Another weekend on a frozen lake in the Norwegain Mountains.

Hi gang.

Just want to share some pics with you again: About two months ago, in mid March, a friend of mine Per Strømmen, his wife Solfrid, the wifey and me spent a weekend by the lake "Femunden" in Norway.
The wifey and me did the same thing last year, and this time we brought Per and Solfrid along to show them this "winter paradise".

As last year, we had a VERY nice time and here's some pics:


The RV's spent the night on the ice, far from the shore:





Here's a closeup of the two lonely planes:




Here's a pic of our hosts: they own the "mountain hotel" and they are also providing "tower-service" (note the black and yellow radio)
The airspace is uncontrolled ofcourse, but they can provide runway-status, and wind + weather observations.






They also have an assistant for their tower-duty:



He isn't there so much for helping out with the information service; he is there mainly to take care of the guests health: you can borrow him for all the walks you want while you are there, because he LOVES to take walks in the woods!


Here's the reception:






We had a very nice dinner:










Afterwards we helped our hosts to put up the windsock they just had gotten hold of, and ofcourse our new fourlegged friend had to come along.









By the way: the next day we went back to the windsock with more rope and moved the support-ropes up much higher. Otherwise the windsock-rod would've broken during the first windy day.

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The next day we went for a walk on the woods and the scenery is very nice:




As last year, we saw ALOT of moose-tracks, a few mooses and I even got one on pic:





After the walk, the girls had to start work on their tan:




Imagine how pale people in Scandinavia are after all them long, dark winter months...


Anyway: all good things come to an end, so after lunch it was time to hook up the engine warmers and ofcourse our new friend wanted to come along for that task:






For the record; the pic above was taken before we hooked up the warmers. That's why you don't see the warmers themselves.
Both of us use fans placed beetween the exhaust-tubes, blowing hot air into the engine-compartment.

After a couple of hours with the warmers running, we cranked up the Lycs and set course homewards.
Once again, a VERY nice weekend had come to an end.

This summer, we're planning to go back to the same place because there's a runway close by. It'll be nice to see how it all looks without the snow.

By the way: here's the web adress to the mountain hotel: www.femundfjellstue.no

And here's a link to the trip write-up I made when we where here the last year. It that write up, there's more pics from this beautiful place: http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=55622

Beautiful scenery...

Thanks for the write-up and pictures!

Is there a tail-ski on the RV-4?

Best,

Norge RV-7

Alf,

Thanks for the wonderful write-up and beautiful photos! I look forward to all your posts. My mother (1st gen. American of Norwegian descent) took me to Norway as a young man. I hope to get back some day. Keep the posts coming!

Thanks,

John Thach
__________________
Rv-6A
180 h/p constant speed

Alf, great write up and pictures! Sure looks like a nice place to fly!

Thanks...

... for the nice comments guys.

No tailski on the RV-4. I don't recall exactly what that dark spot by the -4's TW is, but it's no tailski. It might be a wheel-chock or something with the towingbar...

I'll check with Per and find out.

Gorgeous!

I wish we were close to such beauty as the oppressive heat/humidity of summer is coming down on us.

Thanks for sharing.

I want to visite to!

Hello Olaf,

Very nice! Do you think I could fly there next winter with my RV-9A?

I do not have an engine pre-heater though. Maybe a hair dryer will do the job? What is the temperatures out there during the winter anyway (?C) ?

Any idea how far this is from Belgium? (I have long range tanks...........)

Kind regards, Tonny.

Alf, I always enjoy your stories and your pictures. Thanks for posting another one!

700 NM

Alf,
I checked on Google Earth: 700 NM from EBZW! That's 4,5 to 5 hours flying. I will have to talk my wife into it, she will love the dog!

Regards, Tonny.

Thanks for that write-up! I've been flying from a frozen lake in Sweden for three years, and even though this year our gliders ended up standing in 1ft deep water, I can't wait to go there again. Here are some pictures: http://rv8.linta.de/2011/05/still-alive-1.html

Here's...

...the answer to what that "tailski" on the -4 really is: it's loose ends from Per's homemade rudder-lock.

He used leather-ropes from the rudder-horn to the TW-fork and the ropes where too long. Since he didn't want to cut off the extra lenghts, they are just lying on the ground underneath rudder.

Tonny: the temps vary ALOT depending of when during the winter you are there: from -30*C to about 0*c.... higher temps during march. (april can be too late due to melting snow)
Also; the daylight hours in march are many more compared to december.

A hairdryer as a engine heater: weeell... it might work but if you are going to lay on your back on the ice holding it for two hours, then your ENGINE will be warm but YOU will be rather cold... ;-)
I think we'll rather let you use one of our heaters.