News & Odds from Arlanda 2009
 
January, Prague
Work once again called for a trip, this time to Prague and station manager seminar hosted by CSA. During our stay we were guided around the CSA maintenance facilities and I got an ex government Il62 and an ex CSA Tu154. Before boarding my return flight I passed a Samara Tu134 being prepared for pushback, perfect!
Copyright © Ola Carlsson
 
 
February, Helsinki
More work and on the coffeebreak I got an Airtours 757.
Copyright © Ola Carlsson
 
 
March, Helsinki
Back again three times this month resulting only in some MD-11's and a Royal Jordanian A320.
Copyright © Ola Carlsson
 
 
May, Warsaw
Back again trying to get more of the LOT 767's and ended up with four of them this time! Also the missing 733 were captured. A tour to the far side of the airport where Airport Administration were to be found I ended up only with a picture of the An2 gateguard after trying to talk me into the firetraining area where remains of two Il14's were left.
Copyright © Ola Carlsson
 
 
July, London
Flying to London, renting a car, driving around in United Kingdom - never boring and VERY effective with those friends of mine...

Day 1:
Starting in Manchester on the rooftop of the parking, as spectators area did not open as early as we wanted. Virgin Sun, TransAer, Sabre and of course Airtours were pictured before moving along the perimeter, stopping for some remoteparked Air Atlanta 747's and a PIA 743 came as well. At the viewing area we didnt get much of interest. Monarch, Britannia, British Midland, JMC, British Airways, Delta, and Aer Lingus to mention some.
Copyright © Ola Carlsson

When it got boring we moved on to Woodford, home of British Aerospace. Some Air Acores and Merpati ATP's in the distance and a demo J41 were nailed.
Copyright © Ola Carlsson

Then via East Midlands where we found the hulk of TC-ALM in the far distance...
Copyright © Ola Carlsson

...passing the museum at Coventry, just a quick picture from a nearby hill of the most interesting aircraft - the Argosy...
Copyright © Ola Carlsson

...ending up in Birmingham, home of many British Airways A319's, 735's and E145's as well as British Midland E145's. A single 1-11 showed up on the approach, still with traces of the shortlived Swedish lowcost carrier Fly European.
Copyright © Ola Carlsson

After getting bored once again we decided to continue to Luton, the bizjet heaven. Scanning all the aprons, getting a number of half bizjets (terrible fences) but also a great amount of whole ones, we stayed next to the classic taxiway bridge beside the terminal. By the time it was already hard, but NOT impossible to get rid of the car nearby.
Copyright © Ola Carlsson


Day 2:
After a good nights sleep in a tent (well it was a budget trip), we started at Stansted, checking the VIP aprons on the far side, getting N728A DC-8, N250GE 737, P4-TBN 707, RA-76842 Il76, G-AWZU Trident and N404LM Gulfstream.
Copyright © Ola Carlsson

Then to the construction site along the runway between Diamond Hangar and the terminal. Traffic consisted of Ryanair, Buzz and Go. The latter one was quite fun but little enoying as you had to take all aircrafts from both sides as the slogans were different.
Copyright © Ola Carlsson

When morning peak was over we continued to Southend and got 9Q-CBW, P4-FDH and 5N-MXX, all 707's. On the far side we found 3C-AAW and 3C-QQA, two parked F27's.
Copyright © Ola Carlsson

Then via London City Airport with its regional airliners like Sabena DH8, VLM F50 and Scot Airways Do328...
Copyright © Ola Carlsson

...down to Manston. This is the home of Air Atlanta and MK Airlines and also cemetary for 707's. Found in total five of them in more or less poor condition. Most were victims of the axeman within some years.
Copyright © Ola Carlsson

With ants in the pants and no moving traffic at Manston, we were soon off again, this time to Gatwick staying by the approach until the evening was a fact. Once again sleeping in the tent quite close to the airport allowing an early morning start next day.
Copyright © Ola Carlsson


Day 3:
Starting in the parking house at Gatwick with the usual traffic, British Airways, Air 2000, Sabre, Air France, JMC, Sabre and more.
Copyright © Ola Carlsson

After morning peak we drove off to Biggin Hill getting some bizjets with the highlight being 5N-AAN.
Copyright © Ola Carlsson

Then back to Gatwick for the lunch traffic like Air Transat A330, Northwest DC-10, TWA 767, Ukraine International 732, Canada 3000 and Delta.
Copyright © Ola Carlsson

Some hours in the static display at Farnborough Airshow were spent before continuing south. Lack of russian airliners was disapointing.
Copyright © Ola Carlsson

Lasham is a quite interesting airport with a small village road ending up at the runway threshold. You cross the runway and drive on the taxiway to the maintenance area where we found Burkina Faso 727, MK Airlines DC-8 and an ex British Airways 757.
Copyright © Ola Carlsson

Last planned stop was Bournemouth with European Aircharter and all their BAC 1-11's.
Copyright © Ola Carlsson

Our first unplanned stop (which lead us to a second one) was at Boscombe Down, the RAF testfacilities. We made some recognition along the perimeter to see what BAC 1-11s were parked and some minutes later we found us being followed, stopped and questioned by security. We appologized and asked them for the way to Stone Henge which turned out to be just next door... Of course we drove there as well to have a look, celebrating a great day of photography!
Copyright © Ola Carlsson


Day 4:
Heathrow was still on the list and of course our camp for previous night was Myrtle Avenue. Woken up before dawn by heavy metal jetmusic coming in 27L, we waited for the sunrise. Never came as it was rather cloudy this day but we stayed until lunch, then took some lineups at 27R and bored beyond belief we were off again.
Copyright © Ola Carlsson

This time to Stansted for some more Go 737's. Weather got better and in the sunlight one of UAE Amiri Flight 747SP's took off. Some Ryanair 737's and an Air Atlanta 747 passed and then we headed back for Heathrow.
Copyright © Ola Carlsson

It was after 3 o'clock and landings were now on 27R. Sun disappeared again and tired of bright sky behind dark aircrafts we moved to one of the parking decks instead.
Copyright © Ola Carlsson


Day 5:
Morning in the park at Myrtle Avenue again, gave Air Lanka A340, Canadian 767, Swissair A330, Ghana DC-10, KLM 767, Air Namibia 744. From the terminal before leaving I made some last shots for this time ending up with an Avianca 767 and a Biman DC-10.
Copyright © Ola Carlsson
 
 
September, Frankfurt / Dusseldorf / Finkenwerder
One of my friends were going to Germany to buy a car. I joined him as codriver if he found something. The idea was to continue further down in the country to get away from the coast and saltwater meaning less rust on the car. Driving from Stockholm to Frankfurt with a quick stop in southern sweden doing a great number of hours. We slept and drove a couple of hours each at the time and arrived at FRA sometime early morning. Sleeping in the car next to Startbahn West until sunrise and then a complete day of photographing and car hunting. First rays of light were spent in the hangar area where a civil Herc were parked.
Copyright © Ola Carlsson

Then back to Startbahn West. Landings runway 07R is ok from there but on 07L you need maybe 400mm on a 747.
Copyright © Ola Carlsson

Same plan next day and my friend finally found a BMW to buy. Take offs at Startbahn West today as well but they changed the other runway operations to 25 instead so no landings at all for us. Startbahn West is running north/south but located west of the field, hence the nickname. Light is good from lunchtime.
Copyright © Ola Carlsson

Continuing via Dusseldorf, limited views after the terminalfire and crappy weather. We soon moved on...
Copyright © Ola Carlsson

...via Finkenwerder before we finally set the course to Stockholm again.
Copyright © Ola Carlsson
 
 
October, Basle
Invited to yet another press conference by Crossair. This time at their homebase in Basle. They were going to announce their sponsorship with swedish skiteam. In their hangar I found a Moldavian S340 and Jet Aviation had quite a lot of nice bizjets outside like the Croatian CL600, Cameroon G3, Volkswagen A319 and an Angolan 707. Also the ASA DC-10 were there and some WDL F27's.
Copyright © Ola Carlsson