Special requirements flying in Northern Scandinavia ?

[BCS112]

Hi,

Together with 2 fellow pilots we are planning a 4-5 day VFR flight from Belgium to Narvik in Norway (7-9 h flying per day) in the beginning of July. The flight will take us over Malmö to the Stockholm region, then over to Finland all the way op to Rovaniemi and then crossing Sweden again to fly to Narvik and then back south along the coast of Norway back to Belgium.

As usual this trip will depend highly on the wx forecasts so we do have a plan B in case the wx isn't favorable.

But as this is the first time fly up north as opposed to previous trips Southbound to France, Spain and Italy I was wondering if we need to fulfill special requirements in order to fly in these vast, semi-unpopulated areas. I heard that in some regions in Sweden you need to take extra food supplies and tents etc... before you can start flying there ?

Can annyone confirm if this correct and if so what are the actual requirements and which zones are we talking about. In general any information about non-standard procedures for flying in Finland, Sweden and Norway would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Björn

[DubTrub]

Sweden: Sweden AIP (http://www.lfv.se/templates/LFV_InfoSida_70_30____2555.aspx)
Norway: IPPC - Internet Pilot Planning Centre (http://www.ippc.no/ippc/index.jsp), with notams, weather, AIP, AIC, chart amendments list (CHAD-NOR) and loads of other interesting info.
VFR Guide to Norway (http://www.aopa.nl/Documents/vfrguideNorway.pdf)
Hopefully some info in these for you.
Certainly 8 years ago, for the mountaneous areas of Sweden you needed ELT, mirror, food supplies, emergency kit etc.

: here's Finland AIS (http://www.finavia.fi/ais_en) too

[BCS112]

Hi DubTrub,

I scrolled through the Swedish AIP before I wrote this post but couldn't find anything concerning this although I also don't know where to start looking exactly. Thanks for the links !

Update: OK checked the AIC and there is a line deviding sweden in a mountainous and non-mountainous area. Bad news...

Björn

[DubTrub]

Go to ENR1.1 (http://www.lfv.se/upload/ANS/AIP/ENR/ENR%201/ES_ENR_1_1_en.pdf) and it's section 1.1.9.
It references AIP-GEN1.5 (http://www.lfv.se/upload/ANS/AIP/GEN/GEN%201/ES_GEN_1_5_en.pdf) as to what to take.

Hope that helps.

[BCS112]

Thx a lot ! Exactly the info that I needed.

Björn

[DubTrub]

To be fair, it's not difficult to comply with the Swedish requirements.
We took 6 VFR aircraft to Nordcapp via the top of Sweden & Finnmark. Some aircraft we applied self-adhesive dayglo stripes, and we bought the other items on the list.
Don't buy "professional" emergency rations without checking the nutrition content. Pot Noodles had more nutrition, and tins of corned beef are better!
It's worth it to get to the Finnish steppes:
http://www.dubtrub.freeuk.com/N-Norway2.jpg
...and better when you arrive at Nordcapp at midnight!
http://www.dubtrub.freeuk.com/brey_final_for_hFest.jpg

[BCS112]

Wow, must have been a magnificant trip, does look tempting although reading the list of requirements makes me frown.

On the other hand, it does make sense if you are flying over these vast empty spaces. I'll see if and where I can find those fluorescent strips and if my flying club will agree we can attach them to the aircraft. Did you also bring the whole pyrotechnics and flare stuff they require ?

Björn

[DubTrub]

Flares: Yes we did, but not specially for that trip. We do quite a lot of cross-water & mountain flying, so they're good to have.

[acuba 290]

also take oppotiunity and visit Estonia! Tallinn is great city!;)
http://gh.tallinn-airport.ee/index.php?page=65


http://aip.eans.ee/ (http://aip.eans.ee/)

[BCS112]

Acuba290,

We'd love to go there and we had in fact planned to do so initially, but lack of time has forced us to limit our trip. We have 4+1 day planned for the trip and we definitely want to get to the polar circle. The combination of both is not possible this time around.

[Mariner9]

Well worth reading Spitzbergen trip (http://forums.flyer.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=14957&highlight=spitzbergen), or, (if you can get hold of it in Belgium) July's Flyer magazine which includes an account of the trip

[BCS112]

... or, (if you can get hold of it in Belgium) July's Flyer magazine which includes an account of the trip

Should be able to get my hands on that one, will have a look thx...

[acuba 290]

Acuba290,

We'd love to go there and we had in fact planned to do so initially, but lack of time has forced us to limit our trip. We have 4+1 day planned for the trip and we definitely want to get to the polar circle. The combination of both is not possible this time around.

i see...But actually Tallinn is somehow on the way and it really something special;)

[BCS112]

Mariner9, finally got my hands on the Flyer magazine you talked about. Wow ! What an experience that must have been, good thing the weather is a bit warmer in the summer months !

We are now 10 days away from our flight, the fluorescent stickers are available, we have the food supply, flares, rockets, sleeping bags, water proof matches, charts, charts and more charts. Now we only need some reasonable weather ! We have a plan b (Spain, Portugal) but after reading the Flyer magazine article I can hardly imagine this being is interesting as the flight to the North !

Btw, we have to wait and extra week for the Sweden charts, the guy at the pilot shop can't keep up with the demand for charts of Skandinavia, seems everybody is going North these days...

Björn

[Bluebeard777]

Last summer I flew to Nordkapp. Apart from some murky wx from Tromso to Hammerfest, and some tech problems, things went pretty smoothly. Honingsvag airport is in lunar landscape beside Nordkapp, local advice was dont land there if wind > 15 kts.

My comment on the survival issues is: follow roads as much as you can, even if not the most direct route. Unlike Alaska/Canada, no need for a gun! :E

Also, I would endorse the recommendation of Talinn, it's a real gem. I went up the coast of Norway and back down through the Baltic states and Poland.

[BCS112]

Like I said, we have 4 days (+1 extra day if wx isn't what we expected) for a 5000km flight, so we really don't have any possibility for extra visits with our slowish P28A-180hp.

The way we planned the flight we will not go further North then Narvik and Kiruna and we will be flying 8-9 hours / day ! We plan to go via Stockholm, Vaasa, Oulo, Kiruna, Bodo, Bergen and Kristianstad.

Will post a link when we're back and have some pictures available...

Björn