(and counting…)
July 1981, Woodgate Aviation, Belfast Aldergrove airport. The start of the PPL course.
I’d had previously done little bit of flying with the Air Cadets but this was the start of formal lessons. We flew in one of two Piper Warrior aircraft: G-BFWK (Whiskey Kilo) and G-BGKS (Kilo Sierra).
Kilo Sierra 44 years ago:
And Kilo Sierra today:
Kilo Sierra is still going strong. Sadly Whiskey Kilo, which was my first solo aircraft, was de-registered in 1998…originally I had no idea why, but a little research shows that the aircraft was involved in a mid-air collision with another PA28 near Newtownards in 1987. Both aircraft landed safely, but WK couldn’t deploy the flaps, which led to a bounced landing and a collapsed nosewheel. This folks, is why we look out for traffic in the circuit area and why we practice flapless landings!
(As an aside, autocorrect just wrote “flawless landings” – if only!)
Perhaps being unable to operate the flaps was a symptom of distortion to the wing, or the nosewheel collapse caused significant damage. Either way, it looks like it was uneconomical to repair.
Poor Whiskey Kilo.
G-BFWK. First solo flight. 1730 to 1745 on 27 July 1981 at Belfast Aldergrove. 15 minutes.
———————————————————
Fast forward 44 years and a flying visit to Siljan Air Park in Sweden for a hangar party.
New neighbours Timm and Corinna have just had a massive hangar put in on the plot next to us. They invited all the neighbours round to christen it. As you can see from Timm’s toys, they needed the big hangar! I’m not too sure about the full height roller door at the back…maybe they also have a double-decker bus?
I did thank Timm and Corinna profusely for inviting all the neighbours around to celebrate the 44th anniversary of my first solo…
At some point the shots came out…this stuff is particularly vile. Having said that, I did partake of one. Just one – I have memories from about 6 years ago of Klaus bringing round a bottle of “O P Andersen” to one of the barbecues and I had a few. The next day was a write-off as all I could do was lie on the sofa and not move.
This stuff is the type of drink that if you pretended to down the shot in one, but actually threw it over your shoulder, it would have evaporated before it hit the ground! And if it did reach the ground it would probably strip the covering off the floor. In deference to Timm’s new floor I had to drink it…
Our view out of the main room used to be a stand of trees, now it’s a hangar and apron. I quite like the new view:
Siljan Air Park is in Siljansnäs in the centre of Sweden. There are a lot of lakes around, including the nearby Siljan which is the country’s seventh largest lake. As a consequence there are a few floatplanes at the air park, such as the Cessna 182 above and this Thurston Teal:
It’s not all floatplanes…here’s neighbour Calle in his Fisher Celebrity going up for a quick evening 10 minute flight…
Another view of Timm’s 182 with lights. Didn’t get to peek in the hangar doors in the dark to see what they looked like as at this time of the year it doesn’t really get dark.
Not to be left out, our own hangar, with summer resident Husky all the way from Switzerland. Owner Chris took a week to fly up from the Zurich area at the beginning of the summer…
A bit of excitement as the local air ambulance arrived on a shout. The patient went by road so it wasn’t too serious. I had a good chat with the pilot and swapped HEMS stories for a while.
After the air ambulance flew away, Chris landed and taxied up to the hangar, allowing me a good look at the inside of his aircraft. I hadn’t clocked the fact that it has lots of glass instrumentation, including the Garmin750 unit which we had on the Helimed aircraft.
Just a quick flying visit by airliner to go to the party…it was great to see the place in July when it was busy. Normally it’s very quiet. July is the month when Sweden goes on holiday…all the campsites were packed, the parking areas were full of campervans, and most importantly there was lots of flying going on at the airfield. Next year we want to spend a bigger block of time there, not just a week – or in this case three nights!