Sunday 21 January Kristian and I went back to Inverness
to attend the courses needed for us to start flying
for Highland Airways.
The course was mainly focused on the SOP (Standard
Operating Procedures) which describes how to fly
the plane in accordance with the companys policies.
It is fairly detailed so it takes alot of study
to know it properly. Parts of the OM (Operatos Manual)
is specific for the type of airplane, while some
applies for the company in general.
Thursday Kristian and I drove to Aberdeen to attand
a "Fire and Smoke Safety Course" at Falck
Nutec. The airport is about 2 hours drive from Inverness
on the wrong side of the road. Here we got to try
different fire extinguishers on different fires
and smoke hoods inside a smoke chamber.
Friday we were our flying G-JURA around the area.
Two of the captains did their OPC (Operator Proficiency
Check). Kristian was also scheduled for his OPC,
but it got postponed till Saturday. He started his
line training today and had his first commercial
flight with paying passengers. If everything goes
as planned I will start my line training 19 February.
Inverness is situated fairly far north in Scotland,
approximately on the same latitude as the Southern
tip of Norway. The area goes under the name "Highland",
and as the name implies it is quite "hilly",
not unlike Norway. Inverness means "in the
mouth of River Ness", which runs from the famous
lake Loch Ness and out to the sea.
Earlier in January we found an apartment in the
centre of Inverness which we paid a deposit on.
It is a new building and the plan is to move in
on 5 February. Most of the apartment is finished,
but the flooring, tiles and furniture is still missing.
Here's a MAP
of the area. The arrow is where the apartment is.
We also managed to buy a car last week. A '99 Nissan
Almera 1,6 for £ 1400. A similar car in Norway
is close to £8000, so we felt that we made
a good deal.
I went back to Norway on Saturday, this time first
with bus to Glasgow/Prestwick, then with Ryanair
to Torp.
Now I have 2 weeks left at work here at Gardermoen,
one trip to Trondheim and a trip to Denmark before
I move over to Scotland for good on 15 February.
