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My name is Henrik Bach Nielsen.
Born and raised in 1976 in
Northern Jutland
in Denmark in a small village, Vegger.
I spent the first 17 years of my life in
Himmerland going to school and doing all the things boys do in the age of
0-17.
The spare time was used mostly on playing
soccer and being a scout for some years. Later on the Commodore64, Amiga500
and then the ordinary pc's came into the house and the attention was there
right away. I guess that's why I now have made this site afterall!
When I finished highschool in 1993 I went to
college
(2 years, HF - Higher Preparation school) in Aalborg. It was 2 years of fun
and "hard work" at school! J
Flying has of course always fascinated me as being a boy
and at college I decided to go for the job as a fighter pilot in the
airforce. But when I finished college in 1995 I was drafted as a conscript
and had to wait a while.
I started as a conscript at
Prinsens Livregiment
in Viborg in February 1996 and finished in December the same year. During my
military service I was in charge of a 81mm
mortar APC(pic#1) (pic#2)
(pic#3)
(pic#4)(Armoured Personell Carrier) In December 1996, when I
finished, I needed some "fresh air". My best friend, Brian, and I planned a
vacation around the world where it should be warm enough to wear nothing but
shorts and t-shirts all the time. So in 1997 we decided to go to Indonesia,
Australia, Fiji, the US and the U.S. Virgin Islands (The former Danish
West Indies, which the Danish government sold to the US in 1916 during the WWI)
It was great and gave me lots of memories for life.
When I returned from the world tour I
worked at a dairy in a lot of different jobs (production, packaging, as a forklift
driver and as container shipper). I was at the time attending the first
tests for the training as a fighter pilot. In January 1998 I passed the
final tests and was scheduled to start in the summer 1998.
In August 1998 I started at
Royal Danish
Airforce Flying School (RDAF) in Karup but was not among those few
applicants who made it through the course. The course is the last barrier to
start the training as a fighter pilot at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, USA.
At the RDAF Flying School we were flying the Saab T-17 Supporter (pic#1)
(pic#2)
but not the F-16 (pic#1)
(pic#2)
Then I worked again for a couple of years
waiting for the right flying school to offer a CPL - Commercial Pilot's
License - In the airforce I found out that flying really was the job for me.
In the fall of 2001 I attended the tests which Luftfartsskolen (The
Aeronautical Institute of Flying) had and successfully went through the
tests, the
final interviews with the psychologists and the health check at Flight
Medical Center.
I started August 5th 2002 at Luftfartsskolen
in Roskilde and was scheduled to finish in August 2004. (But due the ever
changing weather in Denmark and the change of aircraft types in the
middle of the course we completed the course medio December 2004. Approx. 4
months delayed)
From the 5th of Aug. to primo Sep. 2002 I had
preflight theory learning about basic flying, navigation, communication etc.
First date of flight was the 11th of
September 2002 -
exactly one year after 11/9.
19 days later I was released for my first
solo flight - the 30th of Sep.
I flew the Piper Warrior (PA28) for almost a year because I had ATPL (Airline
Transport Pilot Licence) theory at the same time.
Medio July 2003 I finished the VFR (Visual
Flight Rules) program with a SEPL check (Single Engine Piston Land)
The ATPL theory started in October 2002 and
the first examinations were passed in June 2003 (6 exams in 8 days - all
written) The last 6 exams were passed in October 2003 - What a relief! Never
again! :-) From June -> November 2003 it was all about theory and no flying
at all.
The fligth simulator training for IFR
(Instrument Flight Rules) started in November 2003 and my first real IFR
lesson was in January 2004.
I started on the Beechcraft Bonanza (BE36A)
(BE33) and switched to the
Piper Saratoga II (P32R) Turbo Charged
(Interior of P32R TC)
in the summer of 2004.
I switched to the Saratoga II just before I
went to San Francisco, California to do some
aerobatic
flying in the Decathlon and
Pitts Special S2-C (pic#1)
(pic#2)
(pic#3) which is a part of the flight
training. It was 2
weeks of fun and flying at Attitude Aviation in Livermore, CA.
When returning from the US the final IFR
SPIC flights included two long European cross country flights. The last
single engine fligth at the IFR course was flown in August 2004, and shortly
after I started the simulator training for the multi engine program.
After the twin engine simulator I started
with VFR flights on the
Piper Seneca V (PA34T)
(pic#2)
(pic#3)
to obtain my CPL (Commercial Pilot's Licence) and
then with IFR flights to get the ME IR. (Multi Engine Instrument Rating)
When The CPL with ME IR was obtained the only thing left was the MCC course.
It was 5 x 3 hrs of training in a BE200 simulator and the course is making you
capable of working together with another pilot on the flight deck.
A week before the christmas of 2004 we held
our Graduation Party and as far as I remember....it was a success!!!
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