For a change it was a beautiful day and of course I jumped at the chance. Soon Rune had collected Neil & I and we were off to Voss airfield where the tiniest plane I had ever seen was sat in the Taxi lane. A two seater plane / glider combination, all very shiny indeed. Before the flight Rune & Olav were telling me how new the plane was, like 6 months old and costing 1.5 million (I reckon we are paying these taxi drivers way too much) even converted from Krone into pounds thats about 200K
With the pre flight checks done and a brief explanation of the dials and controls, Pedro and I were bumbling along the taxi rank to the end of the runway, Not quite what you see on Top Gear but I was assured it was long enough for this thing.....
Some dial tapping and engine revving later we turned onto the strip and boom we were off.... within a few yards we had lift off and were soon making our way up into the blue..
Pedro had suggested we head towards the glacier but as we climbed over the mountain range we could see a thick cloud hovering over it... 'Ah best not' says Pedro, 'I'm not qualified to fly in clouds'
Talk about 'vote of confidence' here I am sat in an egg shell with barely enough room to move when the pilot says he's not that qualified!
I do know a little about flying licenses so to be fair on him, I was not too worried. We decided to fly towards Ulvik instead, dropping in height to fly in the Fjords. If I thought Norway was a beautiful country before this, then it was an understatement... Once again, my breath was taken away with the scenery and this time it was all landscape.
As we neared the Brakanes hotel I'm shooting pictures like i'd just got a new camera.... I wanted to get a great ariel shot of the hotel but I was having trouble getting the angle as we flew over head...
'Put your camera out of the hole in the window' Pedro says just before banking the plane right over, so now i'm underneath with only the plastic canopy between me and the earth... I got the shot I wanted though
If that wasn't enough, Pedro then says 'do you want a picture of you?' 'Sure' I reply wondering how he will do this. He proceeds to take the camera and give me the controls of the plane... A joy stick between my knees 'Pull back to go up, forward to go down, left etc etc...' Pedro kept the back end in check with the foot pedals but the rest was up to me...
Don't be fooled by the happy smile... I was as nervous as hell at this point..
It was a bit twitchy and felt like we were on a rollercoaster but nevertheless I was flying a plane. Pedro then decided to show me a few tricks that the thing could do, flying close to the ground to feel the bumps from the air pressure (which actually felt like we were running on the wheels) and to top it all off, he switches off the engine and we glide back towards Voss catching a few thermals on the way.
We had pretty much flown the route I drive to work in Ulvik and even came back the short way over the mountains and Solsoe lake... Much quicker than in the car thats for sure.
Way too soon it was all over and Voss airstrip came into sight....
Touchdown was as smooth as the take off and so that was that... from a cuppa with Neil to buzz round the Fjords in a light aircraft. I know my days in Norway have been some of the best in my life but this one was surreal...
Well thats my 'Bucket List' a bit shorter at least...
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