Life is a rollercoaster (Thank you Ronan Keating for the title)

Some of you readers have asked me about the job interview I had on Thursday and quite frankly, I must say that I am happy. I spent 2 hours talking to the Vice President and one of the founders and left with a very good impression about the company (I won’t go public with the name just yet) and all the other “bits and bobs” that need to be there in order for things to feel right.

I also enjoyed a lunch and good chat with ex. colleague and friend Mats who has also found himself a new endeavor that he seems satisfied with (and so has his girlfriend Anna). The evening was spent with the usual “mens club” (Sauna and chatting) and acted as the “cherry on the cake” to an already good day.

Friday however was to be somewhat of a disaster in terms of my flying. After a few hours of sleep I headed north to Sundbro where I met Anders who was busy planning is cross country flight to the central regions of our country. At this point I also discovered the first disaster of the day, no coffee cups for the machine!!!! Noticed that SE-IBX wasn’t going to be used and changed aircraft from SE-KUZ, disaster number 2! Pre-flight check was done extra thoroughly as there is a slight propeller paranoia at the club now (better safe than sorry). Taxied Ms. IBX to the fueling station and filled up 98L of 100LL.

Rolled out to runway 03 and contacted Uppsala tower who gladly let us play around Sundbro. Started off with a mediocre traffic pattern and  continued around and around in a pattern that in my eyes was the crappiest I’ve done since my first flight coming in too high, too fast, too left, too right etc. Nevertheless I survived and returned to base after one hour for a coke and Snickers. The next lesson was if possible worse than the first one with the rudders (and pilot) feeling heavy. It felt so crappy that I asked for a full stop landing and to stay on terra firma and despite my instructors (as always) encouraging words, I left Sundbro not feeling happy about my efforts that day. Drove home and made dinner with grandma before heading to bed.

Saturday morning started at 0400 as I had promised to drive “Leif the Neighbor downstairs” and Tiina to Arlanda for their flight to Romania. Back in bed one hour later with a cup of coffee and the morning paper before heading off to “Baywatch” for the calmest day I think I’ve had since I started (the two last hours excepted).

Finally

YES!  At last my phone rang, I have a job interview on Thursday. Stay tuned for a report then, but it just proves what I wrote about in one of my first entries about never giving up!

Eye contact, or the lack of it

I do think this has to be the most “serious” blog entry I’ve made since the start but I feel that it is indeed necessary to bring it up as it is starting to annoy me more and more.

I (temporarily, during th search for something else), work at a sports center in my home town. It is generally a pleasant place with good colleagues and clients from a wide range of backgrounds and needs, somethings creating a small challenge or two. Naturally, this requires a lot of face to face communication both pool side and at the reception. While I try to look my customers in the eyes to establish a (professional) relationship between us, I am often met the other parties hair or ear while he/she is looking down in to the desk or in another direction. At first I just ignored it but over time started to successively see this more as a lack of respect (and this regardless if this is towards me or someone else). My response to this ever increasing problem was to test what would happen if I didn’t answer anyone who didn’t look at me and the results were quite interesting. While some took the hint and looked up, other people continued to look away or even left when they realized that in order to get something they would have to look at me. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not asking for people to look me straight in the eyes but the least one can ask for is to look in my direction. I can accept children not being fully educated who do this, but ADULTS!? Likewise, I’ve left stores where the clerk hasn’t looked at me when I am standing right in front of him/her.

Taking a walk, one will also notice this very peculiar behavior, more in Sweden than in other countries e.g. France, even if this is an increasing phenomenon even there. Try to see for yourself what happens the next time you look at someone you meet when you are out walking, and again I am NOT talking about staring, just simple eye contact. Most likely, the other party will look away or even swiftly cross the street in order to avoid you and Don’t even TRY to greet this person as he/she might die from a heart attack from the shock.

I ask myself again, why!? Is it because we distrust people so much or that we are afraid that our inner thoughts will be revealed? Is it perhaps a change in values? Or is it just a matter of me being incredibly conservative (I do admit to this)?

But if it is true what they say that the eyes are mirrors to the soul , then there are too many sad souls out there!

Would be interesting to hear your views on this as well

Eric Eyecontact

No flying

ESSA 200830Z 200918 33020G33KT 9999 BKN040=

I need not say more!

Tax time II (aka. Hating Mr. Tax Man)

Doing these taxes was a bigger night mare than I expected and now finally I am getting close to completion. Still quite a few papers to go through before I am done with the first. It has however taught me to stay away from owning a house for 50 years

Kitchen table right now:

Hoping that this one will be done by tomorrow and then I can do the remaining two and send them away!

-”Adam Accountant”!

 

Tax time!

Mid April means “hell” for quite a few people in Sweden as it is time to do taxes. This year I have three people to do it for and one involves the sale of a house built and inhabited since 1955,  making it very interesting. If only I could do what Snoopy does here below and things would be so much easier!!

 

Up up and away…….to Linköping and back in a C172

Yet another glorious day in the land known for this and this and time for my first cross country flight. We had decided to head to Linköping via Nyköping about 90 min flying south of Uppsala.

Arrived at Sundbro just after 8 am and had a chat with my fellow PPL student Joakim and prepared as much as we could waiting for instructor “Henke” to arrive.

During the pre-flight inspection we discovered a small damage to the propeller and had to wait for “Affe” our “techie” to sort it out before we could depart.

 

First one to fly was Jocke and he gave us a smooth ride via Skavsta to Linköping and the SAAB airfield via Nyköping Skavsta where he did a touch and go. At the airport we met up with famous Swedish aviation blog writer Linn who was also course mate with my instructor at TFHS.

Enroute from Sundbro to Skavsta via Dunker VOR

After lunch I rapidly filed a flightplan over the internet and we started our return home. Departure from Linköping was a bit hectic as I had to backtrack knowing there was an aircraft approaching and another one about to depart behind me. However stress for nothing and we were cleared for takeoff with the approaching aircraft still a fair distance out. Heading to Skavsta we received a couple of annoying altitude clearances from Östgöta Ctrl but nevertheless we had arrived at Skavsta again where it now was my turn to do a touch and go after a 360 turn to space ourselves from other traffic. It was quite strange to do this on a 2,5km long and 45m wide runway compared to what I am used to at Sundbro. After the kangaroo jump our flight plan towards Sundbro was activated and we had a pleasant northbound journey under guidance from Stockholm control. Before entering Uppsala we closed our flightplan (or so we thought) and wished ATC a nice weekend.

During our debriefing my phone rings and when picking up I hear a worried voice asking if we were OK. It turned out that “human-error” had struck and our flightplan had not been closed and this had alerted the central air rescue command (CEFYL in Swedish). Once they confirmed we were OK there were no further problems and it is assuring to see that the system works as the book says it should.

 

After sitting around at Sundbro for a while speaking to fellow class mates “Bettan” and Anders I headed in to Uppsala for Lunch and a sauna with Fredrik and then headed home to bed.

 

All in all, flying went well with some minor flaws, but hey, no one is perfect! All the pictures (raw and uncensored) from the trip can be found here:

 

CAA exams part I

 

As you know, when the exam nerves kick-in  there is normally not much that is requires to put you in a bad mood and of course, this was what happened today when it was time for my first 4 CAA exams.

 

Anders  picked me up just before 0900 and together we drove to the Lidair centre at Stockholm Bromma Airport (BMA/ESSB).  At first no one working at the flight school seemed to know what we were supposed to do but after some discussion we were finally set up and ready to go, or so we thought!

 

Upon logging on to the system we found that our school examination results were not there and thus we were unable to proceed. After a lot of phoning back and forth to the head of training at UFK, we finally managed to get things sorted and could start our exams.

 

After writing the HPL, Airlaw, OP procedures and radio exam I ended up with a passing mark in 3/4 subjects (OP being the odd one out). Slightly annoyed not to have passed all four, but what can you do really?

 

Tomorrows flying lesson involves a dual cross country to Nyköping, Norrköping and Linköping in SE-IBX!

 

Fly safe!

 

 

 

Flying tomorrow

Wee!

Phone call this morning asking if I wanted to fly tomorrow morning… of course I do! Let’s just hope the all parameters are with me!

Easter + studying

Easter is here and I am in Gothenburg. My aunt and uncle invited me and grandma down to Gothenburg for the week. However, I am not totally cut of from reality as I have my first 3/9  CAA (Swedish Aviation Authority)  examinations on Thursday the 12th at 10am. The subject will be Radio Communications, Human Performance & Limitations and AirLaw. Started with my three favorites to hopefully get a confidence booster for the remainder.

Back to Gothenburg: The week has been spent watching the premiere of the Swedish football league, visiting Skagen in Demark (I will post some pictures soon) and just chilling. Also doing a project for an undisclosed company that could potentially lead to something else.

Nevertheless, glad you checked in and welcome back next time!