beyerdynamic Flight Tour to Scandinavia
Our customers, partners and we have something in common: Flying!
This is the reason why we, the beyerdynamic aviation team, organised this flight tour in summer 2007 free of charge for our customers as a thank you. All pilots were invited to take part, no matter which headset they were using.
In addition to the international cities Oslo and Stockholm, we also visited Saint Petersburg and the reconstructed Amber Room at the Catherine Palace as a very special highlight.
Besides sightseeing tours in interesting towns, this tour included other extraordinary destinations and highlights:
- The air show in Rygge / Oslo. We landed in Rygge directly due to a special landing permission!
- A flight across the city centre of Stockholm.
- A visit to Saint Petersburg (unfortunately we did not receive an admission of aircraft).
- A visit to the Saab Aircraft 70th Anniversary festival with an air show.
- We landed on the military airport in Linköping. It is said that there has not been a landing of a civil aircraft before! The Swedish squadron received us!
- Visits to several aviation museums and clubs (Stauning, Linköping).
- Landings in Bornholm, Visingsö, Mora at the Lake Siljan, Kalmar, Karlstad and so on.
Another special event was a tombola, where one could win a Fortis Flight Chronograph!
Fly to Scandinavia with beyerdynamic! - Here is our detailed Flight Tour report:
It started in February 2007, when we, the beyerdynamic Aviation team proudly looked back on the first six months since launching our first HS 300 Individual headset. We decided to give something to our customers, who enabled this success through their confidence.
We planned and organised a flight from Germany via Denmark, Norway and Sweden to Finland. Our last destination was Saint Petersburg. In Lappeenranta, the last Finnish town near to the border between Finland and Russia, we, however, had to rent cars, as VFR is not allowed in Russia.
In the evening before the start of our flight we all met at the Fly-Inn in Hodenhagen / EDVH where the participants were surprised with a tombola for which the company Fortis, a supporter of the beyerdynamic flight tour, had given a flight chronograph worth 1,370 Euro. Everybody enjoyed the evening, not just the winner.
To put it positively, on the first day we had enough time to prepare the flight. After the high fog had lifted, my Bölkow Bo 209 Monsun eventually took off from Hodenhagen at 12:30 p.m. Our first destination was the military airport in Rygge/ENRY near Oslo where the Rygge Air Show 2007 took place on the 25th and 26th of August. From the local commanding officer we had received a special landing permit with PPR number, which had to be stated in the flight plan. After a stopover in Stauning we had to land in ENRY on Saturday after 6 p.m. local time, because of the Air Show. Stauning / EKVJ is located at the Danish North Sea coast and provides an aircraft museum with more than 60 aircrafts including school gliders or star fighters. In FL 75 with a strong tail wind we flew across the Skagerrak.
During the flight the clouds below us gave way to reveal Sweden’s west coast with numerous small isles, the Archipelago, partly with only one red house on them. The AIP includes a visual flight map for Rygge, which you can also download from the home page www.ippc.no, where you will find the Oslo Area Chart or NOTAM as well. The air traffic controller arranged our aircrafts in a way that looked like a string of pearls into a 15 mile-long final. Phantoms, Tornados, Gripen Fighters, F-16’s and others were standing side by side on the airfield. Destination had been reached! The last event of this day was a lovely dinner. The Norwegians serve good fish!
On Sunday we went sightseeing. Our local beyerdynamic dealer showed us the most beautiful places in and around Oslo. In the afternoon we saw the Air Show in Rygge, which was worth it! After the show we all wanted to fly home at the same time causing flight traffic, so that the time spent on the runway was only a little bit less than the flight time to Karlstad in Sweden. Few clouds were in the sky. A few rain showers fell from time to time, which made the sky look as if there were transparent curtains. And the evening sun produced some beautiful rainbows! Karlstad is a town at the border of lake Vänern, Sweden’s biggest lake. As in the rest of Sweden, the prices for AVGAS fuel were between 9 and 10 Kronas, which is around 1 Euro per litre!
As always, on Monday morning our briefing took place while we had breakfast. The day’s destinations were Mora at Lake Siljan and in the evening the Finnish island Mariehamn. While the weather in Mora was nice, Mariehamn was forecasted with continuous rain and thunderstorms. During the flight to Mora we were impressed by the unspoiled nature. We flew across big coniferous forests knowing that bears and elks are living there. The further north we flew, the more nature remained unspoiled. Every now and then we saw a road or electric cables, which were visible due to wide lanes in the forest. Then we reached Lake Siljan with Mora at its border. We landed on the 34 without an air traffic controller. By the way, Europe’s biggest bear reserve is in Mora. But, we were interested in the weather. The METAR and weather charts did not bode well for our route to Finland. The weather forecast for the next few days was not any better.
Therefore, we spontaneously chose Stockholm as our next stop. Barkaby on the outskirts of Stockholm was recommended to us as a landing place. From there you can take a city train to reach the centre quickly and it is inexpensive. The city train station is directly next to the Welcome Hotel near the airfield.
On the next day during our breakfast briefing we eventually had to abandon our planned flights to Finland and Russia due to the bad weather. But this can happen with VFR excursions. Even though we had prepared a lot for Saint Petersburg, the weather cannot be planned.
Our DA 40 flyers, however, had looked forward to seeing Saint Petersburg so much, that they bought a last-minute ticket via the Internet and used an airline. When the two of them went on their trip to the East, we started to Kalmar, our next destination. Of course we did not forget to fly a few rounds above the beautiful centre of Stockholm.
Kalmar is located at the Swedish coast of the Baltic Sea the same as the island of Öland and provides a picturesque Old Town with a castle dating from the 12th century. On Wednesday, after filing the flight plans, we flew wearing our life jackets to Rönne on the Danish island Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. A pilot at the airfield recommended an accommodation outside of Rönne. After bathing in the Baltic Sea and a little sunbathing we rented some bicycles to go to Rönne, which was five kilometres away. We got the impression that Rönne is a quiet and tranquil place in the off-peak seasons. Anyway, we enjoyed the day and the fish in the evening topped it all.
The weather forecast for Thursday was rather bad and we decided to fly to Jönköping in Sweden early in the morning; following the good weather! At an altitude of 1000 ft and light drizzle the flight across the Baltic Sea to Sweden was not quite as enjoyable as it was at the start, but the forecast announced weather improvements further north. The town Jönköping at Lake Vättern was our destination.
The flight took longer because we avoided areas of rain. As the showers became heavier and the fuel in the tank was limited, I pressed the “Nearest Airport” button of my Trimble 2000. Good gracious, the distances here were larger, than I was used to! But, where there is no town, an airport is not needed! This is not the only reason why you should not fly without a flight plan in Sweden, even though it is not mandatory. In Jönköping we met the two again who went to Russia. When we were sitting at the border of Lake Vättern enjoying our beer, we could see their DA 40 TDI gliding in over our heads. During our dinner at a restaurant we exchanged our experiences.
On Friday our destination was Linköping; we planned something special. As the civil airfield was closed, we chose the military airport Malmen for our landing. The aircraft manufacturer Saab celebrated their 70th anniversary with an Air Show, which we wanted to visit as well as the local Aviation museum. We even received a clearance for take-off on Saturday, when the military airport was completely closed!
The take-off procedure was arranged with Saab Tower by phone, as Malmen was in their control zone. After we reported to the barracks entrance, we were taken to our well-guarded aircrafts. We started from the empty military airport at the arranged time without the air traffic controller and got in radio contact with the civil tower. After the last, inexpensive fuel stop in Malmö we all flew back to our home airports.
All in all the beyerdynamic Flight Tour 2007 was a successful event. The journey included many highlights and in 2008 there will be a beyerdynamic Flight Tour again! Anybody who is interested should have a look at our website from time to time.
Useful websites for flights to Scandinavia:
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