04/03/2006

(Saturday 1650) The TLP exercise is approaching and there's only a week to go until aircraft from NATO start arriving at Karup AB. It's strange because from the 24th March, there's also going to be an exercise at Skrydstrup AB, including French Mirage F1's, Turkish F16's and Canadian F/A18's among many others. It's going to be great having some fighter activities in the air. I ordered a new camera today to replace the Fuji S5000. I don't know what I'm going to do with the S5000, perhaps sell it on ebay? Anyway, if you know anyone wanting a beginner digital camera for a good price in almost new condition, let me know...
This coming week we're having our last day at the fire-fighting centre. Apart from that there's a day at the shooting range and a couple of days out in the fresh air, where the recruits have to learn some of their first soldier skills. It should be fun...but I REALLY look forward to moving on and get back in the flying business. That's it for now. Have a nice weekend.
/GEA

10/03/2006

(Friday 1615) Weekend again! Another week over and another one less to go.
Some of the aircraft participating at TLP started arriving today. The ground-crews and instructors came at the beginning of the week and on Monday, the remaining aircraft should arrive. It's going to be exciting with all the jets flying for the next 3 weeks. The new camera has arrived too, so it's ready for some action. Now it's just a question of finding some time to take pictures and having the weather on my side too. This winter has been extremely long as compared to what it normally is. We still have below freezing temperatures (even at day-time) and tomorrow night it's expected to drop to -15! Hopefully it's the last cold night before spring arrives.
This week was a rather boring one, I must say. Last Wednesday I held an info-meeting for my recruits, about pilot in the Air Force, moslty about the training and requirements. They really enjoyed it and got alot out of it, which is great. Otherwise we were at the shooting range for a day and yesterday i helped out with the first platoon's first-aid exam, where I simulated an unconcious person laying in a pool of theather blood, after having being stabbed by a knife. It's amazing what some of the students do to 'help' the patient. In some cases it would have been better just to leave me there and bleed...
Anyway, have a nice weekend.
/Stephen

14/03/2006

(Tuesday 1730) The weather was fantastic today. The sun was shining bright and the sky was clear and blue. However, one shouldn't get fooled by that, as it was bloody cold. The temperature was only just above freezing point, so it's actually warmer in your refrigerator at home...however I don't think it's that comfortable in there, considering the amount of space.
We spent the day at the shooting range with the recruits, so we had plenty of time to get fresh air.
Aerial activities were quite high today. We had fighters flying around, mostly Dutch F16's and German Tornados, but also French Mirage 2000's. Apart from that we had the E3 AWACS doing touch and gos most of the day and then all the usual traffic here at Karup. So all in all, it was a good day with 'heads up' most of the time.
After work I took some pictures with my new camera which I'll try to upload in the gallery later. Unfortunately I didn't have the potimal conditions, as I was shooting against the sun and rather far away from the aircraft since they were using runway 09R due to the Easterly wind. I can't wait for the exercise to start on Thursday! It's going to be great with all the activities every day. Now it's time to eat dinner soon. Catch you later. Check six!
/GEA, once a pilot, always a pilot

18/03/2006

(Saturday 1415) Yesterday I ended the week by taking some pictures of the aircraft perfoming their departures for the daily TLP exercise. It's great with all the action at Karup at the moment. It's also an opportunity to try the new camera out, which I'm quite pleased with, so far.
Now I got the adapter ring which I needed in order to use the extra lens that I have for the camera.
At work things are a bit up and down at the moment. We almost all look forward to when this part of the training is over and we can get on with officer academy and then back to the flying business. Well, at least it's always good to have something to look forward to, which keeps the motivation up a little bit. Take care.
Best regards
/GEA

22/03/2006

(Wednesday 1550) The day is almost over, but not quite. I agreed with the recruits that we'll run a few km together. Sometimes it's a good way to get yourself to physically exercise.
Tomorrow we have a long day out in the freash air. I'll be spending 6 hours with an LMG (Light Machine Gun) while the recruits practise their moving and attacking tactics on me as an enemy. Then afterwards we'll be regrouping and I will lead a group on a night tactical march (only about 2km) in enemy territory, where we have to meet up with our secret contact. It's going to be fun, so I look forward to it.
We'll be having Easter holidays soon and it's going to be great to relax for over a week. We all look forward!
That's it for now. It's time to run. By the way, the weather is strange at the moment. Today we had periods of shining sunny weather and periods of snow storms. It's amazing that a few days before changing to summer time, we still have snow fall. Tomorrow we expect more snow...
/Stephen

23/03/2006

(Thursday 1830) What a day today! I spent most of the day with an LMG, as I wrote yesterday, shooting at the recruits during an exercise that they had to go through. It was actually quite fun. The best of it was that ther was quite alot of flying activities going around. At abouut 0915 a couple of F16's took off and started doing CAP (Combat Air Patrol) over the base. Then after about half an hour, they dived and simulated an attack on the base. I happened to be at the right place at the right time. One of the jets flew over my head at not more than 20m altitude. What a rush! Then he just pulled up and lit the burner....you can imagine the noise!
/Stephen

25/03/2006

(Saturday 1420) Thursday prooved to be a long day indeed. We gave the recruits a night demo. So at 2000 we drove them out to a location in four groups of 6-8 recruits with a group-leader/instructor and we had a little march at night. The weather was cold but good. Every 15 minutes, a couple of flares were shot up in the air from the place where we had to reach, so we had to home on the flares as our only navigation. The recruits got a good experience out of it, and so did I. It was good fun to teach them all the night-tactics and tell them what to do and what not to. We had a couple of hours for the march, which was about 2km in rugged terrain.
That's it for now. Have a nice weekend.
/Stephen

30/03/2006

(Wednesday 0700) Yesterday after work I was lucky enough to get a flight in the E3 AWACS during a night mission in the TLP exercise. It was a great experience to try and see the 'battle' evolving from the eyes of the AWACS. We flew just over 4½ hours, so I was quite tired after we landed (at about 2315).
I took some pictures from the cockpit which I'll upload later on, and I'll also write a short account about my experience. That's it for now.
/Stephen