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On Tuesday this week, I officially became a full-time RV-builder!

A

ao.frog

Well Known Member
Hi gang.

Just wanted to tell you that the progress on my -7 named "Kermit" (guess why...:D) probably will speed up some from now on.

Reason; well; I celebrated my 55th birthday on the 25th of January and on Monday this week I landed the 737 for the last time as a commercial pilot. Tuesday was my first day as a "Early Retired Commercial Pilot", in other words; full time RV-builder.

I've flown the 737 (-2, -4, -6, -7 and 800 versions) for almost 24 years and close to 12.000 hrs now. In addition, I've spent 11 years of flying fighters in the Norwegain Airforce, (best time of my life!!) and that's enough, don't you think??

Ofcourse the retirement-pay would've been better if I had continued until I was 60 or even 65 years old, but as they say; "Life is no dress rehersal".
Besides, there's a chance that the early retirement possiblities in SAS (Scandinavian Airlines System) will go away soon due to the airline's ongoing cost-savings program.
Therefore, I decided to take it while I still had the right to do so.

On one of the very last trips, I flew down and picked up my wife in Milan/Italy who had been there for a longweekend with a few girlfriends.

Here a nice wiew from the "office": approaching the Alps on the way to Milan:






On the return leg, Cecilia ofcourse had to sit in the cockpit and I had the copilot take a pic:







Here; a couple of the "Trolly Dollies" and me when I had my last flight
to the Canary Islands: (that's the flights we 737-pilots call "long-haul; more than 5 hrs)





Here's the trusty -800 sitting on the ramp at Tenerife:







The day before my last flight, I flew up to Kirkenes which is WAY up north in Norway, close to the Russian and Finish borders.

Here we are inbound the the field for a circling approach:







And here's the -700 sitting on the ramp:





The sun has just came back into wiew after beeing below the horizon a couple of months. The pic below are taken at noon...







The copilot on this trip was a nice woman "Camilla C", who I've flown with quite a few times before. Here she's at the controls just after takeoff on the return leg:







And here we are back "home" on final to Oslo/Gardermoen (the main Norwegain Airport and my home base) a couple of hours later:



Note that the sun now is much higher even though it's two hours later. That's ofcourse because we've flown southwards for those two hours. By that time, it was dark in Kirkenes...

(continued)
 
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(continued....)

By the way; a week or so before my last flight, I took a few pics through the "HUD" (Head Up Display") during an approach to Gardermoen. Maybe a HUD would be something to mount in a RV for all of you "gadget-enthusiasts" out there:

Here we are at 3000' / 178 KIAS on long final just before hitting the glideslope:





Then, on glideslope, we're continuing "the slide" downwards:



The autopilot now has captured the G/S and the only thing it does from now on is to fly the aircraft-symbol into the flight director circle.
The A/C symbol is the biggest circle of the two with some funny wings (looks kind of like Corsair-wings)






Getting closer:






Approaching the flare. The artifical runway edges are now in wiew:






And then there's only the touchdown to go..




PS; for the record: during the approach above, the plane was flown in fully automatic mode including flare and touchdown with dual autopilots and the COP was PF (PIlot Flying)


Anyway; here's the crew on my very last flight:









And here's my NEW crew from now on:





From the left:

Erling Olsen, retired engine mechanic from Royal Norwegain Airforce (RNoAF)
Eivind Vinje, retired aircraft electrical specialist from RNoAF
Kjell Nøstdal, retired technical controller from RNoAF (F-5, F-16, DA-20, UH-1B)
Roald Kilmark, retired a/c mech and retired head of a/c support shops (machinist shop, paint shop, metal-shop etc)
Yours truly, former RNoAF pilot (F-5 and F-16)
Odd Sandvik, retired RNoAF pilot (F-5, F-104, RF-84F, F-86K, Jaguar exchange pilot in RAF)
Arne Ingvaldsen, retired a/c avionic spesialist from RNoAF
and finally: Per Strømmen, former RNoAF pilot (F-5, F-16) and just retired Airbus-330/340 longhaul captain from SAS Airline, he owns 1/3 of a RV-4 and 50% of a Vampire veteran jet (!) and flies them both.

Soooo...it's alot of experience here folks! And yes... I know; I'm a REALLY lucky RV-builder... I sure feel blessed..... So let the full time RV-building begin! :)



PS: Not too much RV-related stuff in this post so I hope it doesn't get deleted by the moderators... [ed. Not to worry Alf. Congratuations on becoming 'full time' and wishing you and yours a happy 'retirement'. dr]
 
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Alf,

Lykke til og jeg ?nsker deg en lykkelig lang pensjonisttilv?relse.

I am 59 next week and have no plans to retire at least for another ten years.

In one of the pictures above, you can see my house!!!!

Here is a view from the lounge:

Tony%20Towers.jpg
 
Congratulations Alf!

Now another adventure begins...
I always enjoy your pictures and stories. That's some building crew you've got (and I thought I had good help)
Best Regards,
Terry, CFI
RV-9A N323TP
 
"Life is no dress rehersal"
Click to expand...

Can I steal that line, Alf?

Congrats on an amazing career. I enjoy the pictures and posts from lands far away. After this weeks blizzard here on the U.S. great plains, I somewhat understand what life must be like there. We only have to endure it once in awhile and for short duration. It's right at freezing this morning. After viewing your pics, I have no excuse not to go flying today. Headed to airport... its been too long.

Joe
 
Retire at 55

Ahh, if only...Congratulations.

I guess you'll have to learn to fly now huh?...:)

Frank
 
Congratulations on the retirement Mr. Frog, you certainly deserve it after you work period.


the airplane you picked up your wife from Milan, does that have the HUD that is shown later? It looks like an older plane, look at all the scratches on the headliner!

and your copilot, camilla, it looks like the cockpit is not that noisy, she has the earmuff only half covering her ear?
 
Alf,

Congratulations on your retirement and the end of a safe flying career. Now to do more fun flying for yourself and your beautiful wife! Like the others, I look forward to more of your outstanding stories.
 
four more years,
four more years,
four more years,
four more years,
four more years,

I have to keep the goal in focus. Congratulations and thanks for the inspiration.
 
Thanks alot...

.... for all the good wishes guys! They're highly appreciated! :)
Yes, it feels like another adventure is about to begin... :p

This summer is going to a strange one; because I haven't had that long summer-vacation since I graduated from high school in -75... Cecilia, Wilco and me are looking REALLY forward to it! :D

A couple of answers:
Not all of our 737 NG's ("Next Generation" which are the 6,7 and 800's) have the HUD-system installed.
The plane I flew to Milan had not. And yes, some of them are showing signs of "wear & tear" but that's only cosmetic. Technically they are as good as new!

Good observation of Camilla's earmuff, but those headsets (Sennheiser) actually have those small earmuffs (although Camilla might have displaced the muff slightly on the pic) and you wear them kind of on the "outside" of the ear like Camilla does.

The headsets have active NR, are pretty lightweight and does not go AROUND the ear like others do, but due to the NR-system in them, they dampen the sound pretty good anyway.

The headset are of this type:

http://www.sennheiser.com/sennheiser/home_en.nsf/root/professional_aviation_active-noise_502397


"Learn to fly from now on", eh?? Well, I learned to fly in the Norwegian Airforce's Saab Safir's during initial military training phase. (The Safir is a Swedish built aerobatic plane with a 6-cyl 190HP Lyc, C/S-prop and retractable gear)

When I was done with the AF in 1987 and started flying the 737, I soon missed flying aerobatics and all the fun, so I joined a military aeroclub who by that time operated two Safir's from RNoAF. The AF had switched to Saab Safari's by then, and the Safir's where sold to different aercoclubs.

I then continued to fly the Safir during the years to come, enjoying both aerobatics and cruising.
In fact; it was during those years of Safir-flying I got the "totally crazy idea" (at least that was what quite of few of my friends said at time time) of building my own aerobatic plane someday. After rather short search I ended up with selecting the RV.... No other homebuilt planes didn't even come close in my book....;)

I continued to fly the Safir (and 172's and Cherokees too for that matter) over the years from -87 until I got the RV airborne in 2008....

Anyway; here's a few pics I took of the Safir in 2006 before I went out to burn off a few litres of 100LL on a nice sunny day...

It's still has the orginal paintscheme from the AF. Nice old lady, eh?






Flying behind this instrument panel really makes you feel like you flying a nice old veteran:

 
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VERY nice!

Thank you, Alf, for giving us a fascinating glimpse into places way up north, the 737's you flew for so long, and the HUD display. I loved the pictures! My wife especially liked the picture of you and your wife in the cockpit together. Very touching. I doubt our TSA would ever allow such a thing to happen here in the USA these days. How fortunate for her!

Your flight to Kirkenes piqued my interest enough to do a google search about the city. I wanted to look at a map and see where it is, and I was curious about the latitude, sunrise/sunset charts, and of course, the weather. Brrrrrr! What an interesting life it must be, to live north of the Arctic Circle.

Again, thanks for taking us there in pictures and story.
 
Hi Alf,

congrats to your retirement!
let's hope we can keep the system alive until we are at the same stage ;-)
hope to meet you in person someday soon,
are you planning to either attend aero friedrichshafen or be at the van's fly in in damme this summer?

rgds, bernie
 
Job Well Done, life well lived-(living)

Welcome to the RV club. You will not find a better bunch of people in the world.
Even with my limited skills, I think I could shoot that approach. I want HUD for my RV. Beware the retirement. My friends are busier than before!
 
Retirement

Alf,

With all that time that you'll now have, when are you planning to fly Kermit to the States? What about a trip to OSH this summer?
 
No...

... a trip with the RV from Norway to OSH would probably be to long both for our bladders and the plane... :p besides, too hot and humid there for us I think...

But we are going to Sun'n Fun this year, and we'll certainly look for all them familair RV's belonging to people on this forum. :)
 
Congrats! what a careerer you had, that was one of my early dreams before having a family and Gods other plans for me. great pics, enjoy the retirement!
 
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