It was more of a huge relief to put that behind me than joy and happiness for passing. I need to be better at enjoying and living the moment…

However, it also somewhat sad to know that I found be flying for real at Lund University School of Aviation anymore. The only flying that is left is in the MCC (Multi Crew Cooperation) course in the Beech 200 simulator which we have at the absolute end of our education (i.e. October).

I’m now moving back to good ol’ Malmö. Most of the school work completed and I will only have to commute once a week, but first I have almost seven weeks off from Ljungbyhed.

Me posing infront of SE-ITC (PA31 Navajo) V

But, the move I have my CPL ME + IR practical CAA exam. It is scheduled to the week after Midsummer (another three weeks). Sadly, we have had some airplane problems lately with landing gears, autopilot, magnetos etc. More on this further down.

Me posing infront of SE-ITC (PA31 Navajo) II

Last week when I was in Malmö I did some sprint work at practice (block starts, accelerations, flying 30m etc) under the supervision of my coach, Claes Örberg. After a couple of block starts and accelerations I decided to do 2 x flying 30m. I did not get a time on the first, but the 2nd was 2.99s. I was a bit careful since I haven’t really run all out in a long time. Nonetheless, 2.99 was a good sign knowing that my personal best is just 2.91.

Monday and Tuesday this week was spent in Linköping with school. We fly up with a couple of PA31Navajos early Monday morning and then back Tuesday afternoon. Quite fun trip with 3-4 airplanes and most students.

Monday we visited FMV for wet drill (usage of life jacket, rescue rafts etc) and hypoxia (lack of oxygen) experience. The wet drill was a real good experience. It took place in pool environment which could simulate waves, rain, wind and night. It felt for real when it was dark, had waves, rain and wind. The hypoxia exercise took place in a under pressure chamber. We “climbed” to 26000 ft (8000m) where we took of our oxygen supply under supervision of one trainer (in side the chamber) and a system operator and a doctor (outside the chamber). Our heart-rate and procentage of oxygen in the blood was monitored at all times. With the oxygen mask we got some drawing exercises etc and during this period we noted down the signs that we experienced. As for myself, I felt tired, dizzy and dazed while others reacted differently, such as shivering. It was a long Monday, but that did not stop us from also visiting the Swedish Air Force museum.
Tuesday we visit Saab in Linköping where we got to see the production of JAS 39 Gripen, Saab 2000 AEW, Airbus and Boeing parts in closeup. It was very fascinating to sit under the JAS 39 Gripen and look up at it’s open engine! The visit to SAAB is one of the best - if not the best - company visits/tours that I’ve been to. They took very good care of us and we got to see a lot. SAAB has an amazing history.

I was suppose to end the flying week on Thursday (Friday was the Swedish National Day). I was teamed up with Espen (my Norwegian class mate) which I was teamed up in the initial PA31 stages as well. When we start to fly PA31 two students are teamed up with a teacher and that constellations tries to stay until the single engine stage where students and flight instructors are mixed up (with that said, I’d already had all flight instructors except two when the single engine stage started). Anyway, me and Espen have a lot of flying days together and we have good routines when it comes to Daily Inspection (DI: a special inspection that is done each 24 hours before any flight), fuel handling etc. Sadly, we also have a long trail of airplane problems to go along (probably missing out on one or two):

1. rejected take-off due to different propeller rpm between the engines (revealed to be caused by a faulty propeller sync
2. diversion back to Ljungbyhed/ESTL instead of Kristianstad/ESMK due to very high engine temperature
3. nail in a tire found during PFI
4. stall warning not working during DI
5. ADF going crazy not showing correct values (QDR/QDM)
6. auto-pilot used excessive banking ( ~60 degree bank)
7. landing gear extension problem

The latter, landing gear extension problem, happened to us this Thursday when Espen was flying and we were suppose to switch seats at Kristianstad/ESMK. After a touch-and-go at ESMK, we had an indication after gear retraction that something was wrong (red unlocked light was lit) and thus we extended the gear again to see that only the left main gear became locked. The right main gear was not visible from the back of the cabin and the nose gear hang loose in wind. After 4-5 tries and a long wait all gears where down and locked, so we flew back to Ljungbyhed direct (30nm ~ 50km) and landed since we have a technicians there. Since we are low on working airplanes my exercise was canceled (and I who had gone up at 7am…).

All these mishaps have been good experiences and all of them have amazingly been very calmed and controlled. Our Flight Instructors have a lot of experience and it is a privilege to have these experiences with them.

With a canceled exercise I started backing my room for the major July 1st move to Malmö, before I packed for 4 day stay in Malmö. In Malmö I ran 2 x 4 x 60m at Malmö Stadion. It felt really good to be out in the sun under the supervision of my coach. It felt like I ran quite good and my coach said that it looked quite good as well. The evening was though to be just me chillin. Instead I managed to walk into foundation (for a “tree deck” being built tomorrow) and smash my foot into a metal attachment. It hurt like hell! After a while I saw a lot of blood and realized that I had a cut underneath one of toes as well as one toenail being split into half. A few hours and a doctor’s visit later I was stitched and glued up. Guess I want be able to run for a few days. This whole incident reminds me of when I stepped on coral on Hawaii. I’m cursed.. Hopefully, I’ll back be on track by the end of the week.

The blog lost it’s original design after my upgrade to Freshy 2 theme. I haven’t had time time create a Freshy 2 style of my Freshy 1 JL Mod yet. I’m not to happy about the the default Freshy 2 theme so I’ll try to do fix that during summer break.

… or? Either way, as of today I have passed the ATPL theory:

1. Air Law
2. Aircraft General Knowledge - Airframes & Systems, Electrics & Powerplant
3. Aircraft General Knowledge - Instrumentation
4. Flight Performance & Planning - Flight Planning & Monitoring
5. Flight Performance & Planning - Mass & Balance
6. Flight Performance & Planning - Performance
7. General Navigation
8. Human Performance & Limitations
9. IFR Communications
10. Meteorology
11. Operational Procedures
12. Principles of Flight
13. Radio Navigation

It feels as if it was not too long that I started a Lund University School of Aviation and thought that “Boy, there is going to be four periods of exams!”. With three periods of exams already passed that time is now! The mere though of all ATPL theory - hopefully - being done in ten days in unbearable knowing that having passed all tests the relief will be well-earned.

Tomorrow’s Mandatory tests (i.e. school tests prior to next week’s CAA tests) are Instrumentation, Principles of Flight and IFR Communication. Wednesday holds Flight Planning and Monitoring and Performance.

Cannot wait until my ATPL exams are over as there are quite a lot of things I have planned, or at least hoped, to do once all ATPL exams are done, such as:

1. train more
2. catch up with friends
3. catch up on new music
4. hang out in Malmö more
5. upgrade my blog from WordPress 2.3.2 to the new and better 2.5 version
6. try out the new Ubuntu 8.04 LTS
7. get Liferay Portal to work for our student union and perhaps code some Java ()

All this - and a lot more - will be possible in merely 23 days…

And yes, I got back safe-and-sound from the four-day trip around Europe. Everything went a long quite smooth to be honest and there were no mishaps. We took around 400 pictures, but I haven’t had time to through them yet (that too is on the list). After the finals, I’ll add some pictures to the picture gallery. Sadly, the weather during our trip was not too good with overcasts and low clouds, but there should be some nice pictures.

Sadly, I’ve had a slight cold and a stopped-up nose and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to go tomorrow. Really hope that I can go because I’ve invested a lot time in it and I’ve been looking forward to for quite some time as well.

This European tour is something practically every student at the school has been looking forward to since we got admitted (just like tour to Northern Sweden). We have spent hours planning for this trip. Looking up routes and airports, contacting airports about fueling, parkering etc. Be advised that finding and filing airways routes through Germany that get accepted is a hazzle, close to impossible to be honest.

Anyway, if I’m on then it will be one PA31 (SE-ITD), one flight instructor and three students including myself.

Our days are planned as follows:

• Day 1 (Mon April 14th): Ljungbyhed - Groeningen, The Netherlands - Kent/Manston, UK - Jersey, UK (I’m flying the last leg)
• Day 2 (Tue April 15th): Jersey, UK - Dijon, France - Salzburg, Austria - Prag, Tjeckia
• Day 4 (Thu April 17th): Prag, Tjeckia - Cologne/Bonn, Germany - Templehof, Germany - Ljungbyhed

Then theory exams are in the end of May and flight exam (CPL/ME/IR) is up by the end of June.

During the Easter break I trained with my group and ran quite a lot (8×200m, 6×400m, 3×3x150m hill etc). It felt really good to be back for a “longer” period even though we wrestled with bad weather (snow/rain, 3-5 degress Celsius and windy). I got my training rhythm back and time will tell about a summer season…