FLYER Club Member
Mon May 09, 2016 11:56 pm
#1454230
Those with long and good memories might remember my earlier post about flying from Sandefjord Torp ('Oslo' in Ryanair speak), but recently, further flights there have been hampered by security procedures for access to the airport and weird administrative procedures in the club itself, making it practically impossible for anyone not resident locally ever being able to rent aircraft from there.
Luckily, just up the road is an alternative airfield and club which have proven much more pleasant to deal with : Step forward ENJB Jarlsberg (yes - the same as the holy (i.e. with large holes), nutty cheese you can buy in the UK
and Tønsberg Flyveklubb.
The club requires an annual checkride and attendance at a 'refresher' evening, which I was recently able to do, so I could become a fully fledged member and fly away whenever I want to - and the aircraft are available.
In addition to Tønsberg Flyveklubb, the airfield also houses a modelling club, a parachuting club and (although I saw few signs of this) a gliding club. There are also some privately owned aircraft based there. I was there 4 days in a row, and on all four days the modellers were active, which was really nice to see. The parachutists were dropping on a weekday evening and on the weekend, making the airfield quite busy, although the light aircraft activity itself was low.
The club has 3 aircraft with decent availability. I had booked their newest aircraft, LN-FTE for a bimble down the coast. The weather very much played ball with hardly any wind on the day, no visible clouds anywhere and a visibility which must have been in the region of 50nm.
Possibly the youngest looking aircraft I have ever flown - LN-FTE is a 172 SP with a G1000 cockpit and the GFC700 autopilot, a nice interior and fresh externals.
Jarlsberg has a single runway with no A/G; all calls are made on a 'local traffic' frequency. Since ENJB is inside the Torp CTR, you do need to speak to Torp on the phone before taking off, giving them an approximate TO time and desired routing. In return, they give you a squawk and ask you to contact them once airborne.
On the day, there was a parachute meeting of some sort in progress. A twin was constantly going up to FL125 and canopies were coming down in a steady stream. Our departure was delayed until the last chute was on the ground and we lifted off southwards. Although the Torp CTR is Class D, the actual traffic is very light, so any reasonable routing tends not to be a problem. We did a bit of local sightseeing before leaving the zone and heading south, following the coast. The target was to overfly the resting place of some of my ancestors from the 19th century, and drop in on Norway's latest airfield at ENGK Gullknapp, all in all roughly an hour down and an hour back up again.
Jomfruland is a sandy island off the coast, with some summer houses on it. I love the colours of the fields, trees, sand, water, roofes etc...
Jomfruland has had several lighthouses over the years, as well as some foghorns, but at the moment, the remaining structures are those of an old brick lighthouse (without light) and a newer metal one (1939). It has been unmanned for some time now, but is at least still functioning - unlike some of the other lighthouses we saw later that day. I guess just like we are decommissioning NDBs and VORs, lighthouses also lose their usefulness. Ah well, nostalgia isn't what it used to be...
Lyngør likes to call itself "Norway's Venice". You can only get there by boat, and you can only get around by boat, the 'streets' being the waterways between the islands.
In the summer, it is heaving with guests and large boats - in early May it is just very pretty and tranquil, with nicely coloured houses.
Lyngør was the scene of a famous sea battle, where a British ship of the line pursued a Danish/Norwegian frigate through the islands and sunk the Frigate after outmanoeuvring it. I can only imagine the seamanship involved in manoeuvring the ships across shallows and through narrows barely wider than the ships themselves. (One of my ancestors ended up in gaol in Newcastle for a while as part of the same conflict. I am glad to say it never put me off coming over here...)
The remains of my great grand-father and his father and upwards are buried at Flosta kirke, overlooking the sea which was their trade.
Kilsund is the closest conurbation of any size to Flosta kirke. It used to be quite a thriving centre of international shipping. Going through the logbooks of the old ships, they called at ports like "Sydney, Newcastle, Kilsund, Buenos Aires, Bilbao, Kilsund,..." Nowadays, the older residences have typically become summer houses for the family descendants and Kilsund survives on a mix of permanent residents and 'tourists'.
Arendal is the local town, still with a strong base of offshore/marine engineering. With the current oil price, times are less happy than they have been for a while...
Final for 05 at ENGK Gullknapp. Gullknapp is a work in progress, a local project which hopes to attract air taxis and possibly even some regional scheduled flights. The new 1,200 m runway was recently finished and the tower has also been finished. I guess it must want to get some instrument approaches, but at the moment there are no NDB/VORs anywhere near... I saw what appeared to be power cables for PAPIs, but when we did our T&G, there was not a soul around. I wish them the best of luck - hopefully next time it'll be worthwhile doing a full stop and buy an ice cream to celebrate the weather
On the way back up we flew over Tvedestrand, another town with an honourable seafaring history.
Stavern was a key port for the Norwegian/Danish fleet in the war with Sweden, and the site of a famous battle where the Swedish fleet lost around 20 (some records say 44) ships. Again, the sights and sounds on the inner harbour as shown here where the battle was fought must have been impressive. The Pyramid structure on the right hand side is a monument to the fallen merchant sailors during the 2 world wars.
Back at Jarlsberg, we arrived just as the jump twin was dropping at FL125 and had to hold around 5 minutes before landing.
Turning final for 18 at ENJB Jarlsberg (800 m) - the twin jump aircraft and the caravans and cars at the parachuting club are visible in the distance.
Jarlsberg is a lovely little airfield and the locals are very friendly. It is next to Tønsberg with regular trains to Oslo (about 90 minutes). It is PPR, but regardless, it would make sense to get in touch with someone at the airfield and/or club if you want to have a place to park your aircraft and to arrange access to e.g. fuel and
flight planning room – contact details are given on their websites.
A trip down the coast is a great thing to do. It’s impossible to get lost and the sights are beautiful. Another 10-15 minutes further south than we went would have been ENCN Kristiansand which has all the facilities you’d want. Maybe in a year or so Gullknapp will also be worth the visit for more than a T&G.
From Arendal and across to the tip of Jutland would be about 60 nm over the sea, or about 90 nm from Kristiansand to Sindal. Alternatively, from Strømstad on the Swedish/Norwegian border the flight across the Oslo fjord is stunning and less than 10nm over water.
Morten
(I apologise about the lack of English in the links above - if anyone wants any help translating, please PM me...)
Luckily, just up the road is an alternative airfield and club which have proven much more pleasant to deal with : Step forward ENJB Jarlsberg (yes - the same as the holy (i.e. with large holes), nutty cheese you can buy in the UK
and Tønsberg Flyveklubb.The club requires an annual checkride and attendance at a 'refresher' evening, which I was recently able to do, so I could become a fully fledged member and fly away whenever I want to - and the aircraft are available.
In addition to Tønsberg Flyveklubb, the airfield also houses a modelling club, a parachuting club and (although I saw few signs of this) a gliding club. There are also some privately owned aircraft based there. I was there 4 days in a row, and on all four days the modellers were active, which was really nice to see. The parachutists were dropping on a weekday evening and on the weekend, making the airfield quite busy, although the light aircraft activity itself was low.
The club has 3 aircraft with decent availability. I had booked their newest aircraft, LN-FTE for a bimble down the coast. The weather very much played ball with hardly any wind on the day, no visible clouds anywhere and a visibility which must have been in the region of 50nm.
Possibly the youngest looking aircraft I have ever flown - LN-FTE is a 172 SP with a G1000 cockpit and the GFC700 autopilot, a nice interior and fresh externals.
Jarlsberg has a single runway with no A/G; all calls are made on a 'local traffic' frequency. Since ENJB is inside the Torp CTR, you do need to speak to Torp on the phone before taking off, giving them an approximate TO time and desired routing. In return, they give you a squawk and ask you to contact them once airborne.
On the day, there was a parachute meeting of some sort in progress. A twin was constantly going up to FL125 and canopies were coming down in a steady stream. Our departure was delayed until the last chute was on the ground and we lifted off southwards. Although the Torp CTR is Class D, the actual traffic is very light, so any reasonable routing tends not to be a problem. We did a bit of local sightseeing before leaving the zone and heading south, following the coast. The target was to overfly the resting place of some of my ancestors from the 19th century, and drop in on Norway's latest airfield at ENGK Gullknapp, all in all roughly an hour down and an hour back up again.
Jomfruland is a sandy island off the coast, with some summer houses on it. I love the colours of the fields, trees, sand, water, roofes etc...
Jomfruland has had several lighthouses over the years, as well as some foghorns, but at the moment, the remaining structures are those of an old brick lighthouse (without light) and a newer metal one (1939). It has been unmanned for some time now, but is at least still functioning - unlike some of the other lighthouses we saw later that day. I guess just like we are decommissioning NDBs and VORs, lighthouses also lose their usefulness. Ah well, nostalgia isn't what it used to be...
Lyngør likes to call itself "Norway's Venice". You can only get there by boat, and you can only get around by boat, the 'streets' being the waterways between the islands.
In the summer, it is heaving with guests and large boats - in early May it is just very pretty and tranquil, with nicely coloured houses.
Lyngør was the scene of a famous sea battle, where a British ship of the line pursued a Danish/Norwegian frigate through the islands and sunk the Frigate after outmanoeuvring it. I can only imagine the seamanship involved in manoeuvring the ships across shallows and through narrows barely wider than the ships themselves. (One of my ancestors ended up in gaol in Newcastle for a while as part of the same conflict. I am glad to say it never put me off coming over here...)
The remains of my great grand-father and his father and upwards are buried at Flosta kirke, overlooking the sea which was their trade.
Kilsund is the closest conurbation of any size to Flosta kirke. It used to be quite a thriving centre of international shipping. Going through the logbooks of the old ships, they called at ports like "Sydney, Newcastle, Kilsund, Buenos Aires, Bilbao, Kilsund,..." Nowadays, the older residences have typically become summer houses for the family descendants and Kilsund survives on a mix of permanent residents and 'tourists'.
Arendal is the local town, still with a strong base of offshore/marine engineering. With the current oil price, times are less happy than they have been for a while...
Final for 05 at ENGK Gullknapp. Gullknapp is a work in progress, a local project which hopes to attract air taxis and possibly even some regional scheduled flights. The new 1,200 m runway was recently finished and the tower has also been finished. I guess it must want to get some instrument approaches, but at the moment there are no NDB/VORs anywhere near... I saw what appeared to be power cables for PAPIs, but when we did our T&G, there was not a soul around. I wish them the best of luck - hopefully next time it'll be worthwhile doing a full stop and buy an ice cream to celebrate the weather
On the way back up we flew over Tvedestrand, another town with an honourable seafaring history.
Stavern was a key port for the Norwegian/Danish fleet in the war with Sweden, and the site of a famous battle where the Swedish fleet lost around 20 (some records say 44) ships. Again, the sights and sounds on the inner harbour as shown here where the battle was fought must have been impressive. The Pyramid structure on the right hand side is a monument to the fallen merchant sailors during the 2 world wars.
Back at Jarlsberg, we arrived just as the jump twin was dropping at FL125 and had to hold around 5 minutes before landing.
Turning final for 18 at ENJB Jarlsberg (800 m) - the twin jump aircraft and the caravans and cars at the parachuting club are visible in the distance.
Jarlsberg is a lovely little airfield and the locals are very friendly. It is next to Tønsberg with regular trains to Oslo (about 90 minutes). It is PPR, but regardless, it would make sense to get in touch with someone at the airfield and/or club if you want to have a place to park your aircraft and to arrange access to e.g. fuel and
flight planning room – contact details are given on their websites.
A trip down the coast is a great thing to do. It’s impossible to get lost and the sights are beautiful. Another 10-15 minutes further south than we went would have been ENCN Kristiansand which has all the facilities you’d want. Maybe in a year or so Gullknapp will also be worth the visit for more than a T&G.
From Arendal and across to the tip of Jutland would be about 60 nm over the sea, or about 90 nm from Kristiansand to Sindal. Alternatively, from Strømstad on the Swedish/Norwegian border the flight across the Oslo fjord is stunning and less than 10nm over water.
Morten
(I apologise about the lack of English in the links above - if anyone wants any help translating, please PM me...)
Last edited by Morten on Mon Sep 03, 2018 12:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
We all live under the same sky, but we don't all have the same horizon.
