01-12-2008
(Monday 1215) I was on today's flying
programme again but just got cancelled due to the crosswind factor being above
the limits. So the whole school is on standby until the wind conditions change.
The weekend was great. I spent alot of time with my little boy, including
walking COM's puppy on Saturday, which he thought was awesome.
Another big news that I should mention is that LOD scored his first goal in ice
hockey yesterday...so he's in a really good mood today!
This morning we started off at 0700 with PD&C (Phsical development and
condition) where we did spinning on those wheel-less
(point-less) bikes. I'd never tried it before and it's a good work out. After
that it was on to a couple of lessons of Flight Safety with the local flight
safety officer who is an ex F18 driver. The subject today was FOD (Foreign
object damage) to aircraft. FOD can be anything lying on the runway, from a
small pebble to garbage which has been blown on the runway. If injested into
the aircraft's engine it could destroy the engine and in worst case bring the
aircraft down with a possible loss of life. FOD can also be unwanted objects in
the cockpit which can get stuck in - and jam - the flight
controls or screw up with the ejection seat. And now, back to
standing by...
/GEA
03-12-2008
(Wednesday 1310) So I got up this
morning, earlier than usual as I was on the flying programme, and looked out
the window. It was beautiful - all white covered in snow but I knew that my
chances of getting in the air were dim.
And you guessed it; I got cancelled yet once again. The temperature is only -13
but we have a 30kt wind which makes it extremely cold on the skin when you're
walking out in the open. It's painful and I simply cannot comprehend what it's
going to be like in January and February.
This morning I grabbed a plane and did some cockpit drills. Now I'm really doubting if I'll fly at all before Christmas.
This Friday LOD and I will be driving to
/GEA
05-12-2008
(Friday 1455) Another week over and I
still haven't flown. LOD and myself will be going to
Tomorrow's the day where we'll be having our annual Christmas ddinner (just us
Danes). A Danish priest from the Air Force arrived here yesterday in order to
give us the yearly Christmas mass and afterwards it's on to (ALOT) of
traditional Danish food and a bit of drinking. I get hungry just writing about
it!
On Tuesday we have our final exam in Meteorology so I'll be using some time on
that too this weekend.
We also started a new subject today called Military pilot performance which is
basically the same as the military version of Crew Resource Management. It's quite
interesting and the best thing about it is that there's no exam in it.
That's it
for now. Stay warm.
/GEA
08-12-2008
(Monday 1150) This morning the
thermometer was reading -21C. We decorated the house with some Christmas
lights. The cold temperatures and snow cover really make a Christmas spirit.
This morning I paid a visit to the base surgeon to get grounded due to a cold.
I cannot clear my ears so it wouldn't be wise to fly. I got permission to leave
the school so I'm at home right now. I planned to study all day but my little
boy thinks we should play all day so we have to find a compromise together.
Tomorrow we have the final exam in Meteorology. Hopefully all goes well. Now I want to get some
lunch.
/GEA
09-12-2008
(Tuesday 1510) The Met exam went ok, but
it's really frustrating when the other Danes get 100% and I get 98%. It really
doesn't matter but being a competitive minded person it annoys me.
Apparently quite a few Canadian senior students in Bandit flight have been
reading my only diary and parts of it will be used as an article for the school
magazine. It's all sober stuff and I got to read it first and censor anything
that I didn't think was appropriate. But there wasn't really any stuff of that
kind.
Tomorrow, all we have is a swimming lesson at 0700 and then we have no ground
school the rest of the week. With a bit of luck I'll get ungrounded tomorrow
and get a flight on Thursday and another one on Friday - right!
/GEA
10-12-2008
(Wednesday 2235) I went to the doctor
this morning, as planned, but did not get ungrounded as I still can't clear my
ears. Hopefully I'll get ungrounded on Friday.
Otherwise there is a bit of good news too. Three of the Danes got their first
flight today and the one I've spoken to since, said that it was awesome. I'm
really happy on their behalf and hope that it won't be too long before it's my
turn. So now it's only JØR and myself who haven't been
up yet. I have a bit more hope of getting a flight before the Christmas
holidays now that the other dudes got their flight.
I don't know if I've mentioned this but one of the reasons that there are no
aircraft available at the moment is a problem with the engines. After a certain
amount of flying hours, the engines get sent to Pratt & Whitney (the maker)
to get serviced and rebuilt. The school has experienced problems with the
rebuilt engines so most of the school's aircraft are in the hangar just sitting
there without an engine, waiting for a solution to be found. The engine has a
ferronous metal detector inside and if there are any metal pieces in the oil
system, they get magnetically attracted to the detector and you get a
"chip light" in the cockpit. This tells you that there are probably
two metal objects grinding against eachother, causing the metal chips in the oil
system, and will probably result in an engine failure, so you don't want to
take any chances with that.
Stay
warm.
/GEA
12-12-2008
(Friday 2145) I got ungrounded this
morning and I'm already on Monday's schedule for a flight and a sim. I really
believe it'll happen this time. The weather forecast is good, however a bit on
the cold side. Both Monday and Tuesday are forecasted at -30C and sunshine,
however Tuesday will have a windchill of -46C which is below the -39C limit, so
flying will cease.
All the Danes except myself had sent a leave
application for next week to the Flight commander as we thought that we
wouldn't be on the flying programme before the next year. That's probably what
put us on the priority list for flying next week.
Have a
nice weekend...and stay indoors!
/GEA
15-12-2008
(Monday 1050) The weather is beautiful
today, but still too cold to fly in. The sun is shining brightly but all
weekend we've had a wind chill of -44C and it is not forecasted to get better
within the next 48 hours. So everyone is standing by.
So I took the opportunity to get my monthly Egress trainer done in the mock
cockpit. The rule is to wear the clothing of the day and since it's very cold I
had to put all the gear on for the practise. That means warm underwear including
long jones, flight suit, the big bunny pants (you have to see them to believe
them!) and winter jacket. Then of course you have the torso harness and the
helmet & mask on...and two pairs of gloves! It took me a good five-ten
minutes to get strapped into the cockpit.
I cannot explain how cold it is here. The first thing that happens when you go
outside is that all the humid stuff in your nose freezes and it feels really
strange in there. Then if you get into the wind, tears come out of your eyes
and freeze instantly.
I hope that it gets warmer tomorrow - not so much for the sake of it but more
because I'm tired of not flying.
It's the end of this work month soon, so I have some paper work I need to get
done. Later...
/GEA
16-12-2008
(Tuesday 2005) I was on today's schedule
again but only as decortaion, since I was number four in priority and there
were only three aircraft available. Somehow some miracle happened in the last
minute so there was an aircraft available for me too. So I quickly found my instructor,
we made a quick recap of the briefing, as we had briefed the flight before, and
headed down to duty ops. We both put all our gear on and as soon as we got down
to duty ops, the ops officer said that we shouldnøt get too excited as a plane
had just broke down, and guess what: We got cancelled.
Just call me naive, but I still think that I'll get a flight before the
holidays. We'll
see tomorrow, I guess.
/GEA
17-12-2008
(Wednesday 1930) Same shit as always.
Need I write more? At least JØR got his flight today, which makes me the only
Dane who hasn't flown yet. Tomorrow's the last chance before the holidays so
the weather better be good when it's my turn to fly. This is SO depressing.
Hopefully 2009 will be a better flying year. This really exceeded my worst
expectations.
/GEA
19-12-2008
(Friday 0930) It finally happened
yesterday. The weather was awesome but things didn't look good when my slot was
approaching. Because of the cold weather and no-wind conditions, the aircraft
departing were leaving contrails behind them so the airfield fogged in and we
had to go to Stand-by programme. It was really frustrating to see clear blue
skies and the sun shining everywhere except right on the airfield. So when the
programme got back to VFR again, they decided to leave the Hawks grounded as
they were the ones leaving the big contrails over the runway.
So I got my turn, did the walk around, started the plane up and taxied out with
the help of my instructor. He did the take off. The plane accelerates really
quickly and flies so smoothly. It almost feels like you don't have a propeller
up front. There was a cloud layer in the work area so we did our work above the
layer. It was basically airspeed changes, 30, 45 and 60 degree bank turns and
different attitudes to get a feel for the plane. It was good fun but the helmet
was killing me above my ears as it was too tight. On the way back we had to do
an IFR cloud break down as we didn't have ground visibility. When we got below
the clouds we continued visually. It's hard to find the references on the
ground as everything is covered in snow and it all looks the same. Even the
lakes are frozen and covered in snow. Now I can go to the holidays with a taste
of the Harvard II. Nice!
/GEA
19-12-2008
(Friday 1405) It's
Christmas holidays from now until next year.
Yesterday we had the Christmas dinner at the Officer's mess. We had a good
time. The highlight of the dinner is the annual draw (lottery) where people buy
tickets and all the money is spent on prizes. This year there were prizes for
over $13,000. Some of the guys bought several hundred tickets. Myself I bought
about 30 but didn't win anything. One of the Dnaish instructors, on the other
hand, bought two tickets and won a prize. That's what I call beating the odds!
The biggest prize was a 52" flat screen TV.
I've become good friends with the Italian guys since I got here. They enjoy
having someone to chat with in Italian and they're always good for a laugh. I
had expected them to be bad at the English language but they're actually all
very good at it.
Tonight I promised Len (a Candian friend) to drive him to the airport as he'll
be going home to
I finally got my car done. Apparently it had a faulty battery so I got it
replaced yesterday. The warranty still covers so it was free. No wonder Ford
are going bankrupt!
I look forward to my next flight on the Harvard II. The deputy flight commander
told me yesterday that when we get flying we'll be doing at least two trips a
day in order to finish the course in time. 2009's gonna get busy!
/GEA
25-12-2008
(Thursday 1210) Just want to wish a
Merry Christmas to all who read this.
Best
regards
GEA
29-12-2008
(Tuesday 0000) Today we went to a ski
resort called
I realized that I don't have enough respect for the wildlife here. Back home
we're not used to dangerous animals of any kind. If I had seen it when I was on
the hill I would have probably stayed there to take a good look. I would have
never imagined in my wildest dreams that it would attack me...and fortunately
it never got close enough for me to find out.
Happy new
year, guys!
/GEA