01/08/2006
(Tuesday 1400) It's good to back at work after the
holiday, however one gets used to having holidays and relaxing so it's hard to
get going again. Yesterday and today I did some practise in the sim and tried shooting other aircraft down and bombing
ground targets among other things. The aircraft is really very complex but it's
really nice when you find out how the different systems work.
The Air Force is trying to send us a week to a transport squadron and a week to
a helicopter squadron too before we start at the Officer Academy. That way
we'll know what it's like to be a helicopter or transport pilot too, especially
in case that we don't get to fly fighters when the time comes.
Now it's back to work and this afternoon we've planned to play a good game of
football...however the weather seems to have other plans. Regarding weather,
July 2006 has been the hottest July ever recorded in Denmark with an average of
10 hours of sunshine every day and high temperatures both during the day and
night. Let's hope that the summer lasts as long as it did last year too.
/GEA
04/08/2006
(Friday 1645) Back home for the weekend and I think
it's going to be a long one as I really look forward to get back to work.
Yesterday my collegue JØR got his back-seat ride and
today LOD got his...and hopefully it's my turn on Monday so I can't wait! They
said it's like nothing they've ever tried before, but that doesn't come as much
of a surprise.
So if all goes to plan, I get my first flight in the F16, try pulling some
serious g's, do some aerobatics, perhaps some air to air or air to ground
practise, and most importantly I get to handle the jet. I really can't wait!
As I wrote before we'll be going on job training to 721 Squadron in Aalborg next week and the programme seems rather
interesting. On Tuesday I'll be flying to the Faero
Islands with the RDAF Challenger (VIP jet) on a fishing-inspection mission and
then I'll be flying local flights from Aalborg the
rest of the week. It's going to be great. If all stays as
planned, next week could easily be the greatest week of my life so far.
I just have all fingers crossed. Highest priority for me is to get the F16
flight of course, but the trip to the Faero Islands
is rather exciting too...
This week I also logged a few more hours in the F16 sim
and practised some air to air and air to ground scenarios aswell
as flying in formation with JØR. Life is good! Stay
tuned...
/GEA
06/08/2006
(Sunday 0115) I just did some changes to the website so now it shouldn't be possible to find my surname
anywhere on the site. I did this for security reasons so please let me know if
I forgot to remove it from somewhere.
Looking back at Friday, it was actually quite a busy day. The squadron was
short of staff so I was assigned as Duty Ops assistant where I helped out by
sending flight plans to the tower, answering the squadron phone and filling out
the authorization sheets which the pilots have to sign before 'borrowing' an
aircraft.
Apart from that I'm in charge of the team of us 4 trainees who'll be going to Aalborg AB on Tuesday so I had a few things to sort out and
quite a few phone calls and email to be made in order to get everything in
place. Now I'm off to bed. All I can think about is that F16 flight on Monday,
so I probably won't get much sleep, but I'll try anyway...
By the way, this diary has had 45,000 hits since I started it in January 2005.
/GEA
07/08/2006
(Monday 1315) I was on the programme today ready for a
flight. Everything was the way it's supposed to be so I went in for the briefing
with 4 pilots, as we were supposed to be flying a 4-ship low-level CAS mission.
After briefing I was told that the aircraft assigned to us had broke down
during the morning flight so it couldn't fly again today. Damn!!! It's so
frustrating, but that's just it. Now I won't be here for the next 2 weeks which means that if I get an F16 flight, it won't be
before the next 2 weeks have gone.
It was so close, yet so far away.
/GEA
08/08/2006
(Tuesday 1850) Here I am at Aalborg
AB. The flight to the Faero islands got cancelled due
to bad weather out there so the crew decided to fly to Italy as training
instead. We flew to northern Italy, as the approach to the airfield is rather
special and flying through the heavy traffic in main-land
Europe gives good training for the pilots. It was a great day. On the way home
we got down to low level and flew North along the Danish East coast. The
Challenger is a great aircraft and I wouldn't mind having it as an 'office' one fine day.
Programme for tomorrow is a flight to Mildenhall AB, Englnd, which is a major USAF base in Europe. We're all
quite excited about it...
That's it for now. Catch you later.
/GEA
11/08/2006
(Friday 1705) Back at home in
Copenhagen. It has been a good week and we had alot
of great experiences while getting a good insight into what it's like working
at the transport wing. All in all we got 2 flights on Tuesday and Wednesday,
flying to Italy and England respectively. We were supposed to fly a local enviroment inspection flight yesterday but unfotunately it got cancelled due to a priority flight to a
trans-Atlantic destination.
The programme for next week looks good. We start at 730 Fighter Sqn on Monday, where we'll get interviewd
by our contact from FLOS (RDAF officer academy) where we get to know whether
we're eligible to start in October or not. Then in the afternoon we head off to
Karup AB where we'll be on job training at the
helicopter squadrons over there, and find out what it's like to be a helicopter
pilot. We all look forward to it, moslty to find out
what it's all about and hopefully get a few flights during the week.
Now it's time to get some rest and enjoy the weekend. Stay tuned.
/GEA
11/08/2006
(Friday 2355) I uploaded a few pictures from the past
week's experiences. I hope that you like them. I'll try to add some more shots
from Leeuwarden airshow
tomorrow, as I'm rather behind with them. Good night.
/GEA
15/08/2006
(Tuesday 1505) Here I am back at Karup
AB. Yesterday we were interviewed by the Officer Academy to find out if we're
eligible to start in October. I think it went well for all of us, so we all
look forward to start on the 2 year course which takes
place just outside Copenhagen.
This morning we had a look at the Wing Ops here at Karup
and then we got a briefing by one of the Navy pilots (Lynx) who told us about
the daily life in the Navy and what kind of flying they do. Now we're off and
we plan to train for an hour or so and then bore ourselves to death the rest of
the afternoon and evening. Tomorrow's plan is to spend the day at the
helicopter OCU (Operational Conversion Unit) which is
basically where new pilots get converted to flying helicopters. It should be
interesting and with a bit (a lot actually) of luck we might get a flight.
Let's just hope for the best and expect the worst...that way we won't be
disappointed.
/GEA
17/08/2006
(Thursday 1805) We had a good day at
724 squadron today. We got a really good idea of what life's
like in the squadron and wha kind of missions they
fly. Then we were taken on a ride in the AS550 Fennec where we flew some low
level runs (down to 6 feet!), hovering, sideways and backwards flying. It was
great. At 6 feet you really feel the speed when between the trees. They call it
tree top-level but it's more like grass-top level as you are below the tree tops.
JØR was the lucky one who got to sit in the front seat so he tried flying the heli and was actually rather good at it. Tomorrow it's on
to 722 squadron and their new EH101 Merlin helicopters. We're all hoping to get
a flight with them too, but we know that it's not that probable. I'm still
counting down the days for next week to get my F16 flight. I don't know when
it's going to be but that doesn't really matter. Stay tuned!
/GEA
18/08/2006
(Friday 2225) Uploaded a few pictures tonight. They
are from the last 2 weeks which we spent at Aalborg AB and Karup AB. Hope you like them!
/GEA
21/08/2006
(Monday 1140) YES!!! Finally I got my back seat ride.
It was amazing. I will write a small account about it later on this week when I
have time and upload it in the 'Looking back' section. Now it's time to get
some lunch because in 1 hour I'm getting my next flight! What a crappy day indeed. Stay
tuned!
/GEA
21/08/2006
(Monday 1800) Unfortunately the second flight got
cancelled after start up. I was strapped in the aircraft and ready to go.
Engine on but we had a faulty read-out on one of the instruments so we had to
abort the flight before we even taxied out. No problem...still the best day of
my life so far.
I uploaded some pictures from my first flight. I hope that you like them.
Best regards
GEA
22/08/2006
(Tuesday 1905) I was up twice today and both flights
were great. They were both part of the LWD, where we dropped Mk82 bombs and
strafed with the cannon at the shooting range. I got sick on both flights
unfortunately, but apparently it's quite normal when you're new in the
business. Tomorrow I'm off to the shooting range to see the aircraft and bombs
from the ground and hopefully take some good pictures. Take care!
/GEA
23/08/2006
(Wednesday 1930) I had a cool day today, even though I
wasn't out flying. I went to Oksbøl to see the
aircraft drop their bombs and do strafing runs with the gun. Today they used
Mk84s (1000kg bomb) where they drop two of them at a time. The shock wave and
sound is amazing, even from 3km away where I was standing. It was nice to see
what it looks like from the ground and get an idea of how it must be to be a
troop on the ground who requests CAS (Close Air Support). The targets were all
scrapped cars.
I'll upload a few pictures of the action at Oksbøl
later on tonight. This weekend I might upload a couple of short video-clips
from my flights too. Catch you later.
/GEA
25/08/2006
(Friday 1435) Weekend soon. I don't know if I've
written it already but the next 2 weeks we'll be having 12-14 USAF F15's from Lakenheath AB, Engalnd at our
base in Skrydstrup. They arrived today at around 10
o'clock while I was in the F16 sim doing some
practise. I was wondering why the sim was rumbling
the way it was, but I later found out that the shaking was coming from the
jets. I only spotted 1 F15E, the rest seem to be all F15C's. They're doing a
rotation where they'll practise operating from our base and fight against the
Danish F16's at the same time. The next 2 weeks should be interesting!
Catch you later.
GEA
26/08/2006
(Saturday 1200) All the F15's arrived yesterday, 16 of
them to be exact! So the base is quite full at the moment.
I did some changes to the 'About' section this morning. However the account
about my first F16 flight won't be uploaded before next weekend as I forgot it
on my laptop at the base. It will be placed in the 'Looking back' section when
the time comes. That's it for now.
/GEA
30/08/2006
(Wednesday 0855) I had a close look at those F15's
yesterday. They're massive when you're used to seeing F16's everey
day. The aircraft that are here at the moment aren't that modernised and
updated as our Falcons are, but still a nice cockpit.
Otherwise I haven't experienced too many exciting things this week. I was on
the flying programme for a few minutes yesterday, but I think it was a mistake
as my seat when to one of the pilots shortly afterwards. Oh well, you can
always hope.
That's it for now.
/GEA
31/08/2006
(Thursday 1930) Had a nice day today as my mate from
Flying School, PLA, came over to visit me at the base. I showed him around and
we had a good chat. I also got the opportunity to do some spotting today so I
took quite a few pictures and uploaded some of them into the picture gallery.
Tomorrow's my last the at 730 squadron as next week I'll be on training at the
wing (base) ops and the week after that I'll be helping at the planning section
where they'll be planning exercise "Reactive Boost" which will take
part in the last 2 weeks of September. But I'll be off during those 2 weeks so
I won't be taking part in the exercise. Anyway that's it for now. Hope you like
the pictures.
Best regards
GEA