Fjellfly (literally "Mountain Fly") was a Norwegian airline which operated between 1954 and 1972. The airline was based at
Skien Airport, Geiteryggen
Skien Airport, Geiteryggen ( no, Skien lufthavn, Geiteryggen; ) is a regional airport located at Geiteryggen, southwest of the city center of Skien, Norway. Owned by Skien Municipality, it was last served by Widerøe with daily flights to Bergen. ...
and served a diverse range of
general aviation
General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...
activities and a limited scheduled services. Major undertakings included distribution of the newspaper ''
Dagbladet
''Dagbladet'' (lit.: ''The Daily Magazine'') is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally ''Dagbladet'' is considered the main liberal newspa ...
'', flying tourists into mountainous areas such as
Hardangervidda
Hardangervidda ( en, Hardanger Plateau) is a mountain plateau (Norwegian: ''vidde'') in central southern Norway, covering parts of Vestland, Vestfold og Telemark, and Viken counties. It is the largest plateau of its kind in Europe, with a cold ye ...
and
crop dusted forest areas. A scheduled service was introduced from Skien to
Oslo Airport, Fornebu
Oslo Airport, Fornebu ( no, Oslo lufthavn, Fornebu), was the primary international airport serving Oslo and Eastern Norway from 1 June 1939 to 7 October 1998. It was then replaced by Oslo Airport, Gardermoen, and the area has since been redevel ...
in 1963, and was extended to
Sandefjord Airport, Torp
Sandefjord Airport, Torp ( no, Sandefjord lufthavn, Torp; ) is an international airport located northeast of Sandefjord, Norway and south of Oslo. The airport features a runway aligned 18/36. Torp partially serves as a regional airport for Ve ...
and
Hamar Airport, Stafsberg
Hamar Airport, Stafsberg ( no, Hamar flyplass, Stafsberg; ) is a general aviation airport located at Stafsberg in Hamar, Norway. It features a runway aligned 15–33 and is owned by Hamar Municipality. The airport is located in an area with very ...
four years later. At its peak in 1965, the airline had a fleet of fourteen aircraft.
Owned by Snorre and Reidun Kjetilson, the airline was established in 1954 in
Drammen
Drammen () is a city and municipality in Viken, Norway. The port and river city of Drammen is centrally located in the south-eastern and most populated part of Norway. Drammen municipality also includes smaller towns and villages such as Konne ...
. Operations started out of Skien the following year. In addition to a range of
Cessna,
Piper
Piper may refer to:
People
* Piper (given name)
* Piper (surname)
Arts and entertainment Fictional characters Comics
* Piper (Morlock), in the Marvel Universe
* Piper (Mutate), in the Marvel Universe
Television
* Piper Chapman, lea ...
,
Fairchild Fairchild may refer to:
Organizations
* Fairchild Aerial Surveys, operated in cooperation with a subsidiary of Fairey Aviation Company
* Fairchild Camera and Instrument
* List of Sherman Fairchild companies, "Fairchild" companies
* Fairchild Fa ...
and other smaller aircraft, Fjellfly operated the 10-passenger
Noorduyn Norseman
The Noorduyn Norseman, also known as the C-64 Norseman, is a Canadian single-engine bush plane designed to operate from unimproved surfaces. Distinctive stubby landing gear protrusions from the lower fuselage make it easily recognizable.
Intr ...
for most of its existence. From the mid-1960s it introduced the 16-passenger
Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer
The Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer was a British STOL transport aircraft built by Scottish Aviation Limited at Prestwick Airport, Scotland, during the 1950s. It was designed for both civil and military operators. It was conceived as a twin-eng ...
on the scheduled flights, at the time the only aircraft of such a size that could land at Geiteryggen. From 1967, the airline started flying out of
Vest-Telemark Airport, Fyresdal and established a pilot school at
Kristiansand Airport, Kjevik
Kristiansand Airport ( no, Kristiansand lufthavn; ) is an international airport serving Kristiansand Municipality in Agder county, Norway. The airport is located in the district of Tveit in the Oddernes borough, about by road and by air from t ...
. With the runway at Geiteryggen extended in 1970, the airline went over the
de Havilland Heron
The de Havilland DH.114 Heron is a small propeller-driven British airliner that first flew on 10 May 1950. It was a development of the twin-engine de Havilland Dove, with a stretched fuselage and two more engines. It was designed as a rugged ...
on the scheduled services. Fjellfly filed for bankruptcy in 1972.
History
The airline was established by Snorre Sturla Kjetilson and his wife Reidun. Originally from
Rjukan
Rjukan () is a town and the administrative centre of Tinn municipality in Telemark, Norway. It is situated in Vestfjorddalen, between Møsvatn and Lake Tinn, and got its name after Rjukan Falls west of the town. The Tinn municipality council gra ...
, Snorre lived in
Drammen
Drammen () is a city and municipality in Viken, Norway. The port and river city of Drammen is centrally located in the south-eastern and most populated part of Norway. Drammen municipality also includes smaller towns and villages such as Konne ...
when he decided to take his pilots' license. Along with an investor, Kjetilson bought a
Cessna 180 from
Thor Solberg in 1954 and established Drammen Flyselskap. The investor quickly lost faith in the airline and sold his share to Kjetilson. To secure sufficient business, he contacted several newspapers, and agreed to fly ''
Dagbladet
''Dagbladet'' (lit.: ''The Daily Magazine'') is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally ''Dagbladet'' is considered the main liberal newspa ...
'' from Oslo to the Grenland area daily. From 1955 the airline flew from the seaplane aerodrome at
Oslo Airport, Fornebu
Oslo Airport, Fornebu ( no, Oslo lufthavn, Fornebu), was the primary international airport serving Oslo and Eastern Norway from 1 June 1939 to 7 October 1998. It was then replaced by Oslo Airport, Gardermoen, and the area has since been redevel ...
to
Herøya
Herøya is a peninsula in the municipality of Porsgrunn, Norway. It is located between the fjords of Frierfjord to the west and Gunneklevfjord to the east, at the mouth of Telemarksvassdraget. The name stems from the Old Norse word "her-eyjar" m ...
in
Porsgrunn
is a city and municipality in Telemark in the county of Vestfold og Telemark in Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Grenland. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Porsgrunn.
The municipality of Porsgrunn w ...
and onwards to
Hjellevatnet in Skien. Later in the year, wheels were mounted on the aircraft, and it started flying to Geiteryggen. Geiteryggen became the airline's base, and the Kjetilsons moved to Skien in 1957.
![Fjellfly Twin Pioneer](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Fjellfly_Twin_Pioneer.jpg)
The airline took delivery of a used
Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer
The Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer was a British STOL transport aircraft built by Scottish Aviation Limited at Prestwick Airport, Scotland, during the 1950s. It was designed for both civil and military operators. It was conceived as a twin-eng ...
on 3 September 1963. The remainder of the year the aircraft was grounded at Geiteryggen for an overhaul. Among the planned uses of the aircraft had originally been crop dusting, but this was never carried out. The aircraft's test flight took place on 24 April 1964 and the aircraft entered service on 2 May, flying FC
Odd
Odd means unpaired, occasional, strange or unusual, or a person who is viewed as eccentric.
Odd may also refer to:
Acronym
* ODD (Text Encoding Initiative) ("One Document Does it all"), an abstracted literate-programming format for describing X ...
to Bergen to play a football match. In addition to charter, the 16-passenger aircraft was sometimes used on the round trips to Oslo.
Fjellfly was the only Norwegian operator of the Twin Pioneer.
[Hagby: 75]
Fjellfly received permission to operate a scheduled "line taxi" service from Skien to Fornebu. This implied that the route was flown with less administrative work, but limited the size of the aircraft. The services started on 1 March 1963 using the Twin Pioneer. At the time, only a single pilot in the country had the necessary
type rating
A type rating is an authorization entered on or associated with a pilot licence and forming part thereof, stating pilot's privileges or limitations pertaining to certain aircraft type. Such qualification requires additional training beyond the s ...
for the aircraft. The Twin Pioneer was expensive, having high fuel consumption, high maintenance costs and slow speed. In addition, it had too high capacity for the Fornebu route. Kjetilson considered purchasing the
de Havilland Dove
The de Havilland DH.104 Dove is a British short-haul airliner developed and manufactured by de Havilland. The design, which was a monoplane successor to the pre-war Dragon Rapide biplane, came about from the Brabazon Committee report which, ...
, but no deal was struck. A scheduled service from Skien via
Sandefjord Airport, Torp
Sandefjord Airport, Torp ( no, Sandefjord lufthavn, Torp; ) is an international airport located northeast of Sandefjord, Norway and south of Oslo. The airport features a runway aligned 18/36. Torp partially serves as a regional airport for Ve ...
and
Oslo Airport, Fornebu
Oslo Airport, Fornebu ( no, Oslo lufthavn, Fornebu), was the primary international airport serving Oslo and Eastern Norway from 1 June 1939 to 7 October 1998. It was then replaced by Oslo Airport, Gardermoen, and the area has since been redevel ...
to
Hamar Airport, Stafsberg
Hamar Airport, Stafsberg ( no, Hamar flyplass, Stafsberg; ) is a general aviation airport located at Stafsberg in Hamar, Norway. It features a runway aligned 15–33 and is owned by Hamar Municipality. The airport is located in an area with very ...
was established from 2 May 1967.
Kjetilson was one of the driving forces behind Vest-Telemark Airport, Fyresdal. He had faith in that the area was superb for tourism and told ''
Telemark Arbeiderblad'' on 16 September 1967 that he would donate the airline to the municipality if Fyresdal did not have continental traffic within two years. The airport opened on 23 September. Fjellfly established a pilot school at
Kristiansand Airport, Kjevik
Kristiansand Airport ( no, Kristiansand lufthavn; ) is an international airport serving Kristiansand Municipality in Agder county, Norway. The airport is located in the district of Tveit in the Oddernes borough, about by road and by air from t ...
the same year. With the upgrading of Geiteryggen to a longer, paved runway, the airline started looking for a more economical aircraft. In 1969, Fjellfly bought a
de Havilland Heron
The de Havilland DH.114 Heron is a small propeller-driven British airliner that first flew on 10 May 1950. It was a development of the twin-engine de Havilland Dove, with a stretched fuselage and two more engines. It was designed as a rugged ...
from Tokyo, Japan, and flew it home, arriving in February 1970. After a minor renovation, which included a renewal of the interior, the aircraft was put into service in the scheduled traffic.
A second Heron was bought in 1971 and registered on 10 February 1972. However, it would never enter service. By March Fjellfly was bankrupt. As Geiteryggen was operated by the airline, the airfield also closed, but was soon reopened. After the bankruptcy the aviation authorities were criticized for giving the schedule concession in 1967 to Fjellfly, as the privilege was granted based on rural politics concessions while the company did not have sufficient financial security to operate the route.
Operations
Newspaper flying was one of the airline's main contracts. ''Dagbladet'' and ''
Verdens Gang
''Verdens Gang'' ("The course of the world"), generally known under the abbreviation ''VG'', is a Norwegian tabloid newspaper. In 2016, circulation numbers stood at 93,883, having declined from a peak circulation of 390,510 in 2002. ''VG'' is n ...
'', the two main non-subscription newspapers, had a fierce competition to bring their newspapers first to the market. Fjellfly had a contract to distribute ''Dagbladet'' from Oslo to Hamar, Tønsberg, Sandefjord, Skien, Kristiansand, Stavanger, Bergen and Trondheim. If weather conditions did not allow
visual flight rules
In aviation, visual flight rules (VFR) are a set of regulations under which a pilot operates an aircraft in weather conditions generally clear enough to allow the pilot to see where the aircraft is going. Specifically, the weather must be better ...
, the latter four would be transported by scheduled services instead. In extreme cases where the weather did not allow flights to the airports in Eastern Norway, Fjellfly was responsible for distributing the newspaper by road.
To supplement the newspaper flights, Kjetilson started a systematic campaign to fly tourist into the mountain areas of
Hardangervidda
Hardangervidda ( en, Hardanger Plateau) is a mountain plateau (Norwegian: ''vidde'') in central southern Norway, covering parts of Vestland, Vestfold og Telemark, and Viken counties. It is the largest plateau of its kind in Europe, with a cold ye ...
and
Setesdalsheiene
Setesdalsheiene () is the collective term for the mountains to the west and east of the Setesdalen valley in Agder county in Southern Norway. The river Otra flows through the valley between the mountains. This area is primarily located in the mu ...
. The airline established a summer base at
Møsvatn
Møsvatn (or Møsvann) is the tenth-largest lake in Norway with a surface area of 78.31 km2. It lies primarily Møsstrond, Vinje in Vestfold og Telemark. The lake lies in the watershed of the Skien river (''Skiensvassdrag'') and discharges ...
. The Cessna 180 was equipped with hydraulic skis, allowing the aircraft to land both on runways and frozen lakes. The peak period was during the hunting season in September. The airline also flew a route with ''Dagbladet'' which it dropped at about 65 hotels and resorts in a six- to seven-hour trip. By the 1960s, the airline flew a regular service Skien–Oslo–Sandefjord–Larvik–Skien.
[Olsen: 201]
From 1963 Fjellfly started
crop dusting
Aerial application, or what is informally referred to as crop dusting, involves spraying crops with crop protection products from an agricultural aircraft. Planting certain types of seed are also included in aerial application. The specific sp ...
forests with fertilizer on a contract with
Felleskjøpet. A
Cessna 185
The Cessna 185 Skywagon is a six-seat, single-engined, general aviation light aircraft manufactured by Cessna. It first flew as a prototype in July 1960, with the first production model completed in March 1961. The Cessna 185 is a high-winge ...
seaplane was bought for the job, which allowed it to be used for crop dusting in May and June, and for passenger flights the rest of the year. The first such flight took place on 3 May 1963. Although some of these operations took place from airstrips, most of the work was carried out using seaplanes. At the peak, four aircraft were used for crop dusting: two 185s, a
Piper Super Cub
The Piper PA-18 Super Cub is a two-seat, single-engine monoplane. Introduced in 1949 by Piper Aircraft, it was developed from the PA-11 Cub Special, and traces its lineage back through the J-3 Cub to the Taylor E-2 Cub of the 1930s. In close ...
and a
Pilatus Porter
The Pilatus PC-6 Porter is a single-engined STOL utility aircraft designed by Pilatus Aircraft of Switzerland. First flown in 1959, the PC-6 was produced at Pilatus Flugzeugwerke in Stans, Switzerland. It has been built in both piston engine- ...
. During the 1960s, Fjellfly had two domesticated bears which were held at the airport.
[Olsen: 186]
Fleet
References
;Bibliography
*
*
{{Portal bar, Aviation, Companies, Norway
Transport companies of Vestfold og Telemark
Defunct airlines of Norway
1972 disestablishments in Norway
Airlines established in 1954
Airlines disestablished in 1972
Defunct seaplane operators
Norwegian companies established in 1954