I'm sure you have all heard the famous story that starts with the line, "It was a dark and stormy night ..." Well, I was thinking of that as I flew the DeHavilland Turbo Beaver "Raven" from Fort Yukon to Fairbanks, Alaska. Sure, it was only 124 miles but at "Oh Dark Thirty" AM it was only about 11* F and the wind chill put us near zero degrees. "It was a dark and cold morning as I set out toward the December FOTM."
Day One: I took the Turbo Beaver "Raven" to Fairbanks. Ninty minutes later (still dark) I took a Horizon MD-90 to Portland, Oregon. I watched the day break during cruise and landed with gusty wind, 34* F and snow/rain mix. Hum ... real weather download seems to be working! Next, Northwest Airlines has announced that in early 2008 it will be flying non-stops from KPDX to Schiphol.
Day Two: So, to celebrate that "Flight Club Connection" I took a retro-painted NWA A330 on an overnight flight into Amsterdam where I landed in the fog. (Real weather appears to still be working.) At this point I spent the day planning my FOTM, arranging my aircraft and getting all my Christmas packages (and those of the other pilots) in order.
Day Three: I didn't think it was THAT early but I left Schiphol in the dark (just to prove that I can fly in the dark) planning on landing near dawn but even by 07:30 it was still dark in Oslo. (This is our Flight Club Cargo A330) Now, for those who have been reading our PIREPS you'll note that since the very beginning I've tried to advertise for http://www.plr.org/ , my Brother-in-Law is the Manager there and I was mowing his lawn when this whole FOTM/Website occurred to me. Finally, years later, we have a PLR.org airplane! I set in eight or nine airports between Oslo and Tromso - anxious to get started on another fun FOTM feature. This is too great!
So now, having proved again that I could fly in the dark (and proving once again that photos and videos don't work well in the dark) I decided to only fly during daylight hours, which as we know from the high northern latitudes, will only be a few hours each day. With Real Weather downloads every 15 minutes I closed the doors and set out from Oslo at 09:00 AM.
So now, having proved again that I could fly in the dark (and proving once again that photos and videos don't work well in the dark) I decided to only fly during daylight hours, which as we know from the high northern latitudes, will only be a few hours each day. With Real Weather downloads every 15 minutes I closed the doors and set out from Oslo at 09:00 AM.
Leg One: My first stop was less than 100 miles away on the south coast, Torp. Winds were calm as I followed a Dash-8 out for southbound departure . The weather update enroute showed clear skies and cold with wind out of the north. As I looped around for landing onto runway 36 another weather update took the wind away so landing was pretty easy. I had a long taxi to the cargo area and shut down just about 10 AM.
Leg Two:The next leg is a bit shorter, just 83 miles, setting out from Torp at noon I headed west toward Kjevik. Enroute the visibility dropped notably as did the wind. I landed to the east at what appears to be a pretty small airport . I admit that I had to get ever so slightly off into the dirt in order to get turned around but I taxied over to one of the out-buildings and shut down at only 12:34 PM.
Leg Three: I was ready to roll again just before 14:00 so took off to the east (because I didn't have to drive in the dirt again that way) and then headed northwest towards Flesland, 152 miles away . The flight was pleasant and scenic and I landed before dark (That's before 15:00 local time). After unloading my list of Christmas deliveries I secured the plane and headed off into town to find a room for the night.
Day Four: Leg Four: I set out in the rain, at "dawn" which is about 09:20 AM, bound for Vigra, some 137 miles north. During climbout from Flesland we were treated to some very nice "lights" in the northern skies . Arrival was foggy at 10 AM - those trees were pretty close! (See top frame)
Leg Five: Our next stop was 120 miles away at Orland AB and I was ready to depart by 11:30 AM. This approach to runway 15 requires you to fly over the VOR some 12 miles distant and then hope to find the runway ... we landed safely parking up at 12:10 PM. (Nice trees - looks like home)
Leg Six: Our next stop was to be Vaernes AB in Trondheim, just 43 miles east. I departed at 14:00 ready to hand-fly the ILS into runway 9. My usual practice is to use the Autopilot making small adjustments to heading and rate-of-decent to follow the ILS (no autoland) but this time was all BY HAND. For this approach you fly to the NDB, then pick up the ILS - clear skies meant no worries, although my flight track was a bit serpentine! I shut down for the day at 14:38.
Day Five: Leg Seven: At 09:45 the next AM I was ready to roll. Our next stop was to be Bodo, just over 240 miles away.
Leg Eight:We arrived about 11 AM and were ready to depart on another short leg to Andoya AB (via Skagen) shortly before 14:00.
Leg Nine:Rain and darkness met me enroute! My landing, in the dark, was at 14:36 - my worst landing on this FOTM!
Day Six: Leg Ten: I waited until "day" to depart on the last leg to Tromso. This means that I was hanging out in the snow until 11 AM. I landed northbound and shut down just before noon.
What a great FOTM Geert, thank you!
Day Eight: Now I needed to be warm, so I took a DC-8 Cargo down to the Canary Islands to hang out for the New Year.
Emergency Landing: I'm not sure just when this happened because I had the flight cruising along happily on Autopilot while I did some Christmas prep around the house. My track took me over the UK, then over Spain/Portugal and all was good. Fuel burn looked good, everything all set etc. I set off over open ocean heading for the VOR at Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. I returned to check on the PC about 300 miles out and saw that my random failures had again jumped up to grab me, I had red lights and failures on Engine one! I pulled the fire levers and shut it down, then set to work to find a place to land. Lanzarote's runway is just under 8,000 feet long but Gran Canaria has a runway just over 10,000 feet long and I had just enough gas to make it to the bigger airport. I dialed up the new VOR, turned to the new heading and started a slow (200 fpm) descent. So far we were okay but as I got closer and dialed up the ATIS I learned that winds were out of the SW at 18 gusting to 26 knots! I got set-up as best I could with the autopilot and then I tried to put her down by hand. Because of "extenuating circumstances" I did not have my control devices with me so I was hand-flying, on three engines, in the blowing wind, WITH THE ARROW KEYS! This really sucked - I was reminded of this video from Flightlevel350.com: http://www.flightlevel350.com/Aircraft_Various_Aircraft-Airline_Various_Airlines_Aviation_Video-9689.html .
I landed very nicely, beside the runway (because making quick corrections for wind with the keypad is near impossible and I did not have an ILS beam to follow down!). You can watch the actual video of my actual landing at: http://media.putfile.com/Gran-Canary-Bad-DC8
So anyway, here I am on Gran Canaria for the Christmas Holiday.
