FlyingFinn76 From Finland, joined Jun 2009, 1705 posts, RR: 42 Posted (1 year 6 months 3 weeks 4 days 20 hours ago) and read 4950 times:
Introduction
The regional airline NextJet of Sweden, despite having a very peculiar name considering that it has never operated any jet aircraft, has a very interesting fleet. The most boring plane from my point of view in that fleet is the Saab 340, but things get more interesting from there - they are the sole remaining passenger operator for the BAe ATP turboprop and also operate the Beech 1900D - a very rare type in Europe, although a somewhat more common in the US.
I did the ATP last year: ATP Across The Arctic: HEL-ARN-KRF-GEV/LLA-ARN-HEL (by FlyingFinn76 Nov 18 2010 in Trip Reports) and the Beech has been on my TOFLY list for quite some time now. This autumn I finally decided to do it and set to work trying to patch together a workable itinerary for a daytrip.
Schedulewise and pricewise the ARN-HFS-TYF (or Stockholm Arlanda to Torsby via Hagfors - no, you are not expected to know these codes nor these places!) route seemed like a good one - it offered two flights for the price of one with the tag on, 22 mile short hop between HFS and TYF. Plus Torsby is quite close to Karlstad, so this increased the possibilities of adding that airport to my log as well. After some searching it became apparent that the schedules and prices matched the best if I did it the other way around, so I started by booking the late afternoon TYF-HFS-ARN flight for under 70 EUR.
I checked the train timetables between Karlstad and Torsby and was satisfied to notice that I could indeed fly to KSD and take the train from there. So I booked Norwegian’s morning flight to ARN (my preferred SAS one was a bit on the pricey side for this date) for 30 EUR and the morning Skyways flight to KSD for 55 EUR.
The only thing remaining was to get back from ARN - the NextJet flight was arriving at 18.00 so I had plenty of flights to choose from, but in the end ended up with the midnight SK flight as that was available for only 41 EUR and well... let’s just say frequent flyer programs really do work! I was facing a five hour layover but well, with lounge access and everything that shouldn’t really be a problem I guess...
The route ended looking like this:
Finally I booked the train between Karlstad and Torsby for 13 EUR. Too bad I did this before contacting my friend and Karlstad local a.netter Robert/parton87 to see if we could have short meet at Karlstad - not only did he have that day off he said that he could’ve driven me all the way to Torsby and the local airport - oh well, live and learn!
So let’s go to Sweden, shall we?
Tuesday 18.10.2011
I did what I usually do with Norwegian and went to the airport the previous night to check myself in using the self service kiosk (c’mon, please give us a proper OLCI!) and of course picked a seat on row 1 for ultimate legroom. So the next morning I try to minimize my time at the airport and manage quite nicely - arriving at T2 at T-55 minutes, quickly through security, stop at a shop to buy a gift for Robert, grab a coffee and sit down next to my gate sipping it:
Nice Marimekko design:
The plane of course is already parked there, having spent the night here - it’s LN-DYM, an example I’ve logged once before, on HEL-FCO in July:
I watch with great interest a young businessman type (at least he is wearing an impeccable business suit) on my flight settling down to one of the nearby tables with a large glass of red wine, downing that with one very impressive gulp and leaving on his merry way - must be either a very nervous flier or maybe he just has a nasty hangover to nurse before his business meeting...
Over at the next table two middle aged women are well into their second pints of the day, despite it being just past six in the morning (as a side note the two women also came back on my midnight flight and appeared to be surprisingly sober...)... ahh, this is so Finnish!
Boarding is called around 6.25, I overhear the gate agent mentioning over the radio that they only have 22 hold bags for this leg - business traveler galore! With me being me I’m the very first passenger to walk down the jetway.
Onboard I’m very surprised to see a Swedish crew - somehow I assumed that after the Helsinki base was established Norwegian would’ve surely switched this morning flight over to a based crew - it is not exactly cheap to have a full aircrew spending the night here...
Row 1 indeed has excellent legroom:
Quite a few suits are indeed onboard - this departure is definitely popular with the business day tripper crowd (and some members of the trip reporter crowd as well...) in today’s cost conscious corporate world... Load is some 80%, quite impressive actually for such an early flight. Still three for me, I guess nobody wants to pay extra for these seats on short hops as this and don’t bother picking them from the kiosk either. Good for me.
While waiting for boarding to finish the cockpit door is open and it is somewhat unnerving to be hearing the “Pull up, pull up!” warning many times from there - is the crew playing a simulation or what is going on?
Finally boarding is finished, the crew proudly annonces that “Internet ombord” will be available on this flight (not sure what the point as there’s maybe a 15 minute window to actually use it...) and the flight time as 50 minutes.
Push back is even one minute early, with take off from 22R five minutes later.
Being rather tired I decide to use this flight for getting some shuteye, and thanks to the space around me manage to rather well, I only wake up well into our final approach into Arlanda’s runway 19R where we land after around 45 minutes of flight time.
Still dark at Arlanda as well:
Stockholm Arlanda Airport, take 1
Deboarding from the first row is of course very quick, although T2 is rather packed with passengers on early morning DY flights (mainly to OSL, it seems!). Once out in the public it is only a very short walk to T3, the commuter terminal where Skyways operates from - this is part of their new ad campaign:
There’s no OLCI for Skyways, but as the manual check in process takes the whole of thirty seconds and seating is free there’s hardly a need for one either!
Another Skyways ad where they’ve already incorporated the routes NextJet is giving up:
The commuter terminal is not a terribly interesting place - the only nice feature is the large circular window at the end which is good for plane spotting as a lot of planes taxi past it on their way to or from runway 01L/19R.
Hey, that’ll be my plane - it will fly to TYF and then spend the whole day there before operating the flight on the opposite direction (hopefully with me onboard!):
I spot a computer showing all flights out of this terminal together with their registrations and see something unnerving:
Yes, it is showing the outbound flight to HFS/TYF being operated by a Jetstream, SE-LHE! I had heard rumors that NextJet had stopped operating the Beech a little bit prematurely - bugger! Also notice the Mora/Sveg flight being operated by a SF3!
As 2N does not have any Jetstreams I’m assuming it must be operated by Direktflyg. Well, I still have hope, I refuse to believe this until I will board the plane at Torsby!
It’s quite funny watching the JZ operation here - one minute the apron is completely empty (apart from a 2N Saab 340 operating for Air Åland) and then within five minutes four or five JZ Fokkers arrive bringing commuters to the capital from various towns around Sweden, including my inbound flight from KSD. The inbound load looks quite good. I also spot the registration of my ride: SE-LIR, a new one for me.
Is this Turkish humor:
The boarding process is a bit weird - apparently “Go to gate” means “Show your boarding pass to the agent and get ushered to a holding pen”, “Boarding” means that the gate agents make a call for any missing passengers over PA and at “Final Call” the door to the apron is opened and we are directed to the plane.
ARN - KSD JZ203 F50 SE-LIR Seat 11D 8.00 - 8.48
A very friendly middle aged FA looks genuinely happy to see passengers boarding her plane and offers a very hearty welcome to every single one of us - nice!
Hmm, I seem to recall the legroom being somewhat tighter than this - maybe it varies between the birds or is tighter in the back cabin:
An ad for the merger of City Airlines and Skyways:
The cabin - this one doesn’t smell so bad as the airBaltic ones:
While waiting in the holding pen I counted the load as 15 passengers, but a latecomer brings the total to 16. The flight time is announced as 50 minutes. Departure is a nice 5 minutes early.
This is the circular spotting window at the end of T3:
Domestic T4:
It feels like Thai is always here when I pass through:
Take off from 19R is right at our SDT:
This is the view for most of the flight - not very good weather in Sweden today:
Service is a very nice breakfast - a tub of Finnish (yay!) yogurt, a choice between a salami or cheese sandwich and coffee or tea:
When I speak English to the FA she looks a bit worried and asks if I understood the safety demo which was only done in Swedish and “Have you flown a Fokker 50 before?” - I assure her that I have flown a bit and can actually understand Swedish well enough. I just don’t have the heart to tell her that this is my 72nd flight with the Fokker .
Quite soon the captain announces ten minutes to landing and mentions that Karlstad is experiencing “en liten frisk vind” which could cause some turbulence.
Well, this is quite an understatement as this approach is one of the most violent ones I’ve ever experienced - the little plane is swaying sideways like Shakira’s hips and does the occasional bounce up and down like Shakira’s … well, I think you get the idea. A couple of times I’m certain that we will be doing a go around as it looks like there’s no way to hold the plane steady long enough to touch down, but the pilot does what they get paid handsomely to do and slams us down right on the piano keys of runway 23 less than 45 minutes after we left Arlanda. Not the most elegant of landings, but hey, any landing where you walk away is a happy one!
The weather certainly looks ugly:
Karlstad
It is raining cats and dogs - most passengers opt to dash quickly to arrivals but I take my time and shoot a few photos:
Quite ironic - must be designed by the same PR agency that came up with the name “Greenland” for that old lump of ice and rock:
Another example of crap branding:
Inside Robert is waiting for me so we exchange greetings and head outside to his Volvo for the ride into town. Ryanair is big here as well:
You just gotta love these regional airports in Sweden - this one looks more like an old school building than an airport terminal:
A few hours of sightseeing, talking, rain and a lunch follows. Some shots from Karlstad:
The Klarälven, “Clear River” - the longest river in the whole of Nordics:
Apparently a very popular nightclub:
Sola, not today, though:
Time flies when you’re having fun and soon it is time to head to the station for my train:
I bid Robert farewell - we’ll meet again sooner than later judging from some of the flight planning we did during this visit .
A rather nice commuter train shows up for the hour and half’s ride up to Torsby - there’s even a free wifi connection which works surprisingly okay, well done Tågkompaniet!
I really like these old fashioned stations:
Torsby
Torsby is the end of the track, so luckily no chance of missing the stop here:
There’s of course no public transportation to the airport (actually the train tracks pass quite close to it), and since it is not raining here and with ample time before my flight I decide to walk the three kilometers to the airport. Besides, Torsby doesn’t appear to be a terribly interesting small town so I might just hang out at the airport instead.
Not sure what Ararat and Pizza have in common:
Town centre:
Quite an impressive church for such a small town:
The way to the airport goes through some very Swedish (i.e. pretty) areas:
As well as some not so pretty ones:
Looks like I’m on the right track:
Seriously doubt that:
Ski tunnel, pretty much the only attraction in town:
The tiny airport terminal is right next to the ski tunnel:
Oh dear, what is that plane parked on the apron:
Yes, indeed it is the Jetstream SE-LHE “Lahore” (my term, not officially). Bugger that, no Beech for me today, and probably not in the foreseeable future considering the type’s rarity in Europe. I curse myself for putting this trip back for so long, after all it’s not like it’s far from home or anything...
Well, at least it is a new registration for my log and I did guess the operator right.
Torsby Airport or “The Most Comfortable Airport Experience Ever”
Buggered I make my way into the small and cute terminal:
Well, there’s absolutely nobody in the building:
“Free for travelers” - nice:
Likewise:
Aerial shot of the airport:
Not exactly busy:
The check in desk:
The “gate”:
I see no metal detector around so assume it is in the back room behind the check in desk and will be opened when the plane is boarding.
Well, seriously I can’t be pissed off for too long when this airport is so cute and nice. There’s a comfy couch to lie on, a large TV showing some mindless reality TV, free wifi, food and coffee so just perfect for relaxing!
I am here very early so it is quite interesting to observe how the airport comes to life:
- At T-70 minutes a man shows up, says “Hej” to me and proceeds to the sandwich cabinet, putting a brown paper bag there and leaves.
- T-60: Another man comes from somewhere in the back room, says “Hej” and seems to be happy to discover the brown paper bag. He proceeds to restock the sandwiches in the cabinet (since they were originally six sandwiches I assumed that maybe there was one for each passenger, now I’m happy to have another one as there are plenty).
- T-45: One guy shows up, says “Hej” to me and grabs a cup of coffee and a sandwich.
- T-40: The pilot and first officer show up, say “Hej” to me.
- T-30: Two other passengers show up, say “Hej” to me and sit on the chairs opposite me and proceed to discuss some business matters.
- T-25: While I’m in the loo the check in agent has shown up. When I come out he asks me to check in. Check in consists of me showing my ID and getting my name ticked off a list - no boarding pass is produced. The pilots are chatting with the agent at the same time.
- T-20: The pilot and FO punch the secret code into the keypad next to the “gate” (well, door), proceed to their plane and perform the usual departure preparations.
- T-15: The check in agent opens the door to the tarmac and says “Vällkomma onbord”.
That’s it - apparently Sweden is like Australia and New Zealand and doesn’t necessarily require security checks on small turboprop aircraft. Any connection at Arlanda will involve a security rescreening anyway, so fine with me.
There are actually only three passengers - the other guy from the business duo was apparently just seeing his partner off and is not actually traveling.
The FO overseeing the boarding asks me to sit in the back. I grab the single seat on row five. After boarding is completed (seriously how long does it take to get three pax onboard?) the FO hands out earplugs, I decline and say “I want the full experience” causing him to laugh. He also suggests that I should move one row further to the exit row (so much for a seat in the back) for some extra legroom, but I say I’m fine with my seat.
Safety demo is played from DVD with the screen attached to the bulkhead wall:
The check in agent aka. “Jack of all trades” - it looks like he is the only employee at this airport:
So very Swedish:
The captain announces our flight time to Hagfors as 10 minutes with a further 45 minutes for the leg to ARN.
Not much wind today:
Departure is seven minutes early, with take off from 34 towards the north two minutes later:
This is a very fun flight, my shortest one to date at 22 great circle miles (a full two miles shorter than my previous one, JER-GCI!). Basically we make one right hand turn which points us directly towards HFS airport, cruise above the low cloudbase for two minutes and commence descent, landing on Hagfors’ runway 18 exactly nine minutes after take off. Well done!
FlyingFinn76 From Finland, joined Jun 2009, 1705 posts, RR: 42 Reply 1, posted (1 year 6 months 3 weeks 4 days 20 hours ago) and read 4962 times:
Short Hagfors Stopover
We backtrack along the runway all the way to the other end and stop in front of the cute terminal building. See for yourself - this looks like a cabin or a hut, definitely not an airport terminal:
Nice detail - plenty of elks (and hunting) in the forest around here:
This looks like a hotel but I don’t thing HFS has (or needs) one:
Another four passengers soon board, half of them being fellow Finns on a business trip - something which I’m very used to on these hops around Scandinavia.
When the FO closes the door again he mentions that there’s a container with a coffee thermos and some biscuits on the first row and after the seat belt sign is switched off the pax are free to grab them. Based on my North Flying experience from last month I just can’t help but to loudly ask “Where’s the beer?” which causes everybody to laugh. And for the record: no, there’s no beer!
In the meantime it has started to rain. Take off is towards the south, after only a ten minute stop - very impressive!
Small turboprops always make me sleepy as there’s something so comforting in the monotonous drone of the engines and the associated shaking of the plane. With the sun setting during this flight and the skies being overcast there’s nothing to see anyway, so I savor the opportunity and catch another half an hour of shuteye.
I wake up into the captain’s announcement of landing in ten minutes. Looks like the rain has reached Arlanda as well as it looks rather depressing in the dark with water pouring down
everywhere.
Landing is on runway 19L after around 40 minutes of flight time, followed by a very long taxi to the absolutely furthest parking position, a dash through the rain for the shelter of the bus and another very circuitous route to T3.
A nice enough flight for my 1100th logged one.
Stockholm Arlanda Airport, take 2
Here I am, back to where I left ten hours earlier:
From T3 I make my way to T5 via T4 and Sky City. This is what Christmas lights look like for nine months of the year:
And this for the remaining three:
This report ends here as there’s not much to mention about the flight home - spent a long time in the Scandinavian lounge before boarding LN-RPY “Olof Viking” - a very appropriate plane as I flew the very same 737-600 when coming home from my ATP quest last year, albeit that trip of course was much more successful than this one. I slept all throughout the flight, so nothing to mention.
Conclusions
Well, I missed my primary objective of the day so I guess the overall mission was a failure. The Beech would’ve been a nice catch, but somehow I don’t feel very bad - that very cute and comfortable Torsby airport more than made up for it, plus that short hop from Torsby to Hagfors was really fun.
Norwegian provided just what they promise: an on time (or actually early) flight between HEL and ARN for a very cheap price and good comfort.
Skyways with the breakfast service was a nice surprise, definitely better than their usual “chocolate and coffee” flights.
Finally Robert - always a pleasure to meet a friend and this time at his home turf. Thanks for the guidance and Karlstad certainly looks like a nice city - shame about the weather but well, it’s October after all! Vi ses!
One day to recover from this trip (but including a small domestic hop not worth reporting about) and to prepare for some long haul flying to another continent - it’s been a few years since I’ve last done that! The country is Colombia, some a.net company is welcomed and the flights are HEL-ARN-FRA-BOG-MDE-BOG-FRA-MUC-HEL. Stay tuned!
PlaneHunter From Germany, joined Mar 2006, 6182 posts, RR: 79 Reply 2, posted (1 year 6 months 3 weeks 4 days 20 hours ago) and read 4916 times:
Hi FlyingFinn,
nice report with nice pictures. Too bad you missed the Beech, but I guess it's just a matter of time until you try again.
Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): One day to recover from this trip (but including a small domestic hop not worth reporting about) and to prepare for some long haul flying to another continent - it’s been a few years since I’ve last done that!
CrimsonNL From Netherlands, joined Dec 2007, 1614 posts, RR: 42 Reply 3, posted (1 year 6 months 3 weeks 4 days 19 hours ago) and read 4831 times:
AIRLINERS.NET CREW CHAT OPERATOR
Hey FF, thanks for sharing. Too bad you didn't get the Beech, maybe you should look into PGA Express around Portugal? It's a type I'd be happy to log as well.
Widebodyroga From United States of America, joined Sep 2008, 471 posts, RR: 4 Reply 4, posted (1 year 6 months 3 weeks 4 days 19 hours ago) and read 4778 times:
Great TR, P.
A very nice read for a flight-starved a.netter like me at the moment.
One of my pet peeves. Villages with churches that would be too big even for mid-size towns. I'm sure their money could be spent in better ways... Anyway, I'll keep my mouth shut before I offend anyone.
I'm sorry to hear about the Beech. At least now I can brag that I have flown on an aircraft that not even the FlyingFinn has. For the time being only, I'm sure.
That airport sure looks cute. I love places like that. And from the angle that you shot the photo, the control tower looks to be almost bigger than the terminal itself.
Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Small turboprops always make me sleepy as there’s something so comforting in the monotonous drone of the engines and the associated shaking of the plane.
I hear ya. Nothing else makes me sleep like a baby other than the sweet lull of a turpoprob next to my ear.
Looking forward to the BOG trip report!
WBodyroga
Visit my aviation page: http://widebodyroga.weebly.com/
The777Man From United States of America, joined Jul 1999, 6078 posts, RR: 56 Reply 5, posted (1 year 6 months 3 weeks 4 days 19 hours ago) and read 4752 times:
Hi FlyingFinn!
Thanks for a great and interesting trip report!
Funny add for Skyways ; "we get you closer" as the airplane is right on top of the building......
They say "solen skiner alltid i Karlstad" = The sun always shines in Karlstad but I guess not they day you were there.....therefore the sun on the Welcome to Karlstad sign.
Ararat Pizzeria is probably owned by someone oringally from Turkey or Armenia.
Airport at Torsby looks great but wondering how long they can keep flying with only three passengers.....Nice short hop to Hagfors! 9 minutes is very short!
Nice picture of the yellow Saab at Torsby; I used to drive one of those when I worked at BMA.....though it had LFV logo on it.
Nice you flew Olof Viking! Olof is my middle name......Don't think there ever was a Lars Viking.
Looking forward very much to your long haul report! Perhaps ypu should do one like that every year !
Oh, too bad you missed the Beech.....
The777Man
[Edited 2011-10-25 12:50:13]
Need a Boeing 777 Firing Order....Further to fly....GA, T5, CI and LX 777s
FLIEGER67 From Georgia, joined Sep 2003, 4387 posts, RR: 57 Reply 7, posted (1 year 6 months 3 weeks 4 days 18 hours ago) and read 4671 times:
Hey, P.,
very good to read something more from the nordics.
Nice pictures also.
I like these small swedish places and for sure, with simply no Jetstream at all in the log, but the Beech covered,
that would be more than welcomed for me.
Pretty good to see you´re local meeting with Robert works well.
AlwaysOnAPlane From United Kingdom, joined Sep 2010, 299 posts, RR: 3 Reply 8, posted (1 year 6 months 3 weeks 4 days 18 hours ago) and read 4649 times:
Hey P.
Too bad you missed the real goal for the trip but hey, another fun time above the clouds (only just in the TYF - HFS case).
You know i'm sure I have had a drunken night in the Blue Moon Bar, Karlstad. I will check with some of the guys I was away with to see if they recall. Some hot girls for sure.
Good to score another A.net meeting P. Shame the clouds were heavy on that day.
That's Sweden for you! You can be out driving in the middle of nowhere and all of a sudden a big church pops out of nowhere in the middle of a field.
Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): This is a very fun flight, my shortest one to date at 22 great circle miles (a full two miles shorter than my previous one, JER-GCI!). Basically we make one right hand turn which points us directly towards HFS airport, cruise above the low cloudbase for two minutes and commence descent, landing on Hagfors’ runway 18 exactly nine minutes after take off. Well done!
JL418 From Italy, joined Jun 2009, 493 posts, RR: 7 Reply 10, posted (1 year 6 months 3 weeks 4 days 18 hours ago) and read 4609 times:
Hey Petteri,
thanks for sharing your flights! It never fails to surprise me how many small regional airlines - with such extensive networks - exist in Sweden. I was expecting something like that to be present in Norway, given its rugged landscape and scattered towns and villages, but in Sweden as well? No way!
Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): I watch with great interest a young businessman type (at least he is wearing an impeccable business suit) on my flight settling down to one of the nearby tables with a large glass of red wine, downing that with one very impressive gulp and leaving on his merry way - must be either a very nervous flier or maybe he just has a nasty hangover to nurse before his business meeting...
Over at the next table two middle aged women are well into their second pints of the day, despite it being just past six in the morning (as a side note the two women also came back on my midnight flight and appeared to be surprisingly sober...)... ahh, this is so Finnish!
Well, perhaps both the businessman and the women were faithful of the old adage by Slash out of Guns 'n' Roses about drinking at airports during the morning: "It's gotta be 5 PM somewhere in the world!".
Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): - At T-70 minutes a man shows up, says “Hej” to me and proceeds to the sandwich cabinet, putting a brown paper bag there and leaves.
- T-60: Another man comes from somewhere in the back room, says “Hej” and seems to be happy to discover the brown paper bag. He proceeds to restock the sandwiches in the cabinet (since they were originally six sandwiches I assumed that maybe there was one for each passenger, now I’m happy to have another one as there are plenty).
- T-45: One guy shows up, says “Hej” to me and grabs a cup of coffee and a sandwich.
- T-40: The pilot and first officer show up, say “Hej” to me.
- T-30: Two other passengers show up, say “Hej” to me and sit on the chairs opposite me and proceed to discuss some business matters.
- T-25: While I’m in the loo the check in agent has shown up. When I come out he asks me to check in. Check in consists of me showing my ID and getting my name ticked off a list - no boarding pass is produced. The pilots are chatting with the agent at the same time.
- T-20: The pilot and FO punch the secret code into the keypad next to the “gate” (well, door), proceed to their plane and perform the usual departure preparations.
- T-15: The check in agent opens the door to the tarmac and says “Vällkomma onbord”.
This passage seems to be taken out of Bill Bryson's "Down Under", quite a brilliant one!
gabrielchew From United Kingdom, joined Aug 2005, 2512 posts, RR: 14 Reply 11, posted (1 year 6 months 3 weeks 4 days 18 hours ago) and read 4603 times:
Nice little report there. Shame you missed the Beech. Ironically, I've done a couple of legs on the Beech (on NZ), but still have the Jetstream to do!
jcs17 From United States of America, joined Jun 2001, 8065 posts, RR: 43 Reply 12, posted (1 year 6 months 3 weeks 4 days 17 hours ago) and read 4567 times:
Its kind of funny that whenever I read your reports from Scandinavia in the autumn, I start thinking about... nahh... dreading winter -- pictures of the sun rising at 8AM, people wearing jackets and gloves.
Shame about the Jetstream substitution. The 1900 is starting to become an endangered species in North America, specifically the US. However, the Jetstream 31/32 is pretty much extinct here aside from the odd charter operator.
MSS658 From Belgium, joined Oct 2010, 2202 posts, RR: 14 Reply 13, posted (1 year 6 months 3 weeks 4 days 16 hours ago) and read 4518 times:
Hi P.
Thanks for sharing this report with us! It was an interesting read!
Seems like propflying is still in in Scandinavia
Quite interested to see the TYF departure operations as well!
Greetings
Marc
ROGERBCN From Andorra, joined Sep 2006, 1126 posts, RR: 19 Reply 14, posted (1 year 6 months 3 weeks 4 days 14 hours ago) and read 4397 times:
Hola P.!
A great read as usual on your TRs.
I am most impressed by the Swedish regional airports, I absolutely love the procedures at Torsby, a true gem hidden in the middle of Sweden.
Although you did not fulfill a 100% your objectives for today's flights, I think you had a very interesting experiences on the different aircrafts you flew.
Looking forward to reading your Colombian adventures.
Salut!
Roger
"At reise er at leve" H.C. Andersen (Travelling is Living)
Burj From United States of America, joined Nov 2007, 838 posts, RR: 5 Reply 15, posted (1 year 6 months 3 weeks 4 days 7 hours ago) and read 4236 times:
Wow very cool! I love the warm home feel and design of the airport!
I was starting to worry a bit but I’m glad you’re a good geography teacher.
Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): not sure what the point as there’s maybe a 15 minute window to actually use it
Just enough time to check your emails and ‘the book’.
Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Another Skyways ad where they’ve already incorporated the routes NextJet is giving up:
That seems a pretty decent amount of so-cal regional destinations. I guess some airports are so small they don’t even derserve the word ‘regional’ (‘very local’ would be more appropriate )
CaptainRed From Germany, joined Oct 2010, 577 posts, RR: 19 Reply 17, posted (1 year 6 months 3 weeks 3 days 22 hours ago) and read 3994 times:
Hi P.,
great little daytrip to some relatively unknown locations you have put together here. Too bad you have missed the Beech 1900D, indeed a rare plane in Europe. I know how it feels, having just missed a new plane type as well on my latest trip (but then, as you know, the Fokker 50 is much easier to catch than the B1900). Looks like you need another trip to North America, there are plenty of these planes still flying around there.
Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): While waiting for boarding to finish the cockpit door is open and it is somewhat unnerving to be hearing the “Pull up, pull up!” warning many times from there
As long as you don't hear it during approach in some bad weather, everything is fine I guess.
Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): the commuter terminal where Skyways operates from - this is part of their new ad campaign:
Hmm, I don't understand the words, but it seems a bit strange to show a plane right on top of some ruins of a house or castle.
Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): When I speak English to the FA she looks a bit worried and asks if I understood the safety demo which was only done in Swedish and “Have you flown a Fokker 50 before?”
Nice that they actually care that people understand the safety demo. She should have also asked all the people who were reading their papers during the demo
Actually not an unusal sight in Germany, where a lot of Turkish run kebap places also doubles as pizzerias. So not uncommon to have a pizza Ararat or a pizza Istanbul.
Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Well, seriously I can’t be pissed off for too long when this airport is so cute and nice.
Indeed, that's a lovely little airport, judging from your pictures and your descriptions. Really liked it how you described the action there before the departure. For sure a nice experience, especially when flying from a small airport to an international hub, two different worlds.
Thank you, now looking forward to read about your south american adventure...
eicvd From Ireland, joined Mar 2008, 2065 posts, RR: 5 Reply 18, posted (1 year 6 months 3 weeks 3 days 22 hours ago) and read 3979 times:
Hi FlyingFinn
Thanks for posting another great report from such a beautiful part of the world, those small swedish towns do look quite pretty. Shame you missed out on the B1900D, Twin Jet from France (another ironic name for an airline!) still operate a fleet of the type. http://www.twinjet.fr/lggb/index.php
Dublin, where Sam Maguire will be coming home to in mid September
akhmad From Netherlands, joined Sep 2005, 2320 posts, RR: 53 Reply 19, posted (1 year 6 months 3 weeks 3 days 21 hours ago) and read 3942 times:
Hi P.,
Another exciting journey of yours. Especially that cute Torsby’s airport, it made me melt right away.
Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Too bad I did this before contacting my friend and Karlstad local a.netter Robert/parton87 to see if we could have short meet at Karlstad - not only did he have that day off he said that he could’ve driven me all the way to Torsby and the local airport
How sweet of Robert.
Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): I watch with great interest a young businessman type (at least he is wearing an impeccable business suit) on my flight settling down to one of the nearby tables with a large glass of red wine, downing that with one very impressive gulp and leaving on his merry way
Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Over at the next table two middle aged women are well into their second pints of the day, despite it being just past six in the morning (as a side note the two women also came back on my midnight flight and appeared to be surprisingly sober...)... ahh, this is so Finnish!
I love it.
Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Yes, it is showing the outbound flight to HFS/TYF being operated by a Jetstream, SE-LHE! I had heard rumors that NextJet had stopped operating the Beech a little bit prematurely - bugger! Also notice the Mora/Sveg flight being operated by a SF3!
Bummer!
Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): A very friendly middle aged FA looks genuinely happy to see passengers boarding her plane and offers a very hearty welcome to every single one of us - nice!
So sweet!
Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Service is a very nice breakfast - a tub of Finnish (yay!) yogurt, a choice between a salami or cheese sandwich and coffee or tea:
Yummy!
Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): this approach is one of the most violent ones I’ve ever experienced - the little plane is swaying sideways like Shakira’s hips and does the occasional bounce up and down like Shakira’s … well, I think you get the idea.
Of yes, ‘Rabiosa’ was instantly playing as soon as I read this paragraph.
Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): am here very early so it is quite interesting to observe how the airport comes to life:
- At T-70 minutes a man shows up, says “Hej” to me and proceeds to the sandwich cabinet, putting a brown paper bag there and leaves.
- T-60: Another man comes from somewhere in the back room, says “Hej” and seems to be happy to discover the brown paper bag. He proceeds to restock the sandwiches in the cabinet (since they were originally six sandwiches I assumed that maybe there was one for each passenger, now I’m happy to have another one as there are plenty).
- T-45: One guy shows up, says “Hej” to me and grabs a cup of coffee and a sandwich.
- T-40: The pilot and first officer show up, say “Hej” to me.
- T-30: Two other passengers show up, say “Hej” to me and sit on the chairs opposite me and proceed to discuss some business matters.
- T-25: While I’m in the loo the check in agent has shown up. When I come out he asks me to check in. Check in consists of me showing my ID and getting my name ticked off a list - no boarding pass is produced. The pilots are chatting with the agent at the same time.
- T-20: The pilot and FO punch the secret code into the keypad next to the “gate” (well, door), proceed to their plane and perform the usual departure preparations.
- T-15: The check in agent opens the door to the tarmac and says “Vällkomma onbord”.
This is the best part of your report. Bravo, P.!
Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): The check in agent aka. “Jack of all trades” - it looks like he is the only employee at this airport:
You should send him the photo.
Thank you for sharing and looking forward to your side of Colombian story.
Quoting CrimsonNL (Reply 3): Hey FF, thanks for sharing. Too bad you didn't get the Beech, maybe you should look into PGA Express around Portugal? It's a type I'd be happy to log as well.
Yes, been looking at PGA. Almost flew them in the spring but that would've involved the horrible red eye LIS-HEL with arrival around 4.30 AM at HEL and a day in the office - no thanks!
Quoting Widebodyroga (Reply 4): One of my pet peeves. Villages with churches that would be too big even for mid-size towns. I'm sure their money could be spent in better ways...
Hear hear! But yeah, certain groups of people are far too easily offended so maybe we stop it here.
Quoting Widebodyroga (Reply 4): At least now I can brag that I have flown on an aircraft that not even the FlyingFinn has. For the time being only, I'm sure.
There are quite a lot of widebody types I haven't ever flown with...
Quoting The777Man (Reply 5): They say "solen skiner alltid i Karlstad" = The sun always shines in Karlstad but I guess not they day you were there.....therefore the sun on the Welcome to Karlstad sign.
Yes, Robert told me about this. Still felt ironic, though.
Quoting The777Man (Reply 5): Ararat Pizzeria is probably owned by someone oringally from Turkey or Armenia.
Yeah, Turkey sure, but somehow associating Armenia with pizza seems a bit far fetched to me!
Quoting The777Man (Reply 5): Looking forward very much to your long haul report! Perhaps ypu should do one like that every year !
Well, I'll gladly do so if I have the chance!
Quoting LGWflyer (Reply 6): Btw congrats on your 1100th logged flight.
Thanks, I believe you were the only one who noticed .
Quoting AlwaysOnAPlane (Reply 8): You know i'm sure I have had a drunken night in the Blue Moon Bar, Karlstad. I will check with some of the guys I was away with to see if they recall. Some hot girls for sure.
Wow, it's a small world indeed. But somehow I'm not exactly surprised that it would be you of all people there!
Quoting deltamartin (Reply 9): Ryanair is big here as well:
Define "big"!
Well, they probably cause the biggest jams and departure rushes this airport has ever experienced.
Quoting JL418 (Reply 10): thanks for sharing your flights! It never fails to surprise me how many small regional airlines - with such extensive networks - exist in Sweden. I was expecting something like that to be present in Norway, given its rugged landscape and scattered towns and villages, but in Sweden as well? No way!
It is a big country and mostly full of forests - in many places flying is the way to be able to conduct business. And many of these routes and operators can thank their existence to PSOs handed out by the Swedish government and paid for by the faithful taxpayer.
In Norway there used to be more operators but quite a few of them went bust in revent years, nowadays it is mostly just WF who dominate the regional networks over there. Denmark's DAT and its Lithuanian subsidiary DOT (oh, so terribly clever) operate a few oddball routes as well.
Quoting JL418 (Reply 10): Well, perhaps both the businessman and the women were faithful of the old adage by Slash out of Guns 'n' Roses about drinking at airports during the morning: "It's gotta be 5 PM somewhere in the world!".
That's actually an old Jimmy Buffet song: "It's five o'clock somewhere" - a tiki classic if ever.
Quoting JL418 (Reply 10): This passage seems to be taken out of Bill Bryson's "Down Under", quite a brilliant one!
Yes, I love Mr. Bryson's work. Or at least loved it when he still thought himself a travel writer instead of the literary master of universe as in his later works.
I think it was a cargo flight or something similar.
Quoting gabrielchew (Reply 11): Did he work in the control tower and fire dept as well?
Didn't notice, but I wouldn't be surprised .
Quoting sultanils (Reply 16): Funny, how I always associate this aircraft type with a ‘beach’. Maybe some other have this as well? Then maybe we need counseling…
Quoting sultanils (Reply 16): Same remark as the first, thinking about mr Jay-Zee, oh well… I rest my case…
What the heck have you been smoking?
Quoting sultanils (Reply 16): Just enough time to check your emails and ‘the book’.
...and post the mandatory "Update from up in the air" status update
Quoting sultanils (Reply 16): It’s urging you: ‘Petteri, please pick me, pick me today’! Not that you would mind I guess.
Well, it is a bit too wet in Bangkok right now for me.
Quoting CaptainRed (Reply 17): Hmm, I don't understand the words, but it seems a bit strange to show a plane right on top of some ruins of a house or castle.
It says "We bring you closer".
Quoting CaptainRed (Reply 17): Actually not an unusal sight in Germany, where a lot of Turkish run kebap places also doubles as pizzerias. So not uncommon to have a pizza Ararat or a pizza Istanbul.
Yeah, plenty of Turkish/Kurdish/middle eastern guys in Finland doing the same, but still - Ararat, Armenia? Really?
Quoting eicvd (Reply 18): Shame you missed out on the B1900D, Twin Jet from France (another ironic name for an airline!) still operate a fleet of the type.
Yes, I have been looking at that operation for some time.
This i quit strange, I have experience the same on my latest KSD flights. As you know I have flown on many ARN-KSD flights and they always announced the fl time to 45 min and it always takes 45 min but in last couple of months they have started to announced a fl time of 50 min but in the end the fl time is always 45 min
Indeed it's fitting for such a (minor) milestone. Much better than a bog standard A320 mainline flight....
How was your 1000th flight (the big milestone)? Mine was Interavia DME-TOF back in 2007 on a subchartered Dagestan Airlines Tu-154... I still have a smirk on my face when I think about that, even though I missed the scheduled Tu-214...
Quoting akhmad (Reply 19): This is the best part of your report. Bravo, P.!
I can only second that!
Cheers,
LXM83
25 airbuseric: Hi P., really nice to see the Swedish countryside and always good to have some a.net companion around. I'll sure take the invitation to meet Robert so
26 signol: Hi FlyingFinn, a nice report of a good day's flying, but a shame you didn't manage the Beech Still, it looks like the quaint little airports in rural
27 FlyingFinn76: Hi folks, good to see more comments, thank you! Yeah, thanks. I might just pass the hundred mark now that BT has decided to keep them around for a whi
28 MarcoPoloWorld: Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful venture to the mid-interiors of Sweden!... I have to admit that perhaps the most interesting part of the
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I was facing a five hour layover but well, with lounge access and everything that shouldn’t really be a problem I guess...
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big time.
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