Flight training
My interest in aviation took its beginning in 1994 when I went to fly for the first time in my life. I was 20 years old, and I was going on a vacation to Orlando in USA. I got so excited about flying and especially from my visit in the cockpit on my way home, but because I used glasses when I was younger, I thought that I could not fulfil the requirements that the air force had.
After five years of flying with Microsoft Flight Simulator, I saw a notice about Luftfartsskolen (also known as Aeronautical Institute of Denmark), and I became aware that I actually had a chance to become a pilot. I knew that I would regret it later on if I didn't try, so I went to the medical examination and for the entrance examination and passed them both. I then quitted my job as an accountant assistant, sold my apartment and on February 7th 2000 I started in class 19-00. - A new and excited journey in the world of aviation had begun.
Living at the school
When joining the integrated ATP-course (Airline Traffic Pilot) on Luftfartsskolen, the students are moving in to live on the school in small rooms with two students in each, and everyone becomes a new three-letter flying name - Mine was HOU.
After having our measurements taken for the uniforms, we started lessons in theoretical subjects. The expectations were great and in a very short time, my mind was being filled with new knowledge, terms and an ocean of abbreviations. We learned about air laws, aerodynamics, navigation, flight planning, meteorology, radio communication and a lot more. I soon realized that one of the best things about living together in the school is, that everything and everyone around is concentrated about aviation and flying. It makes the big amount of knowledge to be remembered better when studying and training together. I have not had a single meal during the 2 years, without talking about aircrafts and about flying them.
When we were not sitting with our eyes focused in the books or training procedures and checklists, we went to the living room to relax, playing pool or dart - or just to sit and talk about anything else.
My first flight
After 9 weeks of theory-lessons and on-ground training it was time to have my first flight lesson. When I sat there in the aircraft about 1200 feet above the ground, I knew that flying was what I wanted to do.
On May 22nd I went on my first solo flight. It was such an incredible feeling to sit all alone in the aircraft while making my first take-off and landing without an instructor by my side. A tradition is, that when a pilot make his first solo-flight, he has to go straight from the element of air to water. After I landed, my co-students lifted me from the wing of the aircraft to a little plastic pool, and then I was dropped in the water.
The rest of the summer 2000 was primary spent on solo cross-country flights to most of the many airports and small airfields around Denmark. Some flights were for about one hour and other flights were about 5 hours long, with landings in different airports on the route.
All the pre-solo training and the cross-country flying was performed on Piper PA28-151 aircrafts with registrations OY-BLB, OY-BLN, OY-TOH and OY-TFL.
Flying around Europe
From September 30th until May 1st 2001, was spent in the classroom for the study of more theory, and in the fall 2001 I passed the last of the 12 examens. Also the winter was spent on simulator training before the instrument flights began in May 2001.
Flying accoding to visual flight rules (VFR) and instrument flight rules (IFR) is very different from each other. When flying VFR the aircraft is being steared by looking out on the horizon and navigation is primarily done by looking on the ground out of the window and in a map similar to a road-map. When flying IFR the aircraft is only being steared by looking on instruments in the cockpit, and navigation is done by means of radioaids on the ground and instruments in the airplane. It makes it possible to fly almost independently of the weatherconditions.
The time until October 2001 was spent on a mix between theory lessons, instrument flight training in the simulator and flying around Denmark and in northern Europe. Among others I went on a couple of two-day trips to the channel island Jersey and to Budapest in Hungary.
One out of two engines
After finishing the program of one-engine flight lessons I started to fly on a two-engine aircraft. Even though I had two engines on the aircraft, most of the time in the air was spent with only one engine running. This is to exercise the management of a situation when one engine is no longer running.
When all the flight training was finished it was time for the two final checks, and I passed my final check ride on February 5th 2002. It was a great day - passing the check ride and becoming the certificate.
All the two-engine flight training was performed on the Beechcraft Baron BE58 with registration OY-GEO.
Flying the big ones
Before ending the whole course there was one part left to do. For two pilots to work together, one pilot has to know what the other one is doing. Therefore a MCC-course (Multi crew corporation) is needed.
The MCC-course is based primary on psychology and a lot of standard callouts and procedures. After a lot of on ground training I went to Dragør near Kastrup airport, to train the procedures in a DC10-30 full flight simulator and learn how to react on the other pilots actions. It was such a thrill to fly a 260000 kg airplane with 3 jet engines.
Graduating
On March 21st 2002 I was standing in my uniform together with my 10 study mates of class 19-00, graduating and receiving my wings. The wings means a lot to a pilot - because then he/she have reached their goal of reaching the skies.