Helicopter

My cousin has got a new toy - a helicopter! Yesterday he was practising take off and landing. :o)

Rollag by air

Another picture of Rollag from the air. This picture is a couple of years old. It gives you a closer look of the civic center. :o)

LN-BDL

And this is the plane we flew. It's a Cessna 172p Skyhawk II that belongs to Ringerikes Motorflyklubb. Translated to English, the text under the wing "brannvakt", says "fireguard". :o)

Looking for wildfire

There has been several wildfires in the south part of Norway this week. High temperatures and no rain the last weeks have made everything extremely arid.

In Norway wildfire surveillance happens as a cooperation between the municipalities in each county, and airplane associations. In clear weather, smoke from campfires and small wildfires is visible in a long distance from a plane. The planes usually have contact with the firebrigade in one of the biggest municipalities in the county.

The surveillance happens in two ways. First: when arid, the planes fly defined routes, looking for smoke. When extremely arid they fly the routes several times every day. If observation of smoke or fire, they contact the firebrigade. They describe the fire and guide the firefighters to the right place. The second: If the firebrigade recive messages about observed smoke, the plane gets into the air to locate the fire, and to assist as described above.

A friend of mine is a pilot, and he participates in this wildfire surveillance every summer. I've joined him a couple of times, and this weekend I took this picture of Rollag from the air. Luckily we didn't see any fires that day! :o) (The picture is not as sharp as I wished for though, the plane was shaking a bit...)