I have recently completed my first 5 hours of the solo program which is basically a few flights in the landing pattern and a short trip out to the training area. Now begins the planning for the navigational flights.
The navigational flights has to be made to a controlled airport and you have to have been there before with your instructor. This means I can plan for flight to Roros, Kristiansund, Ålesund and Molde. I try to update my Flying-page along the way for others to see.
Filed under Aviation
My local newspaper online, Bergens Tidende, showed us today some amazing contrails which I have never seen. An amateur photographer took the pictures on a sunday walk and he thought “they looked like the pilot was flying under the influence”. Click on the image to read more.
Contrails are really just condensation from ice crystals vapourized by the plane. Conditions in the upper air can make the contrails last a very long time, and if it is blowing winds up there – it creates effects like the ones we see here.
Russian roulette is a potentially lethal game of chance in which participants place a single round in a revolver, spin the cylinder, place the muzzle against their head and pull the trigger.
A man was killed this weekend in Oslo, Norway, in a tragic episode with a revolver. He had come over to his friends apartment with a revolver wanting to play russian roulette. His friends did not want to take part in this game. He played one round, spun the cylinder and pulled the trigger – click -nothing happened. He asked if anyone would care to join him. Then he went again.
Friends said to the police in Oslo that they were not interested in participating in the game, so he said to them: “Fine, I`ll just do it myself then”. On the second take he shot himself and was later declared dead at the hospital.
Source: VG
Filed under News
I have always used routefinder or something similar, like Vroute, to find routes to fly in my Flight Simulator from Microsoft. Usually they are similar to the real ones used by the real airlines. Somehow similar is not good enough when you try to make things as real as they get. And Flightaware is primarily for flights inbound/outbound USA.
So I was given a tip from a friend of mine who pointed me to the Norwegian Internet Pilot Planning Center (IPPC) where you can find the official Norwegian AIP, real notams and weather briefings. Now there exists an opportunity to find uptodate routes used by flights today. Go to IPPC, choose Briefings and Narrow Route.
Lets say you want to knwo what route Thomas Cook flies today from Oslo airport Gardermoen/ENGM to Phuket airport/VTPS in Thailand. Write ENGM where it says DEP (departure) and VTPS in the box which is called DEST (destination) . You will have to know the flight number, or callsign. If you for example visit www.osl.no you can check the flight number there. Officially this flight is known as DK5911 where DK is their IATA-letters. You must know their ICAO-letters which are three letter. The ICAO flight number is VKG5911 which is what Air Traffic Controllers see on their screens and is what gives the callsign, “Viking“.
You`ll find airline`s ICAO and IATA codes as well as their callsign if you google them, or search in Wikipedia.
So in the box where it says callsign, you enter VKG5911. The you check/uncheck the boxes beneath to tailor your briefing and press Retrieve Briefing. Voila!
Tromso saw the first glimpse of sun the 22. of January last week. The sun has been gone since November last year due to a phenomenon called Polar Night. I have never been around to experience polar night, but I have seen polar day or the midnight sun several times though that is the total opposite! Every time I have had the opportunity to visit Tromso it has been midnight sun actually, except for today of course. Check the pictures of the first sunrise this year on the Norwegian meteorological site here – it`s in Norwegian, but hey, that flash gallery is pretty straight forward. You should really check it out.
I got up real early to catch the airport bus this morning for my short trip up to Tromso. On my way I sat and read in my new number of Carl`s Cars. The flight went via Bodo for a short ground stop to pick up more people, and to drop off some. Here`s how it looked like at Trondheim airport Vaernes on the morning of 25 of January. Not the best weather.
LN-RPX at Gate 33 (Trondheim airport Vaernes, ENVA)
All the gates at Vaernes on the screen in the Crew Room
On the picture above you can see the screen which crew at Vaernes use to see when their aircraft is arriving so they can relax at the crew room instead of hanging at the gate waiting for the plane to arrive.
After we had arrived Tromso we then took a cab in to Tromso to get something to eat. A great guy from the crew suggested this place called “Kaffebønna”, or “The coffee bean” in english. And so we went there, after we had been window shopping shoes and watches for a while. I ordered a focaccia-bread with cheese and a Caffee Latte. This place is said to be quite known for its good quality coffee and having very talented and educated baristas employed, including the owners. Tourists are actually coming to Tromso searching for this place – because they have heard about it in a magazine or through friends. I had nothing to complaint about on my Caffee Latte, and it had the cutest heart shaped in the steamy milk as well!
Kaffebønna / The coffee bean in Tromso
Right next to Kaffebønna was the Tromso square, where there was a huge screen made up by ice and snow standing. We found out that it was related to the Tromso International Film Festival (TIFF) 2010.
Tromsø International Film Festival Snow Screen
Check out a full panorama view of the huge snow screen here at TIFF`s homepage.
Short stop in Bodo before leaving for Trondheim, another SAS beside us
We landed in Trondheim ten minutes ahead of schedule and I said goodbye to my colleagues and went home where a cup of coffee and some home made waffles waited! Ah, nice! :)
The British organization Release is the national centre of expertise on drugs and drugs law in the UK. It provides free and confidential specialist advice to the public and professionals regarding drug and narcotics. Release also campaigns for changes to UK drug policy to bring about a fairer and more compassionate legal framework to manage drug use in our society.
Their latest campaign is called “Nice people take drugs” and includes several known politicians which are portrayed in a deck of cards and their confessions (qoute) to have taken drugs in the past beneath their picture on each card.
Release wants with this campaign to try to remove the stigma related to the use of drugs. Do you think this will work showing successful people who have admitted the use of drugs, or will it create the wrong effect?
Filed under News
After I had arrived with SAS Scandinavian Airlines SK4137 at 07.30 (on time) local time in Bergen I jumped on the airport bus to the city. While we were driving towards the city centre I decided to stop by Bryggen to take some photos of the sunrise and Statsraad Lehmkuhl. Statsraad Lehmkuhl is a 3-masted barqued rigged sail training vessel built in 1914.
It just set a new record for The Boston Teapot Trophy again as it sailed in to Bergen the other day (link in norwegian). The trophy is awarded to the ship which can sail the longest distance during a period of 124 hours (5 days and 4 hours). They sailed a distance of 1450 nautical miles, which is impressive! Here is a photo of the ship sitting at the harbour in Bergen.
Statsraad Lehmkuhl
And here is the full view the oppostie direction as the sun rises up around 08:30 local time, the 27th december 2009 in Bergen.
Bergen sunrise
Arrived in Bergen 07.30 local time where there is scattered clouds and currently minus 7 degrees celsius. Reason for visting Bergen is christmas holidays with my father and brother. Took some nice photos of the sunrise which will be uploaded during the day. Weather forecast for Bergen here.
Update: post added here.
Filed under Travel
Today I read about a security-guy who where teaching some employees, from a gas station in the northern town of Alta in Norway, about safety and what to do if they ever were held up by anyone.
They had agreed that he would come back to the gas station and the security-guy would stage a robbery while they were at work, so that they could see what it would look and feel like if they ever would come up in a situation like it in the future. I guess a scenario like this would let them know how to react if the real deal was on.
The security-guy came back the day they had agreed upon and rushed in to the gas station shouting with a ski-mask and gun. Trouble was – he had gone to the wrong gas station. After straighting things out with the employees at the other gas station, he then ran off and finished his work at the gas station he was supposed to mug!
Source: Altaposten – “Ranet” feil bensinstasjon (in norwegian).
Filed under News
As usual I was reading the news, first and foremost the norwegian newspapers. I got to an article about the Oya Festival in Oslo (11th – 15th of aug.) about their earlier few elements from the hip hop and r&b scene. The critics came from a hip hop blog in Norway.
Well, this year they try to make a difference in repsonse to the critisicm with booking an artist from Washington, the rapper Wale. I was curious about him because they mentionded in the article that he had sampled voices, theme-melody and audience from the hit show Seinfeld. The lyrics are inspired various episodes, like the song called The Kramer.
His album, The Mixtape about nothing, is available for you for free, so download it if you like mixed music and r&b and hip hop. This album is chill and has a great flow to it. It is different from the other popular music out there nowadays.
Click the picture to get to the download page. I hope you`ll enjoy it, at least it is worth a try.
Filed under Entertainment, Music
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