On Tuesday this week, I officially became a full-time RV-builder!

[ao.frog]

Hi gang.

Just wanted to tell you that the progress on my -7 named "Kermit" (guess why...) probably will speed up some from now on.

Reason; well; I celebrated my 55th birthday on the 25th of January and on Monday this week I landed the 737 for the last time as a commercial pilot. Tuesday was my first day as a "Early Retired Commercial Pilot", in other words; full time RV-builder.

I've flown the 737 (-2, -4, -6, -7 and 800 versions) for almost 24 years and close to 12.000 hrs now. In addition, I've spent 11 years of flying fighters in the Norwegain Airforce, (best time of my life!!) and that's enough, don't you think??

Ofcourse the retirement-pay would've been better if I had continued until I was 60 or even 65 years old, but as they say; "Life is no dress rehersal".
Besides, there's a chance that the early retirement possiblities in SAS (Scandinavian Airlines System) will go away soon due to the airline's ongoing cost-savings program.
Therefore, I decided to take it while I still had the right to do so.

On one of the very last trips, I flew down and picked up my wife in Milan/Italy who had been there for a longweekend with a few girlfriends.

Here a nice wiew from the "office": approaching the Alps on the way to Milan:






On the return leg, Cecilia ofcourse had to sit in the cockpit and I had the copilot take a pic:







Here; a couple of the "Trolly Dollies" and me when I had my last flight
to the Canary Islands: (that's the flights we 737-pilots call "long-haul; more than 5 hrs)





Here's the trusty -800 sitting on the ramp at Tenerife:







The day before my last flight, I flew up to Kirkenes which is WAY up north in Norway, close to the Russian and Finish borders.

Here we are inbound the the field for a circling approach:







And here's the -700 sitting on the ramp:





The sun has just came back into wiew after beeing below the horizon a couple of months. The pic below are taken at noon...







The copilot on this trip was a nice woman "Camilla C", who I've flown with quite a few times before. Here she's at the controls just after takeoff on the return leg:







And here we are back "home" on final to Oslo/Gardermoen (the main Norwegain Airport and my home base) a couple of hours later:



Note that the sun now is much higher even though it's two hours later. That's ofcourse because we've flown southwards for those two hours. By that time, it was dark in Kirkenes...

(continued)

[ao.frog]

By the way; a week or so before my last flight, I took a few pics through the "HUD" (Head Up Display") during an approach to Gardermoen. Maybe a HUD would be something to mount in a RV for all of you "gadget-enthusiasts" out there:

Here we are at 3000' / 178 KIAS on long final just before hitting the glideslope:





Then, on glideslope, we're continuing "the slide" downwards:



The autopilot now has captured the G/S and the only thing it does from now on is to fly the aircraft-symbol into the flight director circle.
The A/C symbol is the biggest circle of the two with some funny wings (looks kind of like Corsair-wings)






Getting closer:






Approaching the flare. The artifical runway edges are now in wiew:






And then there's only the touchdown to go..




PS; for the record: during the approach above, the plane was flown in fully automatic mode including flare and touchdown with dual autopilots and the COP was PF (PIlot Flying)


Anyway; here's the crew on my very last flight:









And here's my NEW crew from now on:





From the left:

Erling Olsen, retired engine mechanic from Royal Norwegain Airforce (RNoAF)
Eivind Vinje, retired aircraft electrical specialist from RNoAF
Kjell Nøstdal, retired technical controller from RNoAF (F-5, F-16, DA-20, UH-1B)
Roald Kilmark, retired a/c mech and retired head of a/c support shops (machinist shop, paint shop, metal-shop etc)
Yours truly, former RNoAF pilot (F-5 and F-16)
Odd Sandvik, retired RNoAF pilot (F-5, F-104, RF-84F, F-86K, Jaguar exchange pilot in RAF)
Arne Ingvaldsen, retired a/c avionic spesialist from RNoAF
and finally: Per Strømmen, former RNoAF pilot (F-5, F-16) and just retired Airbus-330/340 longhaul captain from SAS Airline, he owns 1/3 of a RV-4 and 50% of a Vampire veteran jet (!) and flies them both.

Soooo...it's alot of experience here folks! And yes... I know; I'm a REALLY lucky RV-builder... I sure feel blessed..... So let the full time RV-building begin! :-)



PS: Not too much RV-related stuff in this post so I hope it doesn't get deleted by the moderators... [ed. Not to worry Alf. Congratuations on becoming 'full time' and wishing you and yours a happy 'retirement'. dr]

[islandmonkey]

Alf,

Lykke til og jeg ?nsker deg en lykkelig lang pensjonisttilv?relse.

I am 59 next week and have no plans to retire at least for another ten years.

In one of the pictures above, you can see my house!!!!

Here is a view from the lounge:

[8CW]

Congratulations Alf. Enjoy the ride!

[terrykohler]

Now another adventure begins...
I always enjoy your pictures and stories. That's some building crew you've got (and I thought I had good help)
Best Regards,
Terry, CFI
RV-9A N323TP

[pierre smith]

...and simply amazing how your HUD copied our glass cockpits so well

Thanks,

[Kevin Horton]

Congrats Alf. You've certainly earned your retirement. Enjoy it well.

[Caveman]

"Life is no dress rehersal"

Can I steal that line, Alf?

Congrats on an amazing career. I enjoy the pictures and posts from lands far away. After this weeks blizzard here on the U.S. great plains, I somewhat understand what life must be like there. We only have to endure it once in awhile and for short duration. It's right at freezing this morning. After viewing your pics, I have no excuse not to go flying today. Headed to airport... its been too long.

Joe

[David-aviator]

Great images of your last flights, Olaf.

Your part of the world is most beautiful.

Congrats on the retirement.

[frankh]

Ahh, if only...Congratulations.

I guess you'll have to learn to fly now huh?...

Frank