A report from the Safir meeting. (Long loading time !)

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Hakan_Olsson
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A report from the Safir meeting. (Long loading time !)

Post by Hakan_Olsson » 06 May 2007, 21:49

On Friday May 4 the Safirs started to drop in at Gothenburg City Airport.
Th airport itself is an old air force base built during WW2.
Due to mist and low clouds a lot of the participants didn't arrive until Saturday. In total 18 Safirs visited the meeting. There should have been 22 in total but due to a lousy forecast 4 of them stayed at home.

We got a guided tour in a ex-Swedish Air Force underground hangar which was built during the cold war. Today there is a museum run by a large number of enthusiasts.

After a number of sessions where we got updated on the spare parts situation, entertained by a couple of veterans who could tell a number of entertaining stories we went to sea !
The dinner was on a small ship that took us for a four hour trip in the archipelago south of Gothenburg which was greatly enjoyed by the participants.

On Sunday at noon a ten-ship Safir formation flew a number of flypasts over the airport and over the western parts of Gothenburg. An eleventh aircraft filled the roll as sheepdog and flew all around the formation giving direction so it would look right. There was no time for a training flight but the formation looked as good as ever despite the gusty conditions. I guess it says something about the standard of the pilots.

While writing this I would take the opportunity to thank the organizers for an excellent meeting !
I hope to see all of you next year !

Here are a number of pics that show what we were up to:

The apron:

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They came in all sorts of colour schemes:

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Does it look familiar ?.............

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The entrance to the underground hangar:

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Oooops ! We thougt the cold war was over....????

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The oldest airworthy Safir 91A, SE-AUR resides deep down in the mountain:

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It looks a bit different than the other models due to its 145 hp DH Gipsy Major engine:

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The team who maintains and operates SE-AUR. Kenneth Sköld, first from the left, has maintained this aircraft since 1952. The aircraft has never been restored an is in original condition. The other two gentlemen are Filip Gerhardt and Ralph Duell

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Sunset on Saturday night:

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Safirs on the TWY.

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Three Safirs taking off in formation:

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A couple of formation shots. It was a glorious sight, not to mention the sound !

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Olle Jensen with SE-KYF is showing off a bit and makes a pull up over SE-AUR:

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Yours truly:

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Thank you for looking,
Best regards,
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S91C
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Post by S91C » 06 May 2007, 22:31

Håkan......you was first one posting pictures. Thats only because you only had water to the dinner yesterday...means you are qicker today..and we also had to fly back to Soderhamn...... :lol:

Here is some more pictures from the meeting;

We had to pick up Knorren att Linkoping, and he beg hard that he want to be the pilot to Save and this is just after take off...... :wink:
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Sweden in may....
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The Island Visingso in the second biggest lake vattern...
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Sometimes you have to navigate.....but the question is: does it help.... :lol:
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Finaly..the line up in save...
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a Norweigan...
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Lufhansa....
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This one is an austrian finaly become swedish again...
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A-version with a small, small gypsie major engine....
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And the best, most good looking, "fastest", "strongest", "greenest", most nice one, The one and only....SE-KVZ...
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Regards
//Pelle
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Hakan_Olsson
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Post by Hakan_Olsson » 06 May 2007, 22:37

Pelle,

I'm glad you made it back home safely. It's really impressive that you managed to get home and upload your pics so fast! It seems that you had a beautiful trip back home.

It's true that I only drank water yesterday :cry: but I hope I can compensate that mistake at the next meeting ;-)

Best regards,
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S91C
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Post by S91C » 06 May 2007, 22:47

The weather was excellent just 10 minutes east of Gothenburgh...and after a short technical landing at Linkoping we had about 250-260 kmh/h GS...back to Soderhamn.

If you fly to Soderhamn this summer I will buy you a beer... :lol:

It was a very nice weekend, and the "oldies" (ralph and so on) have done a great job...

//Pelle
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n147yt
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Post by n147yt » 07 May 2007, 03:10

"Gentleman"
Thank you for posting those pictures!

F A N T A S T I C


:smt023 :smt007

One word post MORE .. ;-) ... :wink:
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SGTMAJOR
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Location: California, USA

Post by SGTMAJOR » 07 May 2007, 09:32

What a wonderful set of pictures..... Sure wish I could have been there.

How about you all coming on over to California for a little show. (smile)

WONDERFUL Shots...... Thank You all for sharing!!

Best wishes,
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snave
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Post by snave » 07 May 2007, 11:57

Isn't it interesting how having these aircraft in the sim makes them seem like familiar old friends when you see them in pictures? :wink:

There are many owners and operators of vintage aircraft who are missing the incredible opportunity that the sim presents to really get their aircraft `under the skin` of a new generation of enthusiasts. The Safir is now a firm favourite of mine, but I've only ever seen a couple `in the flesh` so to speak.

Great shots, but a question, if I may? Was the Sibwings product being used to give any visitors to the meeting the opportunnity to `fly` the aircraft they could see out on the apron? :wink:
Simon Evans
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DNovet
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Post by DNovet » 07 May 2007, 14:57

Also from my side:

Great pictures!

I wish I could have been there too...

Then it would have been another photo: Does this look familiar? ;)

Cheers from switzerland, almost airworthy again,

Daniel
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n147yt
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Post by n147yt » 07 May 2007, 16:32

:)
Hakan
" "From your other post...


I'll be there !

You will recognize me by my baby blue cap with "SAAB 91" written all over it.

"May the apron be littered by thousands of oily rags on Friday night" "


In the last picture...you and SE-KYF

Where is your rag??

Is that a "normal" OIL leak by the nose wheel?

best,
t.

:roll:
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Hakan_Olsson
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Post by Hakan_Olsson » 07 May 2007, 18:48

Gentlemen,
Thank you for your kind comments!

SGTMAJOR,
I'm sure many of us would like to go to sunny California for a metting there. Did you know yhat a Safir flew non-stop from Stockholm in Sweden to Addis Abeba in Ethiopia a distance of 3200 nm. The flight took 30 hours and 52 minutes. The TOW was more than 500 kg (1000 lbs) above MTOW.
Today it's actually the 60 year anniversary of this flight.
Since the Safir didn't have an autopilot this was quite an achivement.
The flight isn't registered as an official record since a mechanic forgot to start the barograph before take off. :(

Simon,
I fully understand that you enjoy the Safir and I hope you you can fly a real one some day. A friend of mine in England owns one which is not airworthy at the moment but I guess al ot of things can be arranged in the future. If you're going to Sweden I'm sure we can arrange something here too.
Regarding the Sibwings Safir I had some plans to set up a computer so People could try it out but due to lack of time in the schedule I had to drop my idea. There was also a lack of space, I didn't know where to put a computer since people were moving about between the meeting
sessions. And the final thing: Everybody was so busy socializing with old and new friends so I guess no one would really be interested in computer flying at this meeting.

Daniel,
There is already some plans fgor next years meeting. It will probably be held at Ljungbyhed, "the home of the Safir", next year.
The old base is located in southern Sweden so you will have at least one hour less ferry time each way ! I hope to see you then. Everyone seems to know about HB-DBL and are most curious about all the mods.

n147yt,

The pic was taken the on Saturday morning so all the rags were swept away from the apron by then.
A Safir with the Lycoming O-435A always leaks oil more or less. It builds up pressure in the crankcase and throws it out through the vent tube.
You can see the faired in tube in the pic just above the oil stain.
Above the tube is a bulge on the cowling which actually collects some oilbefore it's sucked out and dispersed on the nosewheel and the belly.
Some oil also trickles out through the cowl flaps so rags is alwas in demand. The stain under SE-KYF's nose was the result of a four minute wait since I took care of SE-KYG first.
Those are one of the things you have to put up with as a Safir pilot. The Safir is like a lady, you have to treat her right and spend a lot of time with her , caress her and so on, but when the total experience is very rewarding !

A couple of the ladies in my life.......... :)

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Best regards,
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Knorren
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WOW

Post by Knorren » 07 May 2007, 19:24

Really nice pictures and writing guys! :D

As mentioned the weather was quite cloudy and the visbility was around 6-9 km when we arrived to Säve. After flying into the control zone the ATC in Säve Tower asked us if we had the field in sight.....after a very short hesitation from my side the answer back was "Yes"..... meaning that our Garmin GPS had the field in "sight" but not he pilot....... 8) and we could continue our approach to runway 19 via left base!
Regards
/Johan
Proud Pilot of KVZ and LAZ
http://www.f15fk.se
http://www.fcfk.com/fcfk/
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S91C
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more pictures

Post by S91C » 08 May 2007, 10:09

Hi again guys....

Here are some more photos from Säve. The photographer is Danne, a friend to us. And he is good.....
The pictures are taken from KVZ, when Danne "copiloting" under the formation flight.... realy nice pictures, even if I had to reduce the size a lot. Enjoy :)

(In a couple of weeks this pictures and some more from Danne will be published att our homepage in original size..)

First some checklistwork.....
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gatheringtime....
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keep the eyemark....
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no...dont turn away now.....
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perfect
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all in position....
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its looking good....
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regards

//Pelle
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Hakan_Olsson
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Post by Hakan_Olsson » 08 May 2007, 11:29

Excellent Pelle !

Thank You !

The pics are almost pornographic ! :D

Best regards
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SuredT
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Post by SuredT » 08 May 2007, 15:47

Thanks for all the pictures and stories.
Wish I had more money for all my flying. 8)

Next year I will try to be present with the RLA.
Will it also be in May?

Regards, Sjoerd
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Hakan_Olsson
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Post by Hakan_Olsson » 08 May 2007, 18:07

Sjoerd,
I don't know anything about dates yet, but as soon as I hear anything about it I will post it here.

Best regards,
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S91C
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even mor pictures....

Post by S91C » 08 May 2007, 23:27

Ok guys....as Håkan says, here are some more "fly porn" from Säve. Once again...enjoy.. :) (Photographer is still our friend Danne)

Take off
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Safirs as far you could see
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Break left.....
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Gent´s...this is called flying in formation... :wink:
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This is picture I like......first, Its describe a normal weather in the city of GB, the front side of sweden....(Ok..don´t beat me now you guys from Gothenburgh.. :P
Second, if you imagine every bird in an dark colour and some dramatic music it could be a scene from a war movie......

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Regards

Per
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Hakan_Olsson
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Post by Hakan_Olsson » 09 May 2007, 13:49

A couple of pics supplied by my friend 'Tail End Charlie' who was in the tenth aircraft in the formation:

Lasse struggling to hold his position !
(Which he did very nicely)


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A pic of the whole formation. Lasse and KVZ is visible through the ventilation screen to the right:

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Best regards,
Last edited by Hakan_Olsson on 09 May 2007, 14:09, edited 1 time in total.
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S91C
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Post by S91C » 09 May 2007, 14:02

That was also very nice pictures....also nice to see our bird from this side..


//Pelle
Last edited by S91C on 09 May 2007, 14:34, edited 1 time in total.
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Knorren
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Post by Knorren » 09 May 2007, 14:34

And I fought the battles between ESSL-->ESGP-->ESSL 8)
Regards
/Johan
Proud Pilot of KVZ and LAZ
http://www.f15fk.se
http://www.fcfk.com/fcfk/
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Knorren
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Post by Knorren » 09 May 2007, 18:10

Väldigt vilka superlativ det kommer från våra vänner utvecklarna... :wink:
Regards
/Johan
Proud Pilot of KVZ and LAZ
http://www.f15fk.se
http://www.fcfk.com/fcfk/
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