What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

An evening 2 ship formation flight: RV-7 and RV-4, wifey as lead.

ao.frog

Well Known Member
A couple of weeks ago, the wifey and we where thinking about where to have Sunday Dinner. That afternoon, the weather was CAVOK and the winds where calm so the thought of flying somewhere for dinner "ofcourse" came into our minds. I mean; who can resist flying and having a dinner out at the same time, right? ;)

I called up a friend of mine and his wife, Per and Solfrid, and suggested we all took a trip to "Fjellbacka", a nearby grasstrip just south of the Norwegian/Swedish border.
We've been there several times before; the grasstrip is fine, it's a pleasant 45 min walk into the nearby community, and there we can have dinner on an outdoor resturant, located on the pier.

It's a very nice way to spend an afternoon and evening, so off we went.

The trip down went fine in a very calm and nice air.
The food where great as usual, and when the sun was approaching the horizon, we took off for the 25 min return flight.

Both my friend and me have been flying fighters in the Norwegian AF, so enroute we normally fly "defensive formation": the standard enroute formation from the "good old days": line abreast, with 1000 meters spacing.
That way, both airplanes can check eachothers six, just in case a brave boogey or two schould try to turn in for a missile- or gun-attack... (we're looking out for you Vlad... hehe...)

As usual, Cecilia was flying and I was handling the navigation and toying around with the camera:

fwt3yo.jpg





In this pic, you can just see the -4 abeam the wingtip.
Unfortunately, the autofocus on my camera where on Cecilia, but the -4 is visible at least:

330fnea.jpg






Since the air was VERY calm and nice, Cecilia ordered Per in for alittle close formation, he stepped up some and alittle forward of the normal position, so I could take some pics.
They turned out pretty good:

Here the PIC is a focused lead:

35i61k9.jpg





After a little persuation, she produced a smile too:

34raf4y.jpg




Then she signalled #2 over to the other side, handed over the controls to me and took the camera:

21ludc3.jpg




The sun where close to the horizon as we approached our home field, ENRY:

33wy3b5.jpg





And just after sunset, we where on final, setting up for a formation landing:

den4gh.jpg




That rounded off a very nice Sunday afternoon and evening spent together with good friends, and our RV's.
It's so increadibliy joyful to have a flying RV; we're looking forward to every flight, long or short.
All them rivets we pounded a while back: the effort where soooo worth it, so keep pounding!


PS: here's a link to a previous write up about a flight to the same place, from May 2010.
In that post, you'll see pics of Per and Solfrid, just after he had bought the RV-4.

http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=59967&highlight=fjellbacka
 
Last edited:
Manstad, Norway today: sunrise at 04:00 ... sunset at 22:35 ... Gotta love those long flying days up north! Great writeup; thanks for sharing
 
Day VFR hours today

Manstad, Norway today: sunrise at 04:00 ... sunset at 22:35 ... Gotta love those long flying days up north! Great writeup; thanks for sharing

So very true! We just love that the days have so many hours of daylight in them at this time of year!
If you look at VFR-day conditions today, (sun above 6* below the horizon) it gets even better: VFR day starts at 0206 this am and ends at 0029 tomorrow.

In other words: it's too dark for VFR-day only 90 MINUTES out of the 24 hours... not bad at all... :D

The picture is ofcourse turned totally upside down when winter comes around, but that's several months away yet so who cares... hehe...
 
Back
Top