L-Birds of Norway

The weather in Europe was very unusual for this time of year. Normally, June is fairly stable, yes with showers, but not stormy like weather. This time however, weather was more or less like spring 1944... Due to severe thunderstorms, gusting 60 kts, the organizers main task was to find shelter and safety for 40+ visiting aircraft. When we should have been consentrating on invasion beach flyby formation briefing, the time was spent finding hangars. We feel so sorry for the organizers of this event, it was not what they had planned. But, mother nature cannot be controlled and given the circumstances, we are totally impressed with their ability to secure all aircraft in such a short notice. THANK YOU GUYS!!! As a funny sidenote, we found ourself on the front page of the Evreux newspaper with a nice article about the event. The guy behind the counter at the local newspaper kiosk laughed when he saw me buying three copies realizing that I was on the front page... :-) Evening din...

The day started in Lille where we had to fuel the aircraft before TOTAL came and closed the tank. We flew off the grass runway in formation at around 0900 heading for Amiens, about an hour towards Normandie. At Amiens we got (again) confirmed that in France.... they speak French. Period. :-) Enroute to Amiens, we passed a lot of small towns, French countryside. As we were flying a few hundred feet above the ground, I kept thinking to myself that we probably passed several WW2 heroes sitting outside enjoying their morning coffee, looking up at three humming warbirds passing by at low altitude... At the cemetary below, there was a gathering of people, possibly D-day related. At Amiens, we watched the weather approaching (using app. "Windy"). It was a matter of getting those three Cubs fuelled as fast as possible and get them back in the air, heading for FINAL destination... we almost beat the weather, but the last 15 NM was flown in rain, but fair visibility. It was w...

Day three started with an early breakfast followed by a taxi out to Hilversum aerodrome. At the field, we were greeted good morning by a couple of warbird photographer enthusiasts. One of the guys had actually driven quite a long way the evening before, to another airfield, which he thought we would be landing at... Now he was here, 7:30 in the morning, with a big smile, just happy to have been able to take pictures of the Norwegian L-4's! What a start to the day! Waved off by friendly enthusiasts at Hilversum, we set course for Midden Zeeland, a small grassfield right out south west Holland. Flying in the early mornings can be just magical sometimes... The sun has not yet heated the ground enough to create thermals (=turbulense) and the air is absolute still. Flying formaion in those conditions is fantastic! You can safely get up real close to your wingman, for some great air-to-air shots!  Formation lead LN-RAP close up, low level just east of Rotterdam. Grasshoppe...

Ever wondered how to find your way through dense airspace in a flat part of Europe? The solution is a cheap 7" tablet with SkyDemon installed! :-) "Glasscockpit" in an old 1944 Grasshopper... I must say, we admired Tor, previous owner of LN-RAP "Timmy", who did this trip for the 50 year D-Day event, without GPS.  So, primary navigation is SkyDemon. As a means to communicate between ourself in the formation, we found that our chat group in Messenger is quite suitable! That way we do not need to use the busy ATC frequency for internal messages. In two days, we have been airborne more than 10 hours in this cramped cockpit of an L-4, but "the moral of the crew is still impeccable!"  Hilversum is a great destination to visit - a GA grassfield with 3 runways! But!! do study the approach information before your arrival, this airport can be very busy and with its many runways, quite complicated when unfamiliar. On arrival in Hil...

Day 2 started off nice and sunny! ...but only lasted until breakfast was over. In the taxi to the Rendsburg airport it started raining. As we stood close to the wall, trying to stay dry, a Cub owner came along. He had heard rumors of three Norwegian Cubs visiting and came along just to say hi. Luckily he had a key to let us in to the briefing office. Weather was building up fast, but it looked like we could get around it IF we could only get westbound quickly. You dont go anywhere quickly in a Cub, but we set out for Leer-Papenburg, apparently a suitable airport with nice restaurant! On the way there, we picked up unexpected 25 kts headwind and our endurance was not enough. Our two experienced pilots in lead aircraft LN-RAP made good analysis enroute and diverted us to EDXM (St. Michaelisdonn). They were (suppose to be) open with fuel... but it took a while before the right man with the right key turned up and voila! Fuel is available! The time was spent waiting out r...

Early rise, birds singing in the morning sun... Three beautiful Grasshoppers all ready for the L-Birds Back to Normandy event. Lead calls "Grasshopper Formation, check in".... "two!".... "three!" A quick backtrack at ENKJ runway 12 and the adventure has started! First leg from Kjeller ENKJ to Fjallbacka was absolutely calm. Not a single turbulence - smooth as silk all the way. 1:20 airborne. Met by Lars at Fjallbacka, refuelled and ready for the crossing of Skagerak from Sweden to Denmark. On top over a low cloud cover. The feeling to fly 75 year old aircraft over ocean, without seeing land... you have to admire the Piper Aircraft factory engineers who could make this quality back then! Then, after about 40 mins over ocean, it was good to see the northern tip of Denmark, Skagen: 1:20 airborne and we reached Sindal EKSN. Weather was great - let's keep pushing to get as far as possible in one day!! Quick refuelling and w...