Work

I have not been airborne for a month. (It is great to work part time)

However - Friday I started a 5 day block with some “easy” domestic flights. First a roundtrip to Stavanger and then the same to Trondheim.
The Trondheim flight was a rude awakening to the approaching winter: Coming from relatively calm conditions with the -800 we were thrown into gusty winds, turbulence and rain.
The approach to the airport comes down a narrow valley where the hillsides are only a couple of hundred yards away so you do not want to drift off the localizer. The winds were gusty all the way down but got worse as we approached the ground so the speed was fluctuating and I had to use all from zero to maximum thrust to keep the airplane within limits. In addition a heavy rain shower made it almost impossible to keep contact with the runway.
One big problem with flying in such conditions is that the flying pilot very often gets so fixated with the landing that he (or she) tries to get the aircraft on ground no matter what happens. We are therefore trained to be aware of this and make a go-around if a landing looks or becomes risky in any way.
This time it all went nice. We were very, very close to having to make a go-around - but we got a visual and got the aircraft stabilized in time to make a safe landing.
By no means the worst weather I have been in – but not having flown for a month and being somewhat rusty this was not the best way to start a day. The poor cabin crew in the aft had a really rough approach as they are thrown “all over the place” in turbulence.

Yesterday I got the day off as we are too many pilots to fly the weekend program.

Today I have been to the west coast of Norway and then to London.
We had an hour on the ground at Heathrow so I ventured into the shopping area. They had changed the security gates during the last month so I had to walk a somewhat longer and labyrinth looking way to get inside. Usually we try to buy some magazines when we visit Heathrow but today the lanes were so long that I did not bother. I just walked ‘round a bit and looked in the shops and at people.

Tomorrow morning I am going to Stockholm and back. Then a 2h 30m stop at Oslo before I get another London flight. A long day tomorrow…