CONTRAST
Written: 27 APRIL 2010

 

Spring is the season of contrast up here in Northern Norway. One day you feel the summer approaching while enjoying a nice ice cream on the pier and bringing home fresh shrimps from the fishing boats in the harbour. The next day the snow is falling sideways like the winter never wants to let go.

I was once again reminded that I have to work hard for my salary up north, after an otherwise wonderful week. Two missed approaches into Leknes due to weather, followed by a diversion to Svolvær where the weather was close to minima. Ended the day with a missed approach into Mo i Rana due to a technical problem which forced us back to Bodø for maintenance. A challenging day at work, but it´s nice to have a job with some element of variety. Though the day was pretty much what we are used to during winter, it was a quick reminder to never assume winter has gone with the first signs of summer.

Vulcanos has never really been an issue for us, but all of a sudden it became very much an issue when Eyjafjallajökull (pictures at Flickr) desided to erupt about two weeks ago. I had fortunately just finished my work week and made it to Oslo before they closed the airspace. The eruption resulted in chaos the following week, not just for us, but for most of Europe. Fortunately things calmed down by the time I had to get back to work, but there has continuously been new areas of vulcanic ash which has moved towards Norway. We received approval to fly in zone 2 (low density of ash), and during the week I´ve been through this kind of airspace for a short while, without noticing anything abnormal. During the crisis, both Widerøe and SAS have used social media in addition to other channels to communicate to their costumers. Check out:

Widerøe:
SAS:

 

 

 

On a more joyful note, SAS and Widerøe has come to a final agreement regarding the production of some of the routes on the west coast of Norway which today is flown by SAS Fokker 50. This involved approximately 50 pilots joining us from SAS, of which some has already started the type rating course. According to the plan, we will start to fly some of the routes in June, with complete takeover within November.

 

 

 

 

TOKYO

While on the subject of contrast, I guess Bodø and Tokyo is a pretty good example. Mads, Fredrik, Nils and I planned a trip to Japan this Easter. The others had two weeks of Easter holiday, while I flew over there for a week during my week off. The others flew over before me, and I followed after on standby tickets. Not the easiest time of year to travel standby, but it usually works out fine when you travel alone. All flights were full, but after a couple of tries I got on the Lufthansa to Tokyo.

After exploring the center of Tokyo around Imperial Palace and Ginza, we celebrated my arrival on top of the Park Hyatt Hotel in Shinjuku at the New York Grill. This restaurant/bar might sound familiar if you have seen the movie "Lost in Translation". Amazing panoramic views over Tokyo, and it was definitely worth the rather stiff bar bill sitting there with a whisky and a cigar watching over the largest metropoitan area in the world.

The next day we went on a trip with the Shinkansen ("the bullet train") to Odawara and onwards by bus to Hakone which is located close to Mt Fuji which is the tallest mountain in Japan and famous for its extremely symmetrical conical shape. On a clear day this must be quite a sight, but unfortunately the rain was pouring down and it was blowing close gale forces in the gusts. But no need to worry when you can relax in the hot springs under the open sky.

We left Hakone for Tokyo the next day and went on an expedition to Akihabara, also called Electric City. Nils was a bit dissappointed by the fact that he could not find any robots or cyborgs in the stores. The technological gap between Japan and the rest of the world must be closing. Later that night we experienced the phenomenon karaoke, which is sort of compulsary when visiting Japan. For everybodys best, we got our own room...

We stayed in the area called Asakusa, where you can find the Senso-ji temple which is the oldest of Tokyo´s temples. Close by is Ueno Park, but I never made it here, though I did stop by Yoyogi Park to have a look at the cherry blossom. On Sunday we explored the area of Shibuya. We had a cup of coffee at one of the busiest Starbucks in the world overlooking one of the busiest crossings in the world. According to the internet machine, around 2,4 million people cross here every day.

I left Japan on Monday, while the others went on to explore other parts of Japan, like Takayama, Kyoto and Hiroshima. I flew home with Finnair via Helsinki. Even though they are one of SAS´ many competitors, I can hardly say anything negative about the flight home via Helsinki.

Fortunately we all made it home in time before Eyjafjallajökull decided to be naughty.

Finally... pictures: