Jaemtlands Flyg, founded in 1954 by Gunnar 'Spoekis' Andersson and his wife Dagmar, believes that new wind power developments in northern Sweden will augment its traditional business which includes reindeer herding and power line inspections.

The company's ceo Sara Grinde says: "Today we have five helicopters performing all different kinds of jobs, such as reindeer herding, power line inspections, forest inventory, fire fighting, and the transport of tourists and different materials. We also carry out wildlife inventory and the marking of species such as elks, wolves, bears, reindeers, wolverines and lynx."

Spoekis is a nickname in Swedish which is short for the ghost flyer. Grinde says Andersson carried out night-time war rescue flights bringing Norwegians from Norway to Sweden. "The people could not see the aeroplane but they could hear it. That's why they called him the ghost flyer," she explains. Andersson started Jaemtlands Flyg to fly tourists to the Swedish mountains. He also launched a flight academy which specialised in services around the remote mountainous regions of Jaemtland. "In 1963 the company got its first helicopter which made the rescue flights a lot easier," Grinde says.

But Spoekis died in an accident during a power line inspection in 1974, and his son Kent who also was a pilot, died in 1977. The company is now run by Andersson's wife, his daughter Siw and her husband Ulf Grinde.

In 1981 the company sold the helicopters but kept the Cessna 185 and 206 for tourist flights. But the company grew and, after a decade, responded to the demand for helicopters to carry out activities such as reindeer herding.

Jaemtlands Flyg acquired a Hughes 269 and a JetRanger a few years later. Grinde says: "The company is very responsive to market needs and, in the mid-90s, the aeroplanes and the tourist business were sold and Jaemtlands Flyg concentrated solely on helicopters. We now plan to take advantage of the prospect phase of wind power developments."

Jaemtlands Flyg acquired a Robinson 44 Raven II which was brought into operation in March. "Our fleet is now complete and we will not extend it, at least not for a while," Grinde says. The latest acquisition joins an AS350B2 and three EC120Bs. During the summera second R44 was rented to help meet demand. The B2 and the R44 are both preowned; the EC120s were acquired new.

"The fleet was carefully chosen to match the wide variety of aerial and taxi work needs of our different customers who are based in places ranging from the Swedish east coast to the remote mountainous regions of northern Scandinavia."