Kenneth Aarkvisla
Pilots / Admin
Display pilot. Flying experience: 14900 hours.
Kenneth’s interest for flying started early in childhood and aged 15 he flew solo in a glider. He was active in gliding competitions, aerobatics and instructing, and has logged 800 hours on gliders. Kenneth joined the military in 1981 where he became a pilot, and he accumulated 1500 flight hours. Kenneth was also trained as a Forward Air Controller (Airfac), directing and guiding aircraft to find ground targets.
Kenneth flies for Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) and has been a captain on Boeing 737 4-5-6-7-800 since 1998. Kenneth is initiator and founder of the Norwegian Air Force Historical Squadron, and he has a huge passion for historical aircraft and enjoy the classic jets very much. Kenneth has been displaying and flying D.H. Vampires since 2007, and accumulated more than 220 hours on the type. Kenneth also takes part in the maintenance of the aircrafts, and he and he is the manager of the Norwegian Air Force Historical Squadron. Kenneth has always had a passion for aerobatics and used to fly aerobatics in his YAK-52 before moving on to the D.H. Vampire. Kenneth is also a Flight Instructor (FI). He has logged a total of 14900 hours.
migred18@gmail.com Tel: +47 93432372
Mette Aarkvisla
Team manager
Mette used to fly for the Airline Norwegian as a Senior Cabin Crew member, and was also trained as Emergency response personnel. She left Norwegian in 2017.
Mette and Kenneth acquired the first D.H. Vampire T.55 PX-M from Bournemouth UK in 2005. She is one of the initiators and founders of the Norwegian Air Force Historical Squadron. Among others Mette takes care of bookings, economy, and she runs the logistics at our airshow participations, as well as organizing and coordinating. She also has experience from taking part in organizing airshows.
mmaarkvisla@gmail.com Tel: +47 93439637
Martin “TinTin” Tesli
Display pilot
Flying experience: 4000 hours
Martin is one of the Royal Norwegian Air Force’s (RNoAF) most experienced fighter pilots having served many years with the RNoAF 338 (Tiger) Squadron based at Ørland Air Base located North-West of Trondheim. He joined the Air Force in 1994 and went through flight training at Sheppard A.F.B. USA in 1997. He also attended the Air Force Academy as well as the NATO Defence Academy at Shrivenham UK.
Martin is a graduate from the Fighter Weapons Instructor Training (FWIT) at Leeuwarden Air Base, where he became a qualified weapons instructor. He has taken part in operations in Serbia, Afghanistan and Libya. Martin holds the rank of Lieutenant colonel (Lt Col) and is currently based at Luke A.F.B. in the US flying the new F-35 fighter for the RNoAF.
Martin joined the Norwegian Air Force Historical Squadron in 2010 and has a true passion for historical aircrafts. He acquired the Canadair T-33 in 2012 from the US and is qualified display pilot the T-33 and the D.H. Vampire. Martin is also a skilled commentator during our flying displays. Martin has logged more than 3000 flight hours in the F-16 and has a total of more than 4000 hours, most of them on high performance jets. He is currently among our most experienced F-35 pilots.
TinTin recieved in February 2019 the Royal Norwegian Air Force Medal of Merit. It is the second time this medal has been awarded, and the first time to a current serving member of the Royal Norwegian Airforce. At present time he is the one and only Flying De Havilland Vampire from the early jet age and F-35 Lightning every day at work.
mtesli@hotmail.com Tel: +47 93033499
JYRI MATTILA
Display pilot D.H. Vampire.
Flying experience: More than 2500 hours
Jyri Matilla is our newest pilot joined the Norwegian Air Force Historical Squadron in the 2017 season and checked out in the de Havilland Vampire as a display pilot. Jyri is from our neighbour country Finland.
Jyri has a huge passion for flying that started in childhood and he is a fighter pilot joining the Finnish Air Force in 1996. Jyri holds the position as the Finnish Air Force chief test pilot and flying F/A-18 Hornets and BAE Hawk among others. His daily work is at the Finnish Air Force test centre at Satakunta Air Command, based at Tampere–Pirkkala.
Jyri has flown more than 60 different types of aircraft and besides his work in the air force he flies airshow displays and aerobatic competitions with Extra 300 and Pitts S-12. He also enjoys flying and towing gliders. Jyri has also huge experience in organizing air displays at airshows as Display Director and deputy at the main annual Finnish air show event. From his test pilot duties he has flown a number of fighter aircraft besides the Fi AF inventory aircraft like JAS 39 Gripen, Eurofighter Typhoon, Rafaele among others.
Like in the Royal Norwegian Air Force the de Havilland Vampire was the Finnish Air Force first jet fighter, and later on Finland also operated the MiG-15UTI. Besides Jyri’s very fine flying skills and great experience the past history of the aircraft types currently operated by the Norwegian Air Force Historical Squadron and Finland fits well in.
Conatct: Jyri Mattila
e-mail: mattila.jyri@gmail.com.
ROLF MEUM
Display pilot.
Flying experience: 13200 hours
Norwegian Rolf Meum is the third pilot in the team being qualified in the Vampire for the 2016 season. Previously Rolf has displayed the T-33 in the 2012-13 season. Rolf has huge warbird and airshow display experience and having flown for the OFMC and Fighter Collection among others.
Rolf is a very experienced display pilot with a fantastic flying reputation and have been fortunate to fly some of the most rare, precious and historically renowned veteran aircraft. Rolf was more or less born with an interest for flying as his father was a former fighter pilot and airline captain. Rolf started gliding at aged 15 and took his private pilot license aged 18 and became the year after Nordic champion in aerobatic flying. He started military pilot training in the Royal Norwegian Air Force once graduated from school. Rolf got his flying wings and was assigned to RNoAF 338 Squadron flying F-5 in 1979 aged 21 and believed to be NATO youngest operational front line fighter pilot at that time. Later Rolf had a career as an airline pilot for Scandinavian Airlines flying DC-9, B767 and B737.
Rolf has a long aviation reputation with vintage aircraft not many others can boast. Having flown various marks of Spitfires as well as Messerschmidt 109, Corsair, Mustang, Hawk 75 and P-40 and Hawker Sea Fury among others.
Vintage jets are also well known to Rolf and he is checked out in Hawker Hunter, F-86, MiG-15, T-33 and L-29. Rolf also flew L-39 in the James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies and he has also flown in several other movies including Memphis Belle.
Rolf has flown an amazing more than 1000 airshow displays and trainings and
has logged more than 750 hours on warbirds. He also used to be an UK CAA display evaluator for a period of 14 years and he is currently a No CAA display evaluator.
rolfmeum@online.no Tel: +47 93693003
