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At last, after having to postpone a few times due to the lack of time to stud, it was a relief to finally read the following message on the screen at Lidair this morning:

This was the last obstacle before the big day that most likely is going to be October 26 at 11Z.

One person who must be credited for getting me here is Mr. Nap (Tupplur) a.k.a Anders who guided me through the last MET studies over a large number of coffees and motivational boosts. THANK YOU!

“Rote” and TGL

0830, Anders arrived to pick me up and in duo, we headed to Vasslanda International where SE-ESD was waiting to fly us north to Sundbro. After a smooth ride, Anders started to refuel SD while I went to take care of the preparations of SE-IYD, my ride for the day.

Taxied out after Anders and while he made a loop of honor over the field, I headed towards Västerås soon to be caught up, and passed, by A following his “6″ towards Västerås and Johannisberg. I smiled at some of the clearances that involved both aircraft, “S-SD and S-YD switch to Västerås tower 130,6″.

“Cooooooomeeeee flyyyyyyy wiiiiith meeeeee”

After one touch and go landing I decided to land in order to avoid the parachute jumpers that were falling from the sky. Taxied in and parked next to ESD. Together we bounced in to the club house and paid 10:- for two cups of coffee, not to bad. While Anders discussed matters with his mother who had arrived by land bound means of transportation, I surfed the net and checked the weather for the return.

 

Just before noon we returned to our aircraft and set course back to Sundbro and after a mediocre TGL i decided I’d had enough for today and watched A. “tame” his plane (or perhaps it was the other way around) while doing my paperwork.

 

With Anders back on ground I gathered my belongings and took the right hand seat for the return to Vassunda and onwards home where my meteorology studies awaited me.

Back to basics

Tomorrow the plan is:

Outbound:

(FPL-SEIYD-VX
-C172/L-S/C
-ESKC0800
-N0100A015 DCT
-ESSX0025
-OPR/UPPSALA FK RMK/SKOL DOF/070923 ORGN/ESSAZPZX)

———————————–

TGL training at Johannisberg

———————————–

Return:

(FPL-SEIYD-VX
-C172/L-S/C
-ESSX1000
-N0100A015 DCT
-ESKC0025
-OPR/UPPSALA FK RMK/SKOL DOF/070923 ORGN/ESSAZPZX)

Totally unlike anything you have seen on this blog

 

Just for the sake of brightening up your day!

Windy as……

As I mentioned last night, I was sure something would stop me from getting up in the air today. However, much to my surprise this “something” did not strike.

At 0915 Mr. Kraal picked me up at Statoil and together we set course towards Sundbro for what was said to be x-wind training and I think this is called the understatement of the year with the TAF showing:

ESSA 150530Z 150615 25007KT CAVOK TEMPO 0611 SHRA BKN014
BKN020CB BECMG 0709 29015G27KT=

Well well, at the field, we sat down to wait for M. to land with his first student for the day. As soon as the plane was back I performed my PFC and connected my new headset to the intercom.

With M. and Ben on board I taxied out and took of on runway 03 proceeding directly in to the traffic circuit. First 2-3 landings were nothing but PURE C-R-A-P, a combination of lack of routine and STRONG winds (close to maximum allowance for the C172). However, slowly but steadily, I started to get used to the conditions and the last 3 landings were close to satisfactory.

After landing, we took a short break and decided that we would now take a trip to Västerås Johannisberg with Ben as PIC and me in the back seat and then swap on the return sector. Said and done, Ben did a smooth crossing, but allowed M. to perform the landing as the winds were now at the maximum allowance and with only 2 hours in the luggage I found this to be a wise choice indeed. A hard landing later and taxi in to the guest parking we headed in to the club house for lunch before it was time to steer home again and this time with me behind the controls.

Took of of on runway 23 and bounced out over the Västerås Bay and the city center towards Björksta looking at Jacob Holländer doing some advanced aerobatics in his Pits. Left the control zone and headed towards Skogs-Tibble before overflying the field and landing on rwy. 21. This time a fully satisfactory landing.

After landing the day could have been over but no! The first student of the day needed people to practice flying with a maximum load and after various exercises we returned and the day was now over.

As to my verdict of the headset: WONDERFUL!!!!

Status at the moment is:

Total:40,2

Dual: 29,3

Solo:10,9

Inst: 0,8

Ldgs: 142

X-wind landings pre-script

If all parameters fall in to place tomorrows lesson is, apart from the first in almost 1 month, a x-wind landing session. More will follow tomorrow:

 

Joke of the day

Courtesy of Anders

- What do you call a Q400 that does a precision approach in to a potato field?

- No idea!?

- A Dashed potato

SL, my pet hate!

A company I have started to dislike more and more Storstockholms Lokaltrafik aka. SL. Since I returned after my vacation there has been nothing but problems. Late trains, missed connections etc. Thankfully they have something called “on time guarantee”. This is valid when you risk being more than 20min late to your destination.  Today was no exception when the train was 3 minutes late and the buses refused to wait allowing me to get the first available taxi hom . When I came home I summed up all my receipts and ended up with a grand total of 1930SEK. This is equal to more than 3 months of unlimited travel and taken in to account that I am probably not the only one who claims money back on a regular basis this has to be costly… only good thing is that I get some of my tax money back

Come on SL and all politicians… if you want people to uses your services….MAKE SURE THEY WORK!!!!!!  I already dread the winter months!

The only difference between boys and men….

… is the price of their toys!

And after spending £275/3,872.22SEK on a brand new Telex Stratus 30 headset, I can nothing but confirm this statement. Just picked them up from Anders who kindly took care of the delivery and saved me the shipping costs (ok I will buy him a coffee at Valvet!!!!)

Looking forward to testing these as soon as possible. Stay tuned for the review after my next lesson, only here at http://pcreithe.wordpress.com  However, I can tell you already now that they work great for all kinds of disturbing noise (parents, girlfriends etc.)

 

 

Sunday at a station in a city (not so) far away

Spent most of the weekend in a city where the sun always shines and the people always smile…well, not really but nevertheless I had a very enjoyable weekend with Patrik & Fredrik watching movies and casually chatting. There wasn’t much else to do as the weather was crap. Came back this afternoon and this illustrates the level of activity on a Sunday afternoon in Västerås