Behind the horizon, out in the wilderness, well maybe not that dramatic an approach but tracks leading away always stirs the imagination and fantasy, and you find yourself dreaming about remote places and adventures. A feeling known by every pilot. Up, up and away. But for some weeks still it has to stay in the imagination as the runway is covered in snow and ice. But this is one of the wonderful properties by our airpark: even though you are not flying there are thousands of activities to enter into. One of them is skiing. Perfect surroundings for skiing cross country as well as downhill. In the coming weeks Siljan Airpark will be flooded by happy skiers as the winter vacation is now on the threshold.
Fortunately the conditions for making our ski-trails have been good, and we now have esablished the exercise-sling (red sling, round the runway), the gossip-sling (yellow sling, up and down along the taxiways, you may meet everybody as you pass every single house in the airpark) as well as the grand tour sling which includes the scenic sling in the cow-meadows north of the village (green sling).
All of a sudden, one cold evening, the water stopped running out of the faucets! The night mare of our culture and civilization! No water! What had happened? Fantasies of broken water pipes due to low temperatures popped up, and memories of dripping faucets to keep it running came back. That was before proper insulation of the water supply pipes. Good to know the 24/7 stand by person of almost everything in the airpark TOFFE! he called the water company on 023-133 08
which is the number for emergency calls. After a couple of hours the leakage (outside Siljan AirPark) was mended and the water again running. And all the pots and buckets with snow could be emptied again. After that a grateful thought was sent to the fact that we live in a country where you do not need to walk for hours with a bucket on your head to fetch water every day.
023-133 08 tape it on to your fridge-door
Our beautiful airpark is slowly disappearing! Wildly growing vegetation is crawling in upon whatever may be on the plots. Soon it will be like the jungle concealing old temples, and in thousand years from now our descendants will re-discover this hidden world and wonder why it was built like it is: normal size houses, huge houses, and very small houses – all even on the same plots! A house for each age group??? or??
Well, seriously, these overgrown plots do not look like a problem in winter. You may see through the naked branches and twigs. BUT come spring, and the “jungle-look” will take over before you know it, and then it becomes a troublesome, hard, back-breaking and expensive job to take down the vegetation. Our board has decided to appeal to everyone to keep their plot tidy and cut down for everyone to enjoy the sights and the views and for our common well-being, and therefore contacted the local firm Siljansnäsressursen.
They estimate approximately 10 hours work to cut down bushes, scrubs and smaller trees on a plot at a modest cost of app 4000SEK. And if you are Swedish you even get a re-fund from the state of 50%!! So, why wait? At this time of the year it is much easier to clear the vegetation than in summer. Contact Christer Wretlind for more information on this offer.
Party at the castle where airparkers gathered and inhaled food and beer well maybe not everybody. Walter at any rate was not seen with a bottle of beer in his small hand, mama Wanja would certainly prevent it if he had. But Christer W was there with his camera and caught delightful situations in good company.
On January 15th our new board had its first meeting. The minutes are as usual published on our Member Forum under the thread Meetings, Protocols and Documents. Many interesting and important issues are handled. Our financial situation is comfortable, and we can sleep peacefully. Two dates ought to be repeated here: the maintenance program made for 2015 includes two labor days, one in spring and one later in the year. The spring-cleaning date has been fixed to May 10th . The annual meeting is already fixed for April 18th and that means that proposals must be in the hands of the board on March 16th the latest
From a normally reliable source it has been announced that Siljan AirPark will be represented at the relay race this year. Heja Siljan AirPark ! Detailed information can be obtained from Danne and Sinje.
Each winter these rules have to be seen over again: how do I prepare for a flight winter time. To get an overview this link takes you to an AOPA article on the subject. It seems to cover just about everything you can imagine in connection with flying winter time
(Flight controllers may be so very sensitive, you know)
printed with permission from Gary Clark. See more on www.swamp.com.au. Ingrid Muus, news editor, muus@dadlnet.dk