With a Norwegian -7 across Sweden and to a Swedish Island

Hi gang.

Fall has arrived in Norway and it's time to look back at this seasons cross-country flights. The wifey and me had some very nice trips in our trusty -7 so I want to share one with you; when we went to a Swedish Island named "Øland", situated just outside the SE coast.

Here's an overwiew of the route:










After 1 hr 45 min at FL 090 we arrived safe'n sound at the local airport.
The RV was bedded down for a few nights, then we rented a couple of bikes from the local aeroclub and soon we were set leave the little grasstrip:








We had booked a room at a country-side hotel (more like a small mansion really) and it was a VERY nice place:







Here's the entry:







Here's a pic from the huge garden, built around 1850:





The building itself was built around 1850 as a private home. In 1922, Queen Victoria bought it and it was turned into a "retreat-home" for her. Since 1924 it has also been open to other women who needed a retreat for a few days or weeks.
Men wasn't allowed until around the start of the 20th century...

More info here:
http://www2.olandsturist.se/en/acco...ning-victorias-vilohem/details?filter=c=18288




After we had checked in, we biked into town for a nice dinner, then a detour via the grasstrip to say goodnight to Wilco:






And then to bed ourselves....





The next day, we went to an old castle built in the mid 1600's. Today it's a very famous tourist attraction, but it has a very old and violent history:
(you can click on top of the webpage for an english translation)
http://www.borgholmsslott.se/


Here's an arial shot. Sorry for all the reflections etc, but the RV isn't the best arial photo-platform in the world as you all know...








And here's a pic taken from the ground:






Inside, one can see the dimensions of the structure:






Pretty sturdy stuff....





(continued)

Kjempe fint !

Part two

(continued)

The next day, we visited the summer home of the Swedish Royal familiy. The park belongining to the summer-home is open to the public and is a VERY nice place:










"Kilroy was here".... hehe....






On the nearby cafe, Cecilia did something for the very first time in her life: pouring her coffee out of a "Royal Coffee-can"... golden ofcourse...







During the stay on the island, we rode the bikes on lots of nice roads and paths, very scenic and very suitable for biking:






The terrain is flat as a pancake, making biking very easy:





But all nice things come to an end, so here's the the sunset on our last evening on the island:



The swedish mainland is visible in the horizon.




After departure on the homebound leg, we passed the main village on the island: "Borgholm"






Soon we where at FL 100 heading for home.
As usual, Cecilia was at the helm, and as usual I was handling the radio, the nav, the inflight snacks and the camera...
Sometimes (mostly when there's female ATC controllers, because she says she understand female voices more easily than male voices) she handles the radio too, so that leaves yours truly with a very light workload...






After 1hr 45 mins we touched down on our home airport ENRY, once again happy with another great x-country in our "aluminium wonder".
To travel around in this thing, knowing it's pure amateur-bulit, makes us very grateful and happy.

BTW: on the way home we had a little tailwind, so the GS was 140-150 kts at our favorite powersetting: 55% LOP (21/2100)
Normally 55% LOP gives us around 125 KIAS, but at heavy weight, we loose acouple of knots. (but a few KIAS here'n there; who cares... hehe...)

Anyway; 55% LOP gives us a FF on 20-24 litres pr hour (depending of altitude) and it's NO WAY we could've matched that with our car. Not to mention that we had used a couple of days each way to get to and from the island....

Conclusion: having a flying RV is living with a dream... (but that we all knew from before, right?)



BTW: here's more info of the island:

http://www.visitsweden.com/sverige-no/Byer--Regioner/Sor-Sverige/Gotland-og-Oland/

http://www.olandsturist.se/en

(click in the upper part of the webpages to change the language)

That is really beautiful photography. Thank you very much for sharing your adventure with us. It makes me want to visit your part of the world!

Looks like a fun trip. Thanks for the write up.

Alf - excellent travelogue, as usual!

A question for you since you like to run at 55% power LOP... Are you running leaded aviation fuel? If so, have you encountered any difficulties with lead buildup / poor lead scavenging? I ask not from experience but rather because I've been told that consistently-low power settings may not produce sufficiently-high temperatures to allow the lead to be cleaned out.

The fort looks a lot like Ticonderoga New York - must be the same time frame.

ao.frog said:

Hi gang.

Fall has arrived in Norway and it's time to look back at this seasons cross-country flights. The wifey and me had some very nice trips in our trusty -7 so I want to share one with you; when we went to a Swedish Island named "?land", situated just outside the SE coast.

Here's an overwiew of the route:

After 1 hr 45 min at FL 090 we arrived safe'n sound at the local airport.
The RV was bedded down for a few nights, then we rented a couple of bikes from the local aeroclub and soon we were set leave the little grasstrip:

We had booked a room at a country-side hotel (more like a small mansion really) and it was a VERY nice place:

Here's the entry:

Here's a pic from the huge garden, built around 1850:

The building itself was built around 1850 as a private home. In 1922, Queen Victoria bought it and it was turned into a "retreat-home" for her. Since 1924 it has also been open to other women who needed a retreat for a few days or weeks.
Men wasn't allowed until around the start of the 20th century...

More info here:
http://www2.olandsturist.se/en/acco...ning-victorias-vilohem/details?filter=c=18288




After we had checked in, we biked into town for a nice dinner, then a detour via the grasstrip to say goodnight to Wilco:

And then to bed ourselves....





The next day, we went to an old castle built in the mid 1600's. Today it's a very famous tourist attraction, but it has a very old and violent history:
(you can click on top of the webpage for an english translation)
http://www.borgholmsslott.se/


Here's an arial shot. Sorry for all the reflections etc, but the RV isn't the best arial photo-platform in the world as you all know...

And here's a pic taken from the ground:

Inside, one can see the dimensions of the structure:

Pretty sturdy stuff....

(continued)

Click to expand...

Formation and acro

Mark: yes, I'm using 100LL.
So far, I haven't noticed any problems with lead buildup, but then I don't know how the engine looks inside either?

However; in addition to using the -7 as a traveling machine for the wifey and me, I also fly formation and aerobatics, both on high powersettings
Therefore, the engine is getting it's share of "all knobs in" operation.

Canadian_JOY said:

Alf - excellent travelogue, as usual!

A question for you since you like to run at 55% power LOP... Are you running leaded aviation fuel? If so, have you encountered any difficulties with lead buildup / poor lead scavenging? I ask not from experience but rather because I've been told that consistently-low power settings may not produce sufficiently-high temperatures to allow the lead to be cleaned out.

Click to expand...