Flying Mickey


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RØROS Written: 06 DECEMBER 2005
After 10 days at Røros I was very close to being done, but the weather gods unfortunately put a stop to that. The skilltest for CPL IR MEP was scheduled for Sunday, and according to the forecast it looked bright for a while. Unfortunately I woke up to a cloud ceiling of just 1000 feet, and with the temperatures there was a fair chance of icing. The trip to Røros started Thursday 24 November with a 5 hour trainride together with Henrik. The first days were used to get to know the procedures and to do the required paperwork. My first flight was on Saturday. A VFR flight to get the feeling for the plane and to practice the visual maneuvers required to be demonstrated at the skill test (like stalls and steep turns). The plane we fly here is a GA-7 Cougar manufactured by Gulfstream Aerospace. Two piston engines each rated at 160hp. I think the plane was nicer to fly and more stable than the Seminole we flew in the States. Our instructor is Knut Fjell, retired fighter pilot from the Air Force, with experience from various different fields within aviation. 23000+ hours on more than 100 airplanes. He's jumped out of a burning Mustang and cleverly disembarked a Vampire in distress.		GA-7 Cougar (LN-AEV). The plane used for multi training The single engine airplane in front, AA-5A Cheetah (LN-HPC), with the Cougar in the background.
The next flight was on Monday in the single engine airplane AA-5A Cheetah. This flight also went out to the training area to practice VFR maneuvers. I'm scheduled for 2 skill tests (checkrides) before I'm done. CPL IR MEP (Commercial Instrument Multi Engine Piston) is the toughest one and the SEP rating (Single Engine Piston) is just an add on so I'll be able to legally fly single engine airplanes. Monday the good weather came, but unfortunately the Cougar had to go on 50 hour inspection at Rakkestad. We got to fly IFR cross country down there on Tuesday and back up on Wednesday. I flew down and Henrik flew back. The weather was incredible, so it would have been better if we had taken advantage of this to fly at Røros. Thursday I had my first IFR flight. We only practice procedures at Røros, so we get a fair deal of practice in the two hours a lesson lasts. There are a couple of differences between instrument flying in the States and here, but in general the principles and ideas are the same. On Friday I flew my second IFR flight which also got approved as the school check. If you make sure you trim the Cougar properly, keep in front of the airplane and keep your tounge straight with the wind corrections the flying gets much easier. One big difference from the States is that the winds can change quite alot in the mountainous terrain here at Røros. It can get interesting... The weather stayed excellent all through Saturday, but unfortunately turned bad on Sunday when I was supposed to have my checkride. Now I'm back home waiting for better weather and an available examinor. There's a small change it'll happen on Thursday, Some pictures from Røros:
Røros Airport in good weather... ...and bad weather. Beautiful view after the missed approach from Røros. The runway can be seen in the middle of the picture, while the city is blanketed by low clouds.	Røros seen from FL090 The city isn't very big.. Here you can see the airport in relation to the city. To the left of the runway you can see 4 hangars (closest to the city), where the 2 in the middle belongs to Rørosfly.
Some pictures from the Rakkestad flight:
Mikkel is having a great time at FL100 with the living legend Knut Fjell as instructor. Henrik is warming his feet in the back seat. Lovely flight into the sunrise.	As we approached Rakkestad a solid blanket of clouds appeared. This fortunately disappeared just one mile north of Rakkestad. Over Gardermoen at FL100.