Everyday life in the sky

A very exciting week has come to an end. This was our first flight week, which means we start each day by having a weather briefing at 07:45 in the hangar. Since some of the Norwegians also had flight week they presented the forecasts for the day in front of all students and the flight instructors. For pilots it's not enough to know if it's going to rain or be sunny, but we check forecasts for most importantly clouds (types, altitudes and degree of sky coverage), winds and visibility. Since we should learn how to fly visually (by looking on the terrain) we need to see were we're flying. For us students that usually means the visibility must be near-perfect (at least 8 km), if there are many clouds they have to be on at least 700 meters height and there must not be more than about 10 m/s wind perpendicular (vinkelrätt) to the runway – because then it's too difficult to land. Also, it must not be thunder and it must not be so cold there is a risk of ice forming on the wings (which is very dangerous).

During the weekend, the forecasts for Monday looked quite bad, but when we gathered in the morning, it was just acceptable. The wind was strong, but parallel to the runway (so it didn't bother us), it was raining in some places but the visibility was ok, and the clouds were precisely on an acceptable height. Tuesday to Thursday were also unstable, but generally better so it was not a problem for any of us. However on Friday afternoon the visibility narrowed so some of us, including me, were not allowed to fly... Which means half of the class has done one more flight lesson than the other half. But we will have to get used anyway to the weather obstructing us.

On Monday I just controlled for a few minutes testing turns, ascents and descents. On Tuesday I controlled for a little longer, doing exercises to learn the effects of the different rudders. On an airplane there are three rudders: ailerons (skevroder) for tilting left/right, elevators (höjdroder) for ascending/descending, and a rudder (sidoroder) for turning left/right. In practise, a pilot need to use all three rudders when turning, which is considerably more difficult than turning in a car. On Wednesday, I taxied (drove) the plane the whole time on the ground and controlled the airplane almost half the time in the air, the main exercise being to fly straight. On Thursday the instructor even let me start and control for most of the time, which of course I was very happy about. I did exercises on turning correctly.

In conclusion, I have had a very fun week and learnt so much. Not only was I given much of the responsibility to fly the airplane in just a few days, but also I've practised a lot trying to learn all normal procedures – i.e. check that the aircraft isn't damaged, starting the engine, taxiing, verifying that the rudders, engine and electronics work as they should etc. I've also learnt a lot about how to talk to the tower on the radio (there are lots of technical terms and phraseology that are very important that we know). You can imagine the importance of talking unequivocally (entydigt) when asking for take-off clearance or similar.

Since each flight lesson is about one hour, and with briefing, debrief etc. in total two hours, we have a lot of free time during flight weeks (especially when the lessons are cancelled...). However during this first week we have learnt so much new I've just studied procedures all days. Today, on Saturday, however I've not studied at all – four of us went to Eslöv (a larger town nearby) to see a flight show, which was really fun to see, and we also took a walk in Söderåsen's national park located really close to Ljungbyhed – and the nature there was really fantastic! Skåne is a mostly very flat region, but in the national park there are small mountains with really steep hills and fantastic views from above.

Next week we only have theory lessons until Thurday when our summer holiday finally starts! I will take the train to Berlin on Thursday evening, and then travel by train in Germany, Switzerland, France and Netherlands before returning to Sweden and then stay two weeks in Dalarna before school starts again (the summer holiday is only three weeks). Directly after the summer break we have three consecutive flight weeks so I will certainly not be unhappy about returning to school!

Photos:

Flight show in Eslöv. The pilot in the video is apparently the only Swedish Aerobatics ”athlete” who competes internationally, and as you see he's really skilled.

A lot of visitors came by private airplanes. In just a year, I will be able to rent an airplane and do the same!

 

 

Söderåsen's national park.

Flight training commenced

Today I finally had my first practical flight lesson! During the weekend I had been really worried that I’d had to wait at least one day more, watching the weather forecasts talking about heavy rain the whole day. But when I arrived in Ljungbyhed on Monday morning, after a long journey by train departing Falun at 17:30 on Sunday, it wasn’t raining and there were even blue holes in the cloud cover. With careful hopefulness we walked to the hangar and started our weather briefing at 07:45. One of the Norwegian classes was also on the flight schedule and one of them showed everybody the latest weather forecast, the current weather report for the airport and some detailed charts of the area. The conclusion was that while the schedule for the Norwegian class was cancelled, our class would probably be okay. Since the experienced Norwegians were supposed to do solo flights without any instructor in the plane they had harsher weather limits than us.

Using four planes, the class was divided into three groups flying at different times. I was scheduled for the first round, why I directly after the weather briefing had a personal briefing with my instructor. Since not much is expected of us during the very first flight the briefing was quite informal and didn’t take much time. We went to the airplanes outside the hangar and did a “pre-flight check”, which means walking around the airplane checking that everything looks ok. This is done quite carefully and I will need to know all of it by heart later. Inside the cabin we followed a checklist testing the instruments and checking that they give correct values about the oil, fuel etc. After checking that everything is as it should be my instructor asks for clearance (permission) to taxi (drive on the ground) towards the runway from the airport tower. We taxi to the holding point (queue line) and receive clearance to take off on runway 29R (there are two active runways in Ljungbyhed). On the runway we follow yet another checklist before my instructor gives full throttle and we take off.

Around airports you must usually follow strict rules about what routes you may take and what altitudes you may fly at. And before take-off and landing approach you report what route of the few available ones you wish to take and the tower then (hopefully) gives its permission. We flew mostly straight ahead (to the west) after take-off passing a certain checkpoint at the airport area border and then continued in the same direction until we were slightly north of Helsingborg on the west coast. The view was great seeing the rural landscape, the city, the sea and also the Danish coast on the other side of the narrow strait. When we arrived to this area the instructor let me control the airplane for the first time. I did some turns, ascends and descents for a short while. The instructor showed how to practice engine failure procedure by putting the engine to idle, check the area for a suitable emergency landing spot, and then approach it and prepare for landing. At a few hundred meters altitude the practice is completed and we ascend again giving full throttle.
   

We head back towards Ljungbyhed finding the correct approach route and receiving clearance from the tower. We do a traffic circuit (flying in a rectangle just before landing) and land safely on the same runway we started from. We taxi back to the hangar, park and exit the airplane for the debriefing.

The goal of the first flight was basically to learn the basic procedures of a complete flight, feel the controls a little and learn how to orientate on the map by watching the landscape. It didn’t feel too complicated even though there are a lot more to think about compared to driving a car for example. However it was extremely fun and I’m greatly looking forward to tomorrow and the rest of the week. If the weather doesn’t get worse we’ll hopefully do one flight lesson a day the whole week.

Looking back on last week, we had theory classes as usual until Thursday after lunch, classes ending at 14:20. I wanted to celebrate midsummer festival back home in Dalarna so I took the bus from Ljungbyhed, transferred to another bus in Klippan and then took the train from Hässleholm to Stockholm, and finally another train to Uppsala. I left my home at 15:00 and arrived to my apartment in Uppsala (which I still haven’t moved out from) at around 23:20, so it was a long trip… In the morning of midsummer eve, Friday, I took the final train to Falun in the morning (2 hours trip) and after a short break in Falun I went with friends to Leksand where we joined more people and celebrated midsummer at probably the best place you could do it. The weather was great and we were ten people eating traditional lunch, walking around the town, joining the maypole raising ceremony and finally doing barbeque at a campsite by the lake. During the rest of the weekend I met some more friends and of course my family before returing back to Ljungbyhed by night train Sunday to Monday.

Photos:

I’m sorry I don’t have any pictures from my flight lesson and I don’t think there will be any opportunities soon to use the camera when flying either, but in the future I promise I’ll take pictures!

 

Here are instead two pictures from the midsummer festival in Leksand. There were probably over 15 000 people attending the main event, which would be more than the entire population of Leksand municipality.

Here’s a promotion video for TFHS, very cheesy but yet fun to watch. The airplane I flew today was the small type that appears the most in the video. Enjoy!

Nollning and barbeque

Another week at school is over. Now we’ve had our first class in all theory subjects for this semester. The new subjects this week have been:

• Physical education
• Principles of flight
• Radio communication

During the first class of physical education we talked about the course in general, about sports facilities in Ljungbyhed (there are more than you would think) and we were shown the gym inside the High School (neighboring our school). Principles of flight is basically a physics course where we learn how an airplane flies in detail and what happens if the speed is too low (“stall”) etc. Radio communication is naturally about how pilots should speak on the radio to each other and to the air traffic control (tower).

Since errors in radio communication are the cause of many accidents it is of course important that we speak loud and clear, correctly using the right words and that we speak the same language. While we are automatically assumed to know Swedish as needed, we will do tests to check that our English skills are adequate. About the pilot in the below Youtube-clip, one really wonders if he passed his English examination…

We will have one more week of theory studies before they will let us up to the air, and of course we’re all really thrilled about it. In the beginning the flight instructor will control much of the flight including take-off and landing but gradually we will take over all parts and hopefully, if we’re lucky about the weather, we may do our first solo flight later this fall (October or so). When we’ve finished the programme, we’ll begin intensive training to catch up with the abilities of Mr. Hoover in this Youtube-clip (don't miss the part from 2:10):

Haha, just joking…

Last weekend we were zeroed (nollade) by last year’s class, which was fun and they totally surprised us not suspecting anything. Today, we had a barbeque with all students and teachers at the school, which was also really nice. And in addition to the good food and welcome speeches etc. we were treated with an unadvertised air-show by one of the veteran flight instructors in an old biplane. He did loops, rolls, combinations of both right above our heads and then landed on the grass right in front of the hangar and our tables.

By the way, in the school right now there are around 50 students, of whom half are Swedish TFHS students belonging to Lund University, and half are Norwegian students belonging to the University of Tromsö (UiT) in the far north of Norway. Norwegian students will be in Ljungbyhed at least until early next year because their own university still doesn’t have the necessary certification for a pilot school. Last year’s TFHS class will also stay here until early next year, when they will move to Stockholm or another city with a major airport to do their Type Rating training – which means learning how to control a passenger airplane (like Boeing 737, Fokker 50 or something in between).

Photos:

The common room has been busy during evening this week, especially during Sweden’s matches. A shame our team is so bad (mostly)…

 

Views from central Ljungbyhed.

 

From the school barbeque with the airplane that certainly did an impressive arrival.