Late-2004 - this is your webmaster - Photo by Michael Öhrén  

Rickard Gillberg in mid-2005. Flying as pilot in command The first photo of me in a helicopter. 15 years old and washing a helicopter. On the roof of a Bell 212 in 1999. On the top of the Sweden's highest mountain, Kebnekaise, together with a Hkp10 Super Puma back in 2003. In action as a rescue man (in 2003).

This is your webmaster My name is Rickard Gillberg and I live in Norrviken, Sollentuna, north of central Stockholm. Born in '83 I've not yet spent particularly many years in the business, but intend to stay there for a long time. Despite the fact that I'm relatively young I've seen quite a lot when it comes to various helicopter operations and methods. This far I have flown in more than 25 different helicopter types (on a range from the R22 to the Mi-26), piloted at least 10 of the types (from the Hughes 300 to the Bell 212 and Super Puma) and earned my private helicopter licence (PPL-H). I'm currently working half-time with my company, Nordic Rotors, mainly constructing websites for companies and writing stories for magazines. I've graduated from senior high school, where I had a three years science/technical education, and intend to continue with a university education in marketing or something in that direction within a year or so. During the year after graduation, from mid-2002 to mid-2003, I was making my conscript military service as a helicopter mechanic and a rescue man in the Hkp10 Super Puma. The early years In 1483 Leonardo da Vinci constructed his famous model of the helicopter, the "Helical Airscrew", exactly 500 years later I was born. It was no question about it, I was destined to work with helicopters. One of my very earliest memories comes from the summer of 1986, when I was three years old, and it involved helicopters. Me and my family were out on a vacation in Stockholm’s archipelago in our private motorboat. The parents of a five years old girl in a sailboat moored close to ours suspected that she had swallowed a galipot of headache tablets. The girl's parents stressed my parents to contact the Maritime Rescue Central (CEFYL) on our VHF. After an established contact with CEFYL they asked us to move the girl to a larger island, where helicopters could land. When the sun set in the water a beautiful and impressive red sky appeared, and a flapping noise was heard. The silhouette of a Police helicopter was seen, and moments later it landed on a cliff 20-30 meters in front of our boat. It carried a nurse that could take a first look at the girl. A few minutes later the sound of another helicopter was heard. A second machine, this one with a doctor on board, landed a bit further up on the island. The girl survived and I had just got my first unforgettable helicopter experience, three years old. In early-1990 I flew in a helicopter for the very first time. Helicopter tours were offered during the consecration of a new fuel station, and together with my grandfather I took a five minutes ride in a red and white Hughes 300. I was deeply impressed and went home to construct an own fleet of helicopters in LEGO bricks at once. A few years later a neighbour at our summer house in Stockholm's archipelago got ill and had to be picked up by an ambulance helicopter. When the medical crew took care of the patient I had my first real conversation with a helicopter pilot. It was very inspiring and I got motivated to search for all available information about helicopters. As the most fourteen years old children in Sweden I did my first two "work life experience weeks" in eighth grade. With no contact in the helicopter industry I picked up the phone and called the helicopter maintenance facility Ostermans Aero AB. They were kind enough to accept my request and I was allowed to stay there for two weeks, with Tomas Hellman as my supervisor. It proved to be two of the most impressionable weeks in my life that far. The year after I did my second "work life experience", this time at Osterman Helicopter in Gustavsberg. Besides cleaning helicopters and the hangar floor I got to join the helicopter crews on various tasks almost every day. Knowing how hard it was to find facts about the business for one who had no knowledge about it I decided to collect my experiences and newly found information on a website. I published the material at my private homepage, which had been online since 1996, but officially announced it a helicopter website in September 1998. In 2001, eighteen years old, I began to study for my private helicopter pilot licence. In December the same year I founded the company Nordic Rotors, mainly for the website but also for DJ services, selling stories to magazines and constructing websites to various costumers. As mentioned earlier I did my conscript military service as a rescue man and helicopter mechanic between the summer of 2002 and mid-2003. I belonged to a rescue crew in Boden and flew in the Hkp10 Super Puma on a daily basis.

Photographing a Pitts S-2B fixed wing aircraft from the rear door of an Antonov An-2 for the magazine Flygrevyn.  Photo: Jonas Rabe  

Cameras & various equipment