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Amazing Norway and Sweden, July 2021

Really nice reports and pictures Bosco, thanks so much for sharing..

Private field, Mallorca, Spain

DAY3

Day 3 was great! The basic idea was to fly east and eventually cross the border to Sweden that day. As a first point of landing in Sweden, we chose Siljansnäs (ESVS), as people have spoken highly about the friendly bunch at the airfield, the nice lake and the beautiful landscapes in its surroundings. We thought: if we like it, we will just stay there, if not, we might even continue all the way to Stockholm.

Weatherwise, flying east was a good idea. Not only would some frontal weather arrive in Norway in the next 48 hours, but we were also very eager to get away from the fog (and coldish temps) at the seaside. Remember, anything east of that was 100% sunshine, with temps of 30 degrees!

We did not want to fly to Siljansnäs all the way in one go. The idea was to do some airfield-hopping and finally get to know a couple of small GA airfields in central Norway. Whilst the AVINOR airports aren’t bad, obviously nothing compares with landing at GA airfields, meeting like-minded people, etc. Planning-wise, it was again a bit of a chore: we had to make sure we would comply with the rules on leaving Norway. In normal times, they are the same as for entering the country, i.e. by giving Norwegian customs pre-notice, one can use a long list of airfields for that. The problem was the Covid restriction mentioned in the beginning, i.e. that NOTAM limiting arrivals and departures to strictly just the „big“ airports. While this makes some sense for arrivals, it doesn’t for departures. Also, where we wanted to cross the border, there was absolutely no such airport nearby (understandably, since there are no people there 😊). It meant that we would have to clear „outbound customs“ at Ålesund, which would have precluded any further landings before leaving Norway.

So, we called the ever so helpful people at Norwegian customs, explained the situation and that we would ideally like to leave Norway from Trysil airfield (ENTS). After a short hesitation, this was approved and they just asked us to send the usual notice (via a flightplan copy) to them. (Actually, all these things have already been planned the day before). So, this was sorted. The only thing that wasn’t ideal with this solution was that this obviously meant we had to give them a specific departure time from Trysil. So, we always had to keep that in view, which of course takes away a bit of the freedom to decide on the spot where to go, how long to stay, etc. But all in all, we were happy about the solution. Check!

By the way, on the Swedish side, I also first had to find out how this would work, i.e. if we could land at a place like Siljansnäs after coming from Norway. Anyway, I saw this issue coming already a couple of days before departing on the trip. Thanks to @Airborne_Again for helping me with that. Turned out that essentially, private flights coming from Norway without any goods can land using any airfield. Check!

In the morning, the weather at Alesund was still much the same as the day before. Again, not a big problem since we were able to depart IFR. Also, about 50km east of Ålesund, there was nothing but sunshine. So we filed a Yankee flightplan. To which destination? Well the afternoon before, we made a few phonecalls to some of those airfields on our route. One was called Bjorli (ENLB), located in the middle of the mountains and the other one was called Tynset (ENTS), closer to the Norwegian border. Both responded that we would be welcome, so these two intermediate stops were planned. Here is the approximate route we ended up flying.

Again, arriving at the airport and preparing the aircraft did not take much time. The departure from Alesund was on a northeastbound SID and after one minute, we were in the sunshine. We continued IFR only until reaching the limits of the TMA and then „cancelled“ IFR. Until reaching the „mainland“ with somewhat higher terrain elevations, there continued to be the undercast below us, but then, we were finally done with IFR weather.

We flew via a place called Andalsnes and then took a spectacular pass into a valley the mountains.



A few minutes later, we started our descent for Bjorli. Here is the village, which is a ski resort in winter.

By the way, almost every GA airfield in Norway has a karting or enduro track next to it. Makes them easy to spot from the air! There was no apparent flying activity at that moment, so with the usual blind calls, we landed.


Upon parking on the ramp, we saw there lots of people in the hangars and there were lots of “gear” there. Turned out that until the day before, there had been a major parachuting competition, and this was the dismantling/departures day. The welcome was friendly, even though that invisible dividing line between pilots and parachutists was always felt. Anyway, coffee and cake were promptly offered. They even offered us 100LL, and, despite we having burned less than a third of our fuel tank capacity at this point, we knew that in these parts of Europe, it is always wise to fuel up whereever possible. The pump was old and an adventure to get started, but it eventually worked. They also had no means to have us pay by card or so. But, fortunately, the people „up there“ have still conserved what is called „faith“ in other people, so they were OK if we bankwired the money once we got home.

It all took a bit of time, but that was OK. We used the time to sit (with their permission of, course) in the Twin Otter that had been used for the parajumping operations.



Anyway, about 1.5 hours after landing, we were ready to head further east, to our next top, Tynset. This was another flight of approximately 30 minutes, about due east.

Tynset airfield is beautifully located by a river in the countryside and has nice, green grass runway.

Nobody replied on the radio and we landed and deboarded. It was now about noon and easily 30 degrees. Someone was mowing the grass on the side of runway and we were greeted by an elderly man. Cold drinks and icecream were immediately offered, as well as a seat on the porch of the clubhouse.

We exchanged the usual stories about where from, where to, etc. The local club’s Cessna 172 had just been to Bergen the day before. They also showed us the inside of their hangar, with a Bölkow Junior and a Cessna 185 which they put on skis in winter. They would have also had Avgas for us if needed, but we had only burned 25 litres since departing Bjorli.

We briefly considered a short swim in the river just adjacent to the runway, but unfortunately, the embankment was too steep and too “bushy“. But boy, it was hot! One more round of cold drinks, a cheerful goodbye and then we left for Trysil, as our “appointment” with customs had to be respected. This was a flight of approximately 45 minutes through yet some more interesting countryside and scenery.


The town of Trysil is the biggest ski resort in Norway (mountains in the other side of the river). Next EuroGA fly & ski event? 😊

This one is from visitnorway.de again:

Here is the airfield, which is just a few miles away from the town centre. This could also bee somewhere in the Northern Californian or Canadian mountains, I guess. So cool!

Anyway, the landing is slightly demanding, with the high density altitude, a sloping runway and trees all around.

As usual, there was nothing going on at the airfield. We landed just before 14:00h, the departure time we had given to customs. Of course, nobody was there. We spent a bit of time in the shade of the clubhouse porch and had a bit of late lunch snack, which we had brought along.

We also phoned up Siljansnäs, to check if there was anything particular we needed to know. All was fine. The guy told us that if we decided to stay for the night, the accomodation facilities at the airfield were occupied, but that we should try the hotel in town, which he said was nice. We were good to go. In any case, if you happen to fly through eastern Norway in summer, do make stops at Tynset and Trysil!

After departure, we called Polaris to open our flightplan to Siljansnäs and shortly after, crossed the border to Sweden. The terrain almost immediately went flat again. From there, it was only another 20 minutes or so to go. Here were are, reaching the western shores of Lake Siljan and the town of Mora.


Shortly after, we had the airfield in sight. We also managed to close our flightplan with Sweden Control before landing. We parked near the clubhouse.


Despite the nice weather, there was nobody there. Maybe it was a bit too hot for the locals? Anyway, we liked the place so far and also, we were happy to call it a day (flying-wise), after two packed days before. We called the Siljansnäs Hotell and asked if there was a room and if they could kindly pick us up from the airfield (distance about 2km). The reply to both questions was „affirmative“. The price was only marginally lower than in Norway, but we were set to stay, so we confirmed. We used the opportunity of the short wait to hose down and clean the aircraft a bit.

That also meant we had decided not to fly on to Stockholm or similar. We also decided to eliminate the Baltics from the rest of the trip as we only had one day remaining, for which flying all the way from Lake Siljan back to Germany was actually quite enough.

The friendly receptionist that picked us up briefed us about what we could do with the rest of the day. The hotel turned out to be slightly tatty here and there, but in a wonderful location, slight up a hill from the lake, with a beautiful terrace overlooking the lake. Very unfortunately, we were told that the restaurant was completely and fully booked for dinner.




After check-in, we had our well-deserved ALBs at the hotel bar and then trotted down the hill to the lakeshore, in order to finally have a swim.



After some “chilling” and some more ice cream, we checked our options for dinner in the little village of Siljansnäs. Well, they were very few, to be honest. Pretty much the only place was a take-away pizzeria with a couple of tables outside.

That was fine for us though. And since it was nearing 6 o’clock, we thought we could just as well start with dinner right away. Well…, it turned out to be the longest wait for two pizzas of our lives 😊… about 1.5 hours. Apparently, the whole population around Lake Siljan came to this place that evening to pick up pizzas! However, the wait was not too bad, since we had a nice place with a view, on a sunny warm evening, and we weren’t too hungry yet.

Also, there was this to sweeten the wait, some (not too expensive, by Nordic standards) very light, cold beer that was just the right thing for that moment 😊:

We eventually returned to the hotel where we first had another swim in the pool. After that, we had another drink on the terrace of the hotel retaurant, before heading back to our rooms. That was a good day!


Last Edited by boscomantico at 27 Jan 19:49
Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

Stunning scenery!

LDZA LDVA, Croatia

Awesome views!

LOWI,LIPB, Italy

Wonderful! Eager to read the next chapter…!

ESOW, Sweden

boscomantico wrote:

Tynset airfield is beautifully located by a river in the countryside and has nice, green grass runway.

Tynset is a nice and very friendly airfield, and less than an hour away from ENVA (well a little over when using the cub, well under with the C185). Note also that the river can be used for seaplane operations, but I have not tried it yet!

ENVA, Norway

I must say, this is probably the best report of flying in Norway (and Sweden) I have ever read. It captures the essence:

  • Lots of space
  • Few people
  • Relaxed atmosphere
  • Helpful and easy going ATC (at least for most parts that’s the case, if you remember to keep in contact)
  • Difficult weather that changes locally from unflyable (VFR) to the clear blue sky a few miles away. (It could be bad all over also though )

Very nice pictures. And Tynset is truly a nice little airport. They arrange fly-ins every year. It’s more or less in the middle of nowhere, but it’s also in the middle geographically, so lots of people usually come (weather dependent, but still).

The elephant is the circulation
ENVA ENOP ENMO, Norway

DAY4

Well, day 4 most mostly about getting back home, so it was not quite as spectacular as the first three days. Also, the weather was eventually turning for the worse a bit. While still somewhat sunny, the forecast called for wind and some rain here and there. In short, it was not quite the day that made a half-day stop at some nice enroute „beach“ destination (say somewhere on Öland, or Visingsö, or somewhere in the Danish Isles) worthwhile.

Hence, we took it a bit more easily in the morning and enjoyed our breakfast on the hotel’s sunny terrace. Also, we weren’t that lucky with the transport to the airfield this time around. The chief receptionist from the previous day wasn’t on duty and the all the other staff did not know whether they were supposed/allowed to give us a lift to the airfield (a 5-minute job). We asked around a bit more, even asking a couple of guests that were leaving, but it didn’t really work out. Taxis don’t exist in this area. So, in the end we had to walk in the (quite strong) sunshine and drag our bags along the partially unpaved roads to the airfield. Took about 30 minutes.

Anyway, for a midday/lunch stop on this return day we still had time. The challenge is: very few airfields in the Nordic countries have restaurants on the airfield. It’s just not a thing there. Compare this with Germany, France, Switzerland and Italy, where almost every self-respecting GA airfield has one (although many aren’t really good). We didn’t really want to bother with taxis etc. on that day. But there was a very inviting exception more or less right on our route, a place that I had eyeballed a couple of years ago on my way from Lübeck to Finland: Stegeborg airfield (ESVE) is a nice little grass airfield located on a sound of the Swedish Baltic coast and it’s just a 500 metre walk to a marina with a nice restaurant, a shop, and generally, some „action“ going on. No fuel though.

That was to be our lunch stop. Just over an hour’s flying (with a bit of headwind) on a track of 165 degrees or so – not directly on our trach home (about 200-ish) but close enough for the moment.

This flight took us a bit east of Örebrö and Norköping. As always in the north, one just flies direct. Any TMAs are either seemingly always closed or the controller just clears one through without further ado. Sometimes, it’s on the verge of being boring 😊, at least without any significant scenery, although the vast Swedish lakes and forests never cease to amaze.

Here we are on the approach to Stegeborg. This is the mentioned marina. The airstrip is more or less below us.

After landing, we parked the aircraft and headed for the marina. Nearby, there is also an old castle.

This is the marina, the shop and the restaurant.


The food was nice, although the wind was a bit unpleasant and the sunshine was now almost gone due to an increasing very high cirrostratus type of cloud cover. On the radar, we saw a few showers and smallish thunderstorms on our route home, but nothing really serious. We had another soft ice at the marina shop and then strolled back to the airfield.


Now we needed to refuel somewhere. Our last top-off had been in Bjorli, Norway, and we still had almost 500 miles to go to Hannover, so we definitely needed quite a bit of fuel. Avgas is kind of difficult in Sweden as well. Some of the small aeroclub type airfields don’t carry 100LL anymore. And they all are not always manned, so refuelling often means making agreements beforehand with somebody. And even then, payment is often a problem: we did not have a lot of Swedish crowns and they usually don’t like Euros, understandably. And anyway, cash is not popular up there. But many airfields don’t have a credit card machine, either. Many airfield’s take payment via Swish, but that is not available to foreigners. And looking at the bigger airports, many of them are simply closed whenever you need them. In 2021, this was even worse than usual, with the low volume of airline traffic caused by Corona. Also, I could never get past paying 60 Euros just for a fuel stop at one of those Swedavia airports…

There are a few smaller airfields/airports out there which do have a self-service credit card terminal for the fuel. But the are rather few and far between. One of them, a very popular one for fuel-stops, was just 12 minutes south, Västervik (ESSV). It is still PRR for some reason, but that was sorted out easily. Also, the fuel in Sweden is generally pricy. I still fondly remember the times, until 2007 I believe, when we used to refuel in Sweden for 95 cents per litre…

Flying from one airfield to another, without speaking to ATS or non ATS-unit at either end is still a wonderful thing everytime around, at least for someone with his home base in Germany. So much more efficient….

There are several long, narrow sounds in this part of the Swedish Baltic coast, often with fishing villages at their ends. Cute!

With the usual position reporting, we landed at Västervik, with about 13 gallons of fuel remaining, i.e one hour, which is close to my minimum, although this obviously depends on a few factors.

There were a few club members and visitors around. One visitor showed us his cool glider:

Refuelling was quick and we took 200 litres which was slightly eye-watering. Anyway… „haben oder nicht haben“, as we say in German.

The original plan had been to also make another stop before Hannover, on the German Baltic coast, at Barth airfield (EDBH). However, with the weather turning for the worse, and our remaining time rather limited, it all didn’t make sense, so before departing Stegeborg, we had already filed our (VFR) flightplan all the way to Hannover (EDDV). Another 2.5 hours to go… (plus, I still would have to return to Lübeck after that…).

In the beginning of the flight, we still more or less followed the Baltic coast to make the flight more interesting. But the sky was grey and the visibility rather poor, so eventually we turned southeastbound, direct to EDDV.

Between Sweden and Denmark…

Here is the Danish isle of Møn, with its famous white chalk cliffs.

There was now some mean looking cloud here and there, but it was all rather localized.

Some more cloud-surfing over northern Germany, but in Hannover, it was a nice evening and we landed uneventfully on 27R.

After landing and parking at the GAT, we unloaded Frans’ bags, removed all the camera equipment and took a last selfie, before I headed off to Lübeck and Frans took his car back to his home.

As I flew home, there was a bit more weather there, but it didn’t really affect me in the end.



Particular thanks again to Frans for his company and great support during the trip!

Here is brief summary of the approximate fees and fuel costs:

  • Hannover: no landing fee (normally 25-ish Euros), thanks to the Airshampoo voucher book, but ~12 Euros DFS fee
  • Stavanger, Bergen and Alesund: 36 Euros (standard Avinor fee)
  • Bjorli, Tynset and Trysil: no fee
  • Siljansnäs, Stegeborg: no fees
  • Västervik: don’t remember, must have been very moderate

Fuel at Bergen and Bjorli was approxomately 1,90 Euros per litre, fuel at Västervik was 2,65 Euros per litre. As usual, our fuel burn was just under 50 litres an hour.

I will keep silent about the hotel costs…

Last Edited by boscomantico at 29 Jan 11:12
Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

I will keep silent about the hotel costs…

I guess Norway was more expensive than Sweden.

LDZA LDVA, Croatia

Awesome trip !

Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom
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