SUMMER JOB
Written: 17 AUGUST 2009

 

The job as a pilot in Widerøe during the summer season is quite different from the winter. The weather is generally quite nice, with exceptions of course, and it´s absolutely amazing to fly around in our fantastic Norwegian scenery.

I´ve been flying more than normal during the summer months, due to alot of pilots being on summer vacation. Very few days of standby, and alot of night stops all over Northern Norway.

We have quite a few places around where we have night stops, which is due to the need for early morning flights to feed passengers into Bodø, Tromsø and Trondheim for the morning SAS flights. During the summer I´ve had night stops at Andøya, Brønnøysund, Mosjøen, Mo i Rana, Tromsø, Vadsø and Kirkenes.

 

 

By chance, Line and I got a whole week of flying together this summer, with 6 night stops around Northern Norway. It started off with two nights at Andøya, where Line organized a whale safari. First an hour of guiding in the museeum, followed by a trip with M/S Reine about one hour north west of Andenes. The trip lasted about 3 hours, in which time we saw three sperm whales up close. We were incredibly lucky with the weather with blue skies and light winds (which is extremely rare for Andøya). After Andøya, we had a night stop in Brønnøysund, followed by Mosjøen and Mo i Rana. Not surprisingly, it was a very cosy week at work.

One of my work weeks this summer was planned with two days of standby in Vasdø during the week end. This is the kind of place which can get quite boring if you don´t come up with something to do. The two others in the crew had fortunately planned well in advance to hire a car and go on a road trip to "The end of Europe", known as Hamningberg (where the road ends).

Vadsø is located on the south side of the peninsula of Varanger, while Hamningberg is on the north east side. The peninsula is quite big and has 4 airports. On our way to Hamningberg we stopped by Ekkerøy and Vardø. The road from Vardø to Hamningberg has some amazing scenery, with large stone formations raising from the ground.