes in the way I flew. Anders on the other hand……..

Thank you Arlanda TWR for the visit.