Aviation Tour - Maps on www.bankleft.com

'Antiques';

Best of all was Rune, the energetic dynamo that operates the airfield and Samso Air Services doing ferry and scenic flights in a 6 seater Cessna 206.

What a champion – he has fitted out a club house with bathroom and wood heater 'Terminal 1' and is working on a second larger building, 'Terminal 2'. Unperturbed by being temporarily stymied by beuracracy, Rune has arranged bikes and kayaks for visitors. Clare and Guntraum adjusted up a pair of bikes for themselves and the four of us set out to explore the island. As 'the garden of Denmark', every second house has veggies out the front for sale so we stocked up on freshly picked corn and cabbage. What a great scale of island! 30 kms allowed us to see most of the southern half including 5 or 6 villages in one day. The harbour town has fish smokeries and low key cafes.


The ferry arrangements and politics of the island are very interesting and we spend time discussing the exciting air transport ideas that Rune has for the future. He has recently built a house for his wife Ewa and daughter Mille.

Rune teaches aviation to a quarter of the students at the local boarding high school, which he attended himself in the 80s. The lessons run for 3 hrs in the evening and since our visit coincided with the first lesson of term, he asked me to tell the class about our construction and tour 2010 project. I filtered 150 photos out of our collection and grabbed a few interesting pass around objects from the cockpit (pilot's kneeboard, emergency beacon, headset, MSR stove...). Fun evening, the students were smart and interested and I managed to avoid having to implement Clare's professional techer emergency techniques of 'stare of death' and 'ominous silence'. Rune's course covers the basics of navigation, aerodynamics and meterology and I think it is an utterly brilliant way to give the 15-17 year olds a practical use and interest in the knoweldge and skills involved, not to mention some motivation to study – once they pass their exams they go flying! I wish such an arrangement had applied to 3^rd year fluid mechanics.

Rune makes annual trips to lead tour groups in NZ so we at stoked that he will be able to come and fly with us over the Barrier Reef sooner rather than later. While airborne on a sight seeing flight, as we were climbing out from Samso, he radio called in an inimitable Kiwi style, "see you on the West Island!". Samso. What a gem.