My story started in the small village Billsjö outside the northern Swedish town of Örnsköldsvik back in 1981. I used to love to play football and hang out with friends and my lovely family. We are 4 siblings and we used to have a blast together! When I was 14 years old I was “bitten by the aviation bug”. My father had acquired a PPL in order to fly in his work, between the cities of Northern Sweden, and I had been tagging along. For my birthday that year my parents gave me a test-lesson in a Cessna 172 together with a real instructor named Mats. It was an absolutely mind-altering experienced and I decided then and there that becoming a pilot was what I wanted to do with my life.
I was a very average student at that time but having a target completely transformed my work ethic and I went from an average 3.5 (5) score to a 4.8 within the period of 2 years. This is what motivation and goals do to you!
The reason I needed to increase my grades was that I had my eyes set on a government sponsored aviation program in Sweden. There were only 30 slots availible per year in the entire country so I knew that I needed perfect grades in order to have a chance to even reach the selection process.
During the first year of the Swedish “Gymnasium”, which is equivalent to junior college, I perfected my grades and was selected to come for an interview and assessment for the government sponsored program, I was so nervous!
The selection process did not go well at all. I was way to nervous and did not perform as well as I had hoped. I was sure that my dream had been crushed and I was completely destroyed but it turned out that I had managed to juuuust squeeze through the selection. I started this fantastic program in 1998 and the following years were some of the best years of my life. I was surrounded by 29 other 17-year olds with exactly the same goals as me and most of them were way smarter than me so I had to work REALLY hard to keep up.
The flying was AMAZING.
Imagine being 17 years old and in command of your own aircraft, on school hours, paid by the government. 😀
The course was incredibly hard but after 2 years I was done with both a natural science, junior college degree and a fresh CPL, IR with frozen ATPL theory. The joy!! The following year I had to do military service which I completed as an airport fire-fighter. This was another great experience and I also worked on the ramp, loading and cleaning aircraft so I got to see that part of the aviation world as well. After the military service I had to apply for the last part of the government sponsored program which contained the Multi engine and MCC course as well as some time building in San Diego.
For different reasons I managed to complete my ME and MCC before the rest of the class and had the incredible luck to be called for an interview with a, then small, B737 operator, even before the course was finished.
(Remember, this is 2002, just after 9/11 so the job-prospects were extremely bleak.)
It turned out that I was successful in my application and assessment so, as my classmates were getting ready to go to San Diego in the US, I started my type-rating on the mighty Boeing 737-800. My first base, as a first officer, was London Stansted where I stayed for 2,5 years. It was a very valuable experience and I was lucky to fly with a lot of different and skilled captains from who I learned a ton. After my time in Stansted I was selected as a SFI (Synthetic Flight Instructor) in my airlines simulator centre outside Nottingham in the UK. The course to become an instructor was the hardest course that I have ever done but it was worth it! It was the beginning of my over 12 year long career as an instructor on the 737 and its still going. You never really understand an aircraft or the procedures you fly until you have to teach it to others! I became a captain when I was 25 years old, a line training captain and TRI (Type rating Instructor) when I was 26 and have since become a TRE (type Rating Examiner) as well. I am now working as a Line-training captain and Base TRE in my base in Gerona, Spain.
I am married to a wonderful woman and I have 2 little sons and a little dog called Molly. I have more than 10 000 hours on the Boeing 737 and I intend to do many many more of them. The reason you are reading this is because I started a new journey in 2015. The journey on Social Media. I had been reading a lot about social media during the years before but I hadn’t really fully understood it. I was very disappointed every time i surfed the web and looked at aviation content since everybody seemed so miserable. I couldn’t find ANY good, unbiased, positive and constructive content anywhere so I decided to start my own Youtube channel. The Social Media experience has been another highlight of my career so far. The Youtube channel has grown massively and I am getting in contact with so many wonderful people every day!
I have created VR applications, social media applications, FB, Twitter, Instagram profiles and you are reading this on my latest project, my own website! My goal going forward is a bold and ambition one (all goals should be!). I want to create THE aviation hub in the world. I want everybody who are interested in aviation to come to this site or any of my other forums and feel welcome. Everyone should be able to ask any questions and get positive and constructive answers back from professionals or other enthusiasts. I want pilot students to come here for support, nervous flyers to come here for comfort and professional pilots to come here to share their knowledge with the coming generation of pilots and enthusiasts.
I hope you all share this vision and are ready to help. I know that this will require a lot of work but I will not stop on my way, just like I never stopped studying to get into the government sponsored program when I was a teenager!