Valborg on Björkberget 20140430
Valborgsmässa. May 1st, symbol of spring, cleaning out, and a new beginning. On Björkberget behind Siljan Airpark a huge bon fire was built, a choir was singing beautiful Swedish songs about spring, and a thought-provoking speech was held by I assume a relative maybe even the son of one rather well known Siljansnäs pastor Niels Tägt. The speaker, Niels-Olof Tägt, managed to include what to fight and what to support as humans. Good job. And then the fire was lit, the wind calmed down, and while the light of the sky diminished and the lights went on in the village of Siljansnäs one was taken aback once again by the beauty of this place.
Who was she, st. Valborg, by the way? According to one source she was a pious princess, who was sanctified as the saint of agriculture, and May 1st was her day. The night before the farmers would chase away all evil forces with fire because this night also is the night where the evil forces are especially strong and active as the witches are out to collect ingredients for their brew! and thus the farmer protected his crops and stock against the dark forces. According to another source it is still a tradition in Dalarna to jump through the fire on Valborg’s night. The fire on Björkberget was fenced! Maybe to prevent some youngster from upholding this tradition??
The sewer man was here! He spooled away a whole wheel barrel full of gravel and debris from the pipe leading to the pump house. Now our pipes are as clean as new from the foundry! Hopefully these guys are well paid! Not a job to be envied. But we need them. We will need them less if we are observant about what we slip into the toilet and not use it as a general garbage can. It is for human waste and toilet paper ONLY! No hair, no cotton swabs or Q-tips, sanitary napkins or tampons, used condoms etc. etc. I found this cartoon, the text is in Danish but I don’t think it needs translation!! Generally we should save water but flushing the toilet here in the airpark is one place where we should not! Use the large spool – strange expression, but you get my point.
The “garbage season” has begun. From now on and going forward there will be increasingly more people in the airpark on week ends as well as on workdays. This means more garbage. More people produce more garbage. Although we have invested in extra garbage bins it still necessary to take all your bulky garbage to the garbage station by Företagshuset along with glass, metal and plastic. The recycling station Limhagen in Leksand, Limhagsvägen 23, 793 32 Leksand is open like this:
For those of you who are building right now it is also important that you use Företagshuset as well as Limhagen, otherwise our bins will be full before the ordinary emptying round, and as you all know extra pick up costs!
Common plot: Before the common plot can be used, a working drainage system has to be installed. A possible solution is at hand that should work out without too much effort (connecting the plot to the drainage pipe system).
Ditches: Our ditches need a rework at some places. Here is room for discussion, however this must be done before any asphalt or so could be considered.
Fresh water system maintenance: While it will be impossible to find out what happened last year we now have a system setup to monitor the overall water usage on a weekly basis. Also the freshwater infrastructure (a few valves to shut off the main lines) has been made useable to be able to test where a suspected small leak (less than 1000 liters per day) may be located.
Sewage system maintenance: Basically for the first time in the existence of the airpark a few of our main sewage lines were cleaned with high pressure. Also one of the two lines going into the pump house was almost clogged and is now clean again. To repeat what has been said: Please always flush with a full load of water.
Wifi-system: A lot of security updates have been done and some minor technical changes applied to make the wifi ready for the future with a faster connection. Several (!) zombie devices creating questionable traffic were banned. Throughput of the overall connection has increased due to the changes. Also a documentation project is on the way for the overall infrastructure. Contact Alexander if you are interested in details (like new routing, Vlans, adopted firewall rules).
IP-Only / fast internet: While a solution has been found for all parties who already signed up for fiber internet (it should be installed within this summer), new owners (including SAPS for the pump house) can only sign up once they start a new campaign (no date set, yet). However an alternative approach is being discussed to cut costs compared to the current solution.
Midsommar: Invitations are out for a big midsommar celebration. Please contact sinje (at) siljanairpark (dot) se if you did not get the invitation and would like to participate!
Taskforces: So far no useable information about asphalt and so could be extracted from the handover data received. Taskforces will move into a later time of the year once all urgent topics are addressed.
Voluntary work: Next to the board there are a few more “positions” where people can bring themselves in to keep the airpark running (only naming a few): News editor (Ingrid), annual plot water meter reading and invoicing (currently nobody), weekly main water meter reading (currently Toffe), monthly pump station cleaning (Toffe, would like to be relieved in the future), Airpark wifi (Alexander, was a company from the village, Fredrik D & Florin C as backup), … please send in a list of others so we have a complete picture!
Progress: Currently there is new construction on the way on three plots in parallel with another application for a fourth plot at the kommun.
SAPS address: Going forward the “official” address of SAPS will be: Rollvägen 1, 79360 Siljansnäs, office (at) siljanairpark (dot) se (not to be put into any widely-published material to reduce spam).
Alexander – Alexander (at) siljanairpark (dot) se
Diggers and excavators rip the silence in the airpark these days. In many corners of the area holes are dug and foundations being cast. Soon walls and roofs will indicate – a new house? New hangar? New Friggebo? The airpark is growing and developing. Wonderful!
Existing buildings changing owners – that is another sign of development. We all know that some properties are for sale, plans and priorities in life change. New owners add new talents and resources to our community. Rodervägen 16 is now owned by Niklas and Ulrika Eriksson who are warmly welcomed to Siljan AirPark . We asked Niklas and Ulrika to tell something about them for you to read and they even sent two awesome pictures taken by photographer Tim Jansson:
“Greetings from Niklas, Ulrika and our kids, Anton and Elina! We recently purchased Rodervägen 16 from Toffe after searching for a suitable plot/house to buy in the airpark.
We both work as IT professionals often meaning a lot of travels and overtime. During the last couple of years we have talked about buying a recreation house to be able to escape our everyday jobs during weekends to be together as a family. Unfortunately Niklas huge passion for flying has made it impossible … until now! Last spring we discovered Siljan Airpark by a coincident and were really intrigued by the possibilities to combine a recreation house with Niklas’ passion for flying.
We currently live in Västerås/Sweden and hope to initially use our house in the airpark as a recreation house. We are planning to build a hangar to house at least two aircrafts. We currently own two vintage SAAB 91B Safir. One of the Safir’s (SE-IGL) is a former Swedish Air Force military trainer. The other Safir (SE-FVY, PH-RJB, D-EBUC) has a history as a civilian trainer used by Lufthansa during the 60’s, among others. We also have a Piper PA-34-200T Seneca II at our disposal (owned by a friend).
Niklas is deeply involved in the Västerås Airport Flying Museum as an aircraft owner and display pilot. He is currently team-leader of Team 50, a Swedish civilian display team performing displays with four (4) SAAB Safir aircraft.
Finally, we would like to thank you all for the warm welcome we have received from everyone in the airpark. Thanks! :-)”
If you missed this wonderful article you now have a new chance as the author Russell Myles has given permission to publish the link to his wonderful and very informative article about the one and only airpark in northern Europe Siljan AirPark . Follow the link and enjoy Russell’s fascinating text and beautiful photos which just make you wanting to go there right away and look for a plot-for-sale-sign. This is excellent marketing!
http://www.sigurdmartin.se/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/SAPS.pdf
It’s not just Sinje and Reiner who do long overwater flights in a Lancair while wearing a hot sweaty rubber suit.
Klaus Nødland was spotted at Perth (EGPT) in Scotland after a direct flight from Stavanger across the North Sea. Perth is Brenda and Russell’s home airfield and Russell showed Klaus his TL Sting and replica Eindecker in the hangar before rushing to catch a flight from Edinburgh for work.
Klaus was then planning to fly on to visit his son in Bristol…but without the rubber suit this time!
Thanks to a generous donation from Mats and Chris Berglund we now have a certified translation into English of our statutes. Thus all of us who do not have Swedish as our mother tongue now get an real opportunity to understand the details of how our association – Siljan Airpark Samfällighetsförening – is ruled. We own a number of facilities together (roads, taxiways, common-plot, runway, water-and sewer system) and our association is formed to manage this common property. Being a member of the association is mandatory ruled by Swedish Law – Lag (1973:1150) om förvaltning av samfälligheter – and there is no right to withdraw! This is useful knowledge for us who already are in it and for potential investors as well. This is also a step forward towards being the most popular airpark in Europe that transparency rules.
A copy of the English version will be sent to all members by e-mail and can also be found on Member Forum<Meetings, Protocols and Documents.
On April 29th the Flying Club held its annual general meeting. Twenty members had gathered and within 1½ hour the items on the agenda prescribed in the statutes were plodded through and gave room for coffee, home made cake, and a lot of pilot-lies for another two hours. A new board was elected as Peter Muus left the president seat after four years and five on the board realizing that now new and younger forces were needed. He himself has also stopped flying, and Peter found that now as a lot of environmental problems have been solved in the club it is time for focus on aviation and for this the club needs active pilots in the front. The new president of the club is Johan Stormats, and ordinary board members are now Fredrik Pellebergs, Anders Kjellberg, Johan Riis, and Tobias Jarpner. As deputy members were elected Rune Leander and Mats Sanfridson. All of these are active pilots, gliders as well as motor, so this is a good constellation.
The Reflective Corner
Our annual general meetings are over, in Siljan Airpark Samfällighetsförening as well as in Siljansnäs Flying Club. A new year of work is ahead of us in the two associations, or clubs. Both words are appropriate as they signal a group of people joined by a common interest and who wish to optimize the common usefulness of what is owned by – or at disposal for – the members of the club.
In all clubs or associations a number of people work together to run daily affairs, and generally there is a handful or two of the members who possess the time, interest, drive, resources to run and go in front, be the leaders so to speak.
They usually also have taken the heavy responsibility of taking care of the finances in the club as well as of what might be commonly owned by the members. It is often even the same persons who also try to drive the club forward, to develop the concept in accordance with the members’ wishes and dreams, and at the same time respectfully guard traditions and history of the club.
Members of a club are not always looking in the same direction nor dreaming the same dreams. Therefore democracy is the only way to rule a club, and as the majority has a responsibility of ensuring that decisions are made upon a thorough informed basis the minority has to respect the decisions made. This makes demands of acceptance on both sides as both personal disappointments as well as hurt feelings may turn focus away from the issue and towards the individuals. And this is bound to create trouble and put the ability of collaboration at stake with risk for destructive behaviour as a serious consequence for the club.
It has been quoted earlier but is worth repeating: big cities develop through competition, small societies through collaboration. A flying club – or a samfällighetsförening – is a small society, and both of them will develop only through collaboration. Survival is a prerequisite for development, and in order to survive we need to respect and accept decisions made upon a basis of sound democratic majority, and then work together to make things happen.
And now pour me another cup of tea, please.
They are called Airbnb of aviation, but I would name them Uber of the air. They take you from A to B if they are going there themselves – or??? But taking a small GA-plane turns out to be cheaper (!!!) than a fast train. And a lot more fun as the customer says in the news video http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/wingly-private-plane-general-aviation-elstree-aerodrome-bristol-ifr-a7702636.html . There are a few Wingly pilots in Scandinavia but not that many – yet. Do we have a problem with the tax regulations rules in this part of the world? Would this be classified as “black taxi-flights”?? https://en.wingly.io/ check if there is a Wingly pilot in your neighbourhood. Maybe you’d like to become a Wingly pilot yourself??
Printed with permission from Gary Clark, see more on www.swamp.com.au
Ingrid Muus, news editor, muusingrid@gmail.com