Welcome to Johan's pages

My Pages

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• FlyLow
• M-B Classic
• merca.zix.se
• Weather (Swe)
• The Birdhouse

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• About Me

To fly low is a fantastic feeling, and learning how to do it safely is a very special experience. Imagine yourself flying at 200 feet above the ground at more than 135 Knots! The ground and treetops pass by at a rattling speed, and you are so close that you can see both people and animals clearly - you could even wave to them if you like. Unlike World War II pilots, you are not hunting down enemies, but following an invisible line 200 feet up in the air. That line runs east-west and must be followed, without an autopilot, within a margin of just a few feet both laterally and vertically, regardless of the terrain below. Through your windscreen, the landscape constantly changes: hills, mountains, valleys, and suddenly a deep canyon appears - then a small lake... Over the past ten years, the landscape has also been enriched by a new type of "forest" - mobile phone masts - often about 240 feet tall, which is slightly higher than your altitude. In addition, birds flying around the airplane are something you must keep in mind when operating at this height. All these factors must constantly stay on your radar. If you lose concentration for more than a few seconds during these three- to four-hour sessions, you can easily end up off course or lose altitude... Find out more in the FlyLow section and see how life appears for some of Sweden's most special pilots.

Restoring an old car is also a unique experience. In a barn, you may find an old wreck that has been set aside for decades. It is completely covered with dust and dirt, and hopefully, the engine was running the last time the car moved. When you open the door, you sense that special odor found only in these old, abandoned vehicles. You manage to pull the wreck onto your trailer and happily haul it home to your workshop. After a few months - or even years - you may be considerably poorer, but you can finally settle behind the wheel, turn the ignition key, hear the engine roar, and roll the car out of the workshop under its own power... That is also a fantastic feeling. Find out more about restoring old Mercedes-Benz wrecks in the M-B Classic section.

From August 2018, I have a new blog. At merca.zix.se, you can continue to follow my restoration of a Mercedes-Benz 170 Vb from 1953.

Another fascination I have nurtured all these years is the weather. It was particularly interesting to witness the amazing tropical storms I experienced during the late 1990s, when I studied in the southern United States. Since then, I have installed several weather stations at my home in Sweden, but none of them were ever able to report the weather online - until now. My current weather station, installed in the summer of 2013, is equipped with special hardware and software, finally enabling internet reporting. You can study the current weather in the Uppsala area in Sweden with graphs and tables on my Weather Page.

I hope all visitors find plenty of interesting reading here.

Finally, I have also created a new page "Uggleholken" dedicated to my owl nest box. On this page, you can watch a live broadcast from inside the birdhouse, as well as view previous highlights-so-called "Holken moments". During the winter season, the page also occasionally streams live video from my bird feeder, where great tits, blue tits, bullfinches, and other birds flock to feast on sunflower seeds and suet balls. Enjoy the show!

/ Johan