11-07-2007
(Wednesday 1205) It's been quite a while
since I last wrote something in the diary. The test in State-knowledge that I
mentioned last time went well. Now, as you probably know, we have summer holidays...3
weeks of them to be exact. The first week was spent in Crete, Greece where we
went for some better weather. It was great to be there but it's even better to
be back home.
In the meantime, the Air Force has passed the big NATO exam, known as OPEVAL,
which means that NATO can send RDAF F16's on missions without any worries about
whether they're qualified enough to accomplish the missions. That was the good
news but there is also some bad news...
As you probably remember, one of the guys passed out during the 8km terrain
running exam. After many checks at hospitals, the doctors suspect a heart
problem (which couldn't be confirmed!) but the Air Force doesn't want to take
any chances...so unfortunately he's been taken off the fighter pilot training
programme and there's a chance that he won't be allowed to continue on other
aircraft types too. I felt terrible about it, especially as he was also one of
my best friends at school. Something like that is what we all fear...
Now it's time to try and relax some more. In 1½ weeks time it's back to school
for another 11 months at FLOS (RDAF Officer Academy). I'll try to upload some
more pictures from Aalborg airshow
this week, but I don't promise anything.
Take care!
/GEA
25-07-2007
(Wednesday 2250) On my way to bed soon
but I thought I should write a couple of words since it's been quite a while. As
you probably know, we started school again. The holidays were great but 3 weeks
is waaay too short.
Anyway, at the moment we just have the usual lessons in Matematical
Science, State Knowledge and English. In about 2-3 weeks time we have the
English exams. It'll be great to get that subject over with as we constantly
have home-work and we're slightly tired of it. But as
one subject finishes, another one starts so let's wait and see what's coming to
us this time.
Anyway I was at Skrydstrup last Friday in order to
get some motivation before starting at the Academy again. It was great to smell
some jet-fuel and hear some jet-music. I took a few pictures too and have
uploaded 1 of them so far. Otherwise I've uploaded some more from my spotting
trip to Amsterdam last May.
Now I'm off to
bed. Catch you later.
/GEA
01-08-2007
(Wednesday 0845) We are quite busy at
the moment. On one hand we're preparing for the upcoming English exams and on
the other hand we have quite a few large assignments. Among others we're
starting to work on the head-assignment which has to
be delivered in February. It's an assignment which is
of the same calibre as a Profession-bachelor, so it's quite a job.
Anyway, as you've probably noticed I've uploaded a few more pictures from my
trip to Amsterdam and a few from my spotting trip to Skrydstrup
a couple of weeks ago. There's still many to be uploaded so I'll keep uploading
them regularly so there's always something new. Take care...
/GEA
07-08-2008
(Tuesday 1205) Just had our lunch break.
At the moment (Since Monday) we have a course in how to write a major
assignment. It's quite good so far and hopefully by tomorrow we'll feel ready
to write our head assignment here at school, which has to be delivered some
time in February.
This Thursday we have the summer sports day followed by a summer BBQ in the
evening.
Catch you later...
GEA
09-08-2007
(Thursday 1645) We had the sports day
today and it was good fun. We competed in 5 disciplines and the team that I was
on won 2 of them and came 2nd in another one which was
pretty good! We had good fun and the weather was just perfect...maybe slightly
too hot for the event. What's left on today's programme is the Summer BBQ where
we're gonna eat and drink
until there isn't any room left.
The course which we had this week also went well. It
was rather intensive with some long days but I think that we got alot out of it. The 2 instructors were lecturers from Aarhus University and they were pretty good at their stuff.
Anyway, I think I'm off to drink some water as I feel
quite dehydrated. Next week we have 2 English exams among other things and in 2
weeks time we'll be spending 3 days at Karup AB in
connection with StudLuft, which is the recruiting
campaign of the Air Force. If you haven't seen the website, then take a look
and see if you can recognize anyone... studluft.dk
/GEA
13-08-2007
(Monday 2330) We had a great party last
Thursday. The food was good and after that we went to the Officer's mess at the
school, which is basically the place where we always end up after a school
party. We had quite a few drinks, some more than others. I went to bed at 0330
but some of the other guys stayed until 0600.
This weekend I went fishing with a couple of friends, where we paid to go an a big fishing boat and try our luck for 5 hours. It was
more fun that I had imagined. There are so many fish in Øresund
(the water between Denmark and Sweden)that it's
unbelievable. Myself I caught 3 Cods, 2 Makarels and
about 10kg of Herrings. The other guys caught just as much but didn't want to
take any Herrings home with them, so I took the whole
lot...Sara changed colours when she saw me coming home with all those fish! So
I gave some to all the neighbours and there was still plenty to spare.
Anyway, it's bed time now. As you probably know, we
have an English exam in listening comprehension tomorrow, where we see an 8 minute film and then we have to write about its contents. Good
night!
/GEA
14-08-2007
(Tuesday 0935) Just finished my English
exam. It went good I think...only time will tell. Anyway, that's one exam less
to go. On Thursday we have the English translation exam and next week we have
the oral exam. Catch you later...
/GEA
18-08-2007
(Saturday 2120) I was at Roskilde airfield today to see the airshow.
Roskilde airshow is a civil
airshow held every alternate year and most of the
participating aircraft are civil aircraft but the Air Force is always present
too. And this year the Gripen and Eurofighter
were on the programme too but unfortunately got cancelled for some reason. So
the highlights of the show this year are the RDAF F16, Swedish Hunter, P51
Mustang and Messerschmidt Me109, the latter comeing from Duxford in England. The
weather wasn't ideal (it IS Denmark afterall!) but I
got some good shots anyway. I'll try and upload them soon. Tomorrow I'll be
going there again, this time with Sara and the little one. I'm quite excited as it's his first airshow.
He probably doesn't care...at his age it's all just loud noise, but I have to
start getting him used to it at an early age...perhaps one day it'll sound like
music to his ears, just in the same manner that it does to me.
That's it for now.
See you at the airshow.
/GEA
23-08-2007
(Thursday 1110) Back home after Stud Luft which
was held in Karup. It was a great campaign. About 200
high-school students attended and from what I've seen and heard from them, it
was a really great experience. I personally enjoyed it just as much as them! I
remember how it was when I myself was at Stud Luft
about 7 years ago. I had a million questions which I
wanted cleared up.
So the last 2 days I was in charge of a group of 18 youths. They were all
sensible young men and women and were actually quite easy to deal with. It was
great to see so much interest for what we do in the Air Force and I'm sure that
many of them will be my collegues one day...perhaps
even my boss! Today we got the day off from school as
the last 2 days were rather hard and intense so we're all very tired. I'm not
completely off however. We are going to make a forum on studluft.dk where the
participants can ask us questions and stay in contact with eachother
and upload their pictures from the event. It should be up and running tomorrow
and the reason that I'm not completely off is that I'm the one in charge of
getting this forum going. That's how it is when you have your own website and the know-how in an area.
As you've read I had the English Oral exam last Monday. It couldn't have gone
better as I got a 12, which is the highest grade on the new scale.
Stay tuned!
Best regards
GEA
05-09-2007
(Wednesday 0750) It's been almost 2
weeks since I lost wrote so I have a couple of new things. Yesterday we took
part in a relay race for companies around Copenhagen, where we had to run 5km
per man on a 5 man team. It was good fun. All in all
there were about 20,000 participants in the event so it was good fun. We teamed
up with the Navy and the Army to make a military team and did ok I think. The
participants were of all ages and walks of life.
Apart from that we got the remaining grades in English. In the three English
exams I got three 12's which is absolute best grade,
so there's nothing to complain about there!
Otherwise not much new here. We have a rather big
assignment that we have to deliver in a few weeks time. The assignment is done
in groups. Myself, I was appointed as group leader for our 4-man group. I
actually think it's harder to write an assignment in a group than if I had to
do it all by myself...
Apart from that we will soon start on the head assignment
which is an individual work and has to be delivered in February. It will
be equal to about a Profession Bachelor. I'll be writing about the replacement
for the Air Force's T17 aircraft, used at the RDAF Flying school.
That's it for now. Stay tuned!
/GEA
12-09-2007
(Wednesday 0945) Not much new at the
moment except that I'm extremely busy.
The only news is that they're trying to send us to the Netherlands for the
centrifuge ride as soon as possible. However, I doubt if it will be before the new year. We'll all be going down there, no matter what
we've been assigned to. It's the first time that the guys assigned to
helicopters and transports will also do the centrifuge. The Air Force sees it
as a good idea, so if someone from the fighter assigned guys fails the
centrifuge, there'll be someone else to take over his place without too much
hassle. I have started a serious training programme, mostly for the legs and abdomin. It's not because I think I'll fail, but it's
always nice to have a bit of excess energy when the time comes.
Now it's back to the lessons. Catch you later!
/GEA
14-09-2007
(Friday 0745) It's the last working day
and actually we're off today but I'm at school anyway...it's not exactly
because I love it so much that I cannot stay away but because I have alot of work to do and I work better here than I do at home
where there are a million things to distract me.
Wednesday we had our first orientation run in a forest since summer holidays. It
was quite a difficult one as the check-points were
hard to find and the terrain was terrible to run on. Anyway I did quite a few
screw ups but I also experienced something new... At one point I fell into a marsh which was deeper than it seemed. I could see the wet
grass and knew that I would get wet feet but I didn't really care as I had wet
feet in the first place. So I just ran through and one of my steps just sank
deep; about a meter to be exact, so I just tumbled forward and crawled or
almost "swam" the rest of the way across the marsh. Damn it was cold!
And then, Mr. genius thought that if he stopped running he would get seriously
cold so he decided to run on in order to stay warm...grrrrr!
Back to work now. Catch you later.
By the way, I've had a chat with my friend, PLA, who is in Canada right now and
he told me a bit about life at NFTC. I can't wait!
/GEA
21-09-2007
(Friday 0750) We had a busy week once
again. The new class of Cadets will be starting soon (October 1st) and it's a
tradition at the Academy that the old students welcome the new ones by having a
dinner with them. It's called "Dining In" and like everything else
here at the Academy, it's one of the students who gets the task of being in
charge of the whole affair...and guess who pulled the
short straw this time! So apart from all the school stuff that we have at the
moment, I also have Dining In to take care of, so I'm pretty damn busy.
Last Tuesday we started on a new sport at school. We started on a self defence form called Krav Maga, which is an Israeli invented form of self defence. I
can describe it as being very effective and extremely aggressive. It's not like
other martial arts where it's mostly about having the right techniques and
moves. Here it's about getting the job done...and quickly indeed! In our first
lesson we got instructed by a guy from the special forces
known as "the frogs" here in Denmark. They are our equivalent to the
US Navy Seals. He was really good at it and that made it inspiring. However,
his way of seeing it is: No pain, no game. So we had quite a few bruises the
next day and I'n actually still sore some places.
That's it for now. Take care!
/GEA
01-10-2007
(Monday 1200) New day,
new week and a new month. Time is flying by at the moment, which is both good and bad. On one hand the end is approaching
fast but on the other hand, dead-lines are flying by
like crazy at the moment. We finished our group assignment and delivered it
last week, so it's great that we're done with that and have 1 thing less to
take care of. Now we can start concetrating more on
our individual head assignment which has to be delivered in
February and should be on a Bachelor level. But we're not completelt done with the group assignment yet. We still
have to do the oral part where we'll be "defending" our assignment on
the 11th October which is next week.
Next on the schedule is State-knowledge and tomorrow we'll be starting on a new
subject: "War theory" which should be complementary with State
knowledge. Back to the books. Catch you later.
/GEA
08-10-2007
(Monday 1645) Just another manic
Monday... Most of the concentration this week is once again on the
group-assignment as we have the oral exam this Wednesday. I don't feel that
confident about it so I still have many hours of studying ahead of me today and
tomorrow.
Fortunately we have Fall holidays next week and I plan
to go to Malta for the week but haven't found any affordable tickets yet, so
I'll probably end up going down there alone.
Otherwise there's the "culture evening" in Copenhagen this Friday and
in connection with that, the Air Force has transported an F16 to Rosenborg castle, where I'll be standing together with some
colleagues of mine and try to attract people to a carreer
in the Air Force. I hope the weather turns out good and not too cold...
That's it for now. Catch you later.
/GEA
1000-10-2007
(Wednesday 1040) The group-assignment
exam is over and it went better than expected. Three of us (myself included)
got a 10 and one of us got a 12 (on the new scale) which
is really great. We were the first group to do the oral exam so now we can put
that assignment behind us and begin concentrating on other tasks and subjects.
Next on the programme is lunch and afterwards we have 4 hours of War Theory,
which is the newest subject on our schedule. Now it's time to get the pulse
down to below 200.
/GEA
15-10-2007
(Monday 1050) As you probably know we
have fall holidays this week, however, believe it or not, I'm at school right
now. No, it's not because I enjoy being here so much, but it's simply because I
have alot of work to do and I better get it done before
I leave to Malta on Wednesday.
Now I better get back to work or else what's the point of being here at school?
/GEA
23-10-2007
(Tuesday 1430) School has started again
and I had a great time in Malta last week. Today is actually a special day for
me, as the 23rd of October 1997 was the day when I moved to Denmark. It's
exactly 10 years ago so I gave the guys in class some muffins and thanked them
for accepting me...
I feel very privelaged to be where I am and it's
proof of how acceptant and tolerant Danish people are. I am thankful that I was
even allowed to start on the pilot training, which is
one of the most desired and certainly one of the hardest to achieve educations
in this country.
Anyway, the day started with an encounter with the cold Danish autumn where I
had to scrape ice off the car windscreen and windows.
Otherwise it was rather quick to get off the holiday-mode and back to
working-mode. Anyway, I'm busy this week as I have 2 dead-lines
approaching fast. Catch you later...
/GEA
31-10-2007
(Wednesday 0750) As you probably know we
have the general election coming up on the 13th November. It's quite exciting
to have learned so much about politics and state knowledge and now getting the
chance to see how it all works out in reality. Yesterday I cast my vote as I won't have to opportunity to vote on the 13th,
since I'll be away on a course in Jutland. Anyway, tomorrow we have a debate by
4 politicians here at school and the Defence Minister will be here among
others. It's going to be nice to ask them some questions and see what the
different parties have to say about them.
After the debate we have FLOS Cross which is a
terrain-run around the school where you have the choice between 5 and 8km. It's
a school tradition where the new guys get a taste of the sports activities at
school. After that we have Dining In where they are welcomed
by a dinner together, where we'll also entertain eachother
and have a few beers in the mess together after the dinner.
I was the one in charge of the dinner and there are 83 participants
which means that I've been quite busy planning the whole thing, but it's
going to be good to get it overwith.
Anyway, I better get ready for today's first lesson, which is actually 4
lessons of Cultural understanding. Later...
/GEA
18-11-2007
(Sunday 0125) It's been quite a while
since I last wrote, so it's about time that I write something. The dinner went
great last time and we danced and drank until sunrise. It's always good fun to
break the ice with the new students at school.
This last week we had the first part of a course in becoming an instructor in
weapon-training, meaning that we'll be able to lead a shooting event on a
shooting range and also outside. There's alot of
theory to be learned and every day we aldo had many
hours at the shooting range, where we were in charge of all the safety and
believe me...there's alot of things to take care of! Anyway,
in the mean time we also got converted to use the pistol used by Air Force
personnel here in Denmark. It's the 9mm ZIG Neuhasen,
which is a Swiss weapon and known by many to be one of the best pistols ever. It's
great fun to shoot with it and I was surprized at how
well I could hit the targets even with one hand.
Anyway, the course takes part at the western-most part of Denmark, about 300km
from home, so it wasn't fun to be away from the family for the whole week,
especially now that I have a little boy missing me. It reminded me of the hard
times at Sergeant school and the good old times at Flying school and Job
Training, where I only came home during the weekends. As I said, last week was
the first part of the course, so tomorrow evening we leave for the second and
final part. That's it for now. I'll try to write abit
more often...
/GEA
22-11-2007
(Thursday 1450) Back home from the
course. It's great to back home after almost 2 weeks away from home. We got the
'Q' which means that we're qualified to run a military
shooting range now. Most of us will probably never get to do it, but anyway
it's one of the demands to become an officer, that you have to be a shooting
range leader. It was actually good fun to be at Borris
shooting range yesterday night. During one of the exercises I got to think that
we actually get paid to do alot of fun stuff. Next to
our range there were some guys from the Army also on a shooting exercise. They
were shooting with heavy machine guns among other things and it looked really
great to see the red tracers flying through the terrain at night while you
could hear the heavy guns going. A few km away there was an artillery unit
firing 90mm shells and the earth shook everytime the
fired and every time they hit their targets, even though they were quite a few
km away. I got the opportunity to lead a shooting session with a group of 8
from the Army who will be stationed in Afghanistan in February. It was great to
work with them and lead them and they seemed to enjoy it as much as I did.
This weekend, the world's largest aircraft, the 6-engined Antonov
225 will be coming to Denmark for the first time ever. I am considering on
going to Skrydstrup to see it, but it's probably
coming at night, so I haven't decided yet...
Tomorrow it's back to school.
/GEA
26-11-2007
(Monday 2205) Another week on and
Christmas holidays are approaching fast, which is nothing to complain about,
really! Yesterday morning I went to Skrydstrup with a
mate of mine to see the An225 taking off. It was a great sight to see the beast
lifting off the runway. My mate picked me up at 0400 (yes, 4 am!) as the jet
had ETD0700 (ETD = Estimated time of departure). Fortunately it was delayed by
over an hour which meant that it took off in better
photographic conditions, as it's complete darkness at
Otherwise nothing new really. Today, the only subject
at school was Air Operations where we learned a whole bunch about EW
(Electronic Warfare). It was actually quite interseting
and Denmark is on the very forefront of EW technology which
is great! Stay tuned...
/GEA
28-11-2007
(Wednesday 2130) Today was a rather
special day at school. The boss at school, the Colonel, is going on pension so
a new 'boss' has been appointed. So we had a parade where the Air Force General
and all the high ranking officers were present. It was
nice to be part of the whole thing. After all, it's not something that you
experience every day. The old boss made a speech of course and one of the
things that he said will stay probably strong in my memory. He said: "I
tell you students one thing; remember to have fun but remember that what you do
is not for fun. It's serious business, which can get very serious, very
suddenly."
Anyway, at the moment, some of the students at school have started flying
electric powered model aircraft at the school football pitch, and as you know,
as soon as one starts a hobby like that, everyone wants to join in, so there's
a model boom coming up at school. I don't want to fall for the temptation but
on the other hand I don't intend to be unsocial, so I'm already making plans on
how to refurbish one of my old models back to flying condition with a new
engine and batteries. Technology has advanced alot
since I stopped flying models, so the opportunities are great, and things are
actually both cheaper and better nowadays than when I last flew models.
So if you see a T33 coming your way, low and out of control, just duck and
cover!
/GEA
11-12-2007
(Tuesday 1300) We had the exam in
Military Science today. I thought it went really well, but after having talked
to some of the other guys after the exam, I found out that I had done some
silly mistakes which really pi$$ me off.
It's good that we're done with that subject, so I'm a bit happy too even though
I know that I could have done better.
This Thursday we have the Christmas dinner here at school and as you probably
remember from last year, we have to go running Friday morning at 0700 (school
tradition). The run is our transport to the swimming hall
which would be the last activity before we head back to school for a
brunch and then it's off for Christmas holidays! It's always funny to see
people run the day after the night before... But it's not fun at all to run!
It seems as if the An225 which I went to see at Skrydstrup
last time, will be visiting Denmark again shortly. The plan is that it arrives
here agan this Thursday and will be here again 4
times this coming January!
That's it for now.
/GEA
16-12-2007
(Sunday 1635) We had a great Christmas
party last Thursday and we drank and danced for many hours. Then Friday
morning, as te tradition
calls, we had to run the 6.5km to the swimming hall and then swim for an hour
or so. It's not fun to run, or swim for that matter, when you're drunk and
tired...but it always feels really good afterwards. I actually ran quite fast
compared to what I usually do. I think it's because my brain was "switched
off" due to its state after the evening before.
Now we have our well deserved Christmas holidays.
So if I don't write again before Christmas, you know why. In that case, have a
very happy Christmas and some great holidays. Remember how privelaged
you are to be where you are today; I certainly will!
Best Christmas wishes.
GEA
21-12-2007
(Friday 2220) We got the results from
the Military Science exam and I got a 10 which I'm
satisfied with. 10 is the second best grade on the new
12-scale.
Unfortunately EADS, the producer of the Eurofighter
Typhoon have decided to pull out of the competition in trying to sell the jet
to the RDAF as the replacement for the F16. It doesn't come as a surprise to me
but it was still sad to hear the news. Anyway, the decision on what to buy has
to be taken in 2009 by the government and the replacement aircraft is expected
around 2017.
Tomorrow my brother will be coming over from Malta to spend Christmas here and
I really look forward to having him here. It's the first time he'll be
travelling alone as he's only 10 years old so we're all excited to see how it
goes. That's it for now.
Best Christmas wishes.
GEA