Fear of flying?

People who fear flying hang on to their seats, sighing in relief when the plane miracously touches down. I guess a lot of the anxiety related to flying comes from not being in control, not knowing a whole lot about what's going on or what keeps the airplane flying. How airplanes actually fly, remains a mystery for most people. Some even thinks that pilots wrestle with the controls and go to work each day in fear of their lives, thus making them really brave people. But being a pilot is something people train very hard to be, and hundreds, and thousands of hours flying, eventually makes flying second nature to the men and women in the cockpits. And the airplanes are safer than any other kind of transportation.

Check out this video, where a totally relaxed (and focused!) Wideroe crew prepares and executes takeoffs and landings. Even in these challenging conditions (mountains and weather) these professional pilotes are on top of the situation, at all times. If you have fear of flying, feel free to comment on this post!

Take off and landing within a minute: Dash-7

(Photo: Gary Watt.)

In this video showing a Wideroe Dash-7 at Floroe airport in Western Norway, we are being shown the great characteristics of a magnificent aircraft. This four engine, STOL aircraft was a common sight in small communities in Norway in the eighties. Nowadays it can be seen in a similar role over the fjords and mountains of Greenland, although Air Greenland has started to replace some of them with the Dash-8-100.

Enjoy this video, where a Dash-7 takes off and lands at the same airport, within a minute! The runway is similar to most Norwegian local airports, only about 2,600-3,000 feet surrounded by mountainous terrain. Amazing!

Wideroe - leading regional airline of Scandinavia

(Photo: Wikipedia.)

For many in Norway Wideroe is the preferred transportation when it comes to reliability and swift transportation between smaller communities and cities. The company has been around for decades, and the white and green livery of their aircrafts is a familiar sight for many. Operating under harsh conditions, and considering the millions of hours flown over the years, the company has had few accidents and incidents. The most noticable ones was during its era of operating the Twin Otter. In later, Dash 8 years, the only incidents have been a few hard landings where landing gears have collapsed (or rather, the safety bolts in the landing gears have broken to prevent more serious damage to the wing structure).

In this video a Wideroe crew makes an incredible job landing a Twin Otter at Vaeroy airport. In the eighties a Wideroe Twin Otter was caught in severe turbulence on climb out from this airport, and broke up and crashed. This, and the generally dangerous conditions made by the nearby mountain and turbulence, led to the close down of this airport.

Dash 7 - STOL capabilities turboprop

(Photo: Udo K. Haafke.)

The Norwegian airline Wideroe startet its business flying mail in small one engine seaplanes. Eventually the company grew, utilising bigger planes like the Twin Otter and later the de Havilland DHC-7. This four engine green machine (in those days anyway) was a common and welcomed sight in many small communities in Norway, specially in the north. Operating from short runways (about 2,500 feet) in mountainous areas, the extra power of the four engines was necessary.




The de Havilland Canada DHC-7, more commonly known as the Dash 7, is a remarkable airplane when it comes to STOL (Short Take Off and Landing) capabilities. It was first made in 1975 and the last airplane came out of production in 1988. The oversized propellers, rotating slower than other aircrafts, made it a relatively quiet propeller airplane. In many aspects, the Dash 7 was a larger version of the two engined Twin Otter. The main differences was size, two more engines and a pressurized cabin. The four engines provided extra lift at low speeds, due to two engines on each wing, with propellers blowing air over the whole span of the wing. At landing, when put into reverse, the same propellers slowed the airplane down quickly.

Source: Wikipedia