The flight was from Haugesund (HAU) situated on the island Karmøy on the southwest coast of Norway to the capital Oslo (OSL). Haugesund was the tenth busiest airport in Norway last year with 514,947 passengers and 11,003 movements. The largest airline at HAU is SAS Norway with twice daily departures to Bergen-Flesland (BGO) with Fokker 50 and up to six daily departures to Oslo-Gardermoen (OSL) with Boeing 737s. On this particular flight the largest 737 in SAS Norway fleet, the -800 was used. SAS Norway remains the largest airline in Norway although Norwegian Air Shuttle is bridging the gap day by day. In 2007, SAS Norway had 10.2 million passengers, in other words every Norwegian in average flew more than twice with them in 2007. To put this into perspective, the world's largest airline American Airlines should have had 660 million passengers to be as successful as SAS Norway. In reality American Airlines flew 99 million passengers in 2006. Oslo Airport is the airport of Norway's capital situated some 50km north of the city. Some 19 million passengers travelled via the airport in 2007, and it is the fastest growing airport of the three capital city airports in Scandinavia. To also add some perspective to OSL's traffic numbers, comparing it to Tokyo Haneda – the world’s fourth busiest airport in 2006 with 65.8 million passengers, should have had 520 million passengers to reach the same percentage of the population as OSL. The Norwegians are indeed a flying people.

The scheduled block time for SK311 is 50 minutes, with departure 10:40 and arrival 11:30. The distance between the airports is 344km (186 miles). The navaids in use are VORs, fixed points, NDBs, and vectoring given by the ATC. The normal flight level for east-bound flights is FL290. The south of Norway is divided by a mountain range which invariably gives different weather to the west and east of the divide. In the west, HAU had blue skies and a low winter sun with temperatures running to +5°C (41°F) and a light wind coming from the south. To the east at OSL there were low clouds, snow in the air, with temperatures just below freezing, and a light wind from the north.


LN-RCZ parked at gate 4 ready for boarding. Today, since it's a Boeing 737-800, the boarding is done using two stairs. I head for front stairs and a short chat with the purser before entering the cockpit. A few minutes later I was sitting in the jump seat.


Also present was this Jetstream 32 of the local airline Coast Air. The airline went out of business three weeks later.


Push back completed, both engines running, the ground crew have closed the communication hatch and waving the landing gear pin. The co-pilot acknowledges with thumbs up.


A tight 180° turn to the left and we are heading for the runway on Taxiway B. HAU is a fairly quiet airport relatively few movements and no traffic peak hours and has no parallel taxiway. The runway is used for back-tracking, followed by a tight 180° and you're all set for take-off on the 2,000m long runway.


We have now lined up for take-off on runway 14 and the captain makes sure the runway is clear. Notice the low winter sun. The flight computers are set to (from left to right) course 135°, indicated air speed 145 knots, heading 135° and initial altitude 4,000 feet. The pilot flying this leg was co-pilot. The brakes were released 10:52 and we were heading for OSL.


8 minutes after brakes released. Having been passed over to Sola Radar, we were cleared to SOGLO and in two steps to FL290. Here we pass 20,000 feet at climb rate of 2,700 feet per minute. As control passed to Oslo Radar we were cleared direct to the SIG (Sigdal) VOR expecting landing on OSL’s Runway 01R.


During our flight ACARS AOC messages ticked in on a steady rate - the last message shown here gave the times for connecting flight and that Romeo Charlie Zulu was heading for a charter flight up to Bardufoss (BDU) in northern Norway.


Only 12 minutes into the flight and with 1,300ft to go to cruise level, the crew start preparing for landing.


Cruising at FL290 and 15 minutes into the flight, we are cleared direct to VAKIR before reaching SIG. The Flight Management Computer (FMC) which was programmed for a standard arrival SIG 4L - SIG, VAKIR, GM395, and SONER HLDG, had to be advanced one step. We were still some 15nm from TOD with a 49kt wind coming from the right giving a mere 3° tail wind component.


At 73.6nm from OSL SK311 is cleared for FL120.


About to fly into the clouds descending through 9,200ft for 6,000ft.


At 7,000ft descending to 4,000ft direct SLB (NDB Solberg) - ONE (ILS 01R) 19.4 nautical miles.


On the ILS glide slope at 1,100 feet with an indicated air speed of 152kt, 30° flaps, three green, and with 1.2nm to runway 01R.


Breaking through the clouds and we have visual contact with Runway 01R and the PAPI lights.


Touch down and the co-pilot selects engine reversers while the captain is dumping lift with the spoilers. Romeo Charlie Zulu has been airborne exactly 37 minutes.


SK311 terminated at gate 24 one minute behind schedule due to an aviation enthusiast’s problems with the over-the-shoulder harnesses at HAU.

Thank you to SAS Norway and the crew of Romeo Charlie Zulu for making this report possible.