Hanging around at Nummela & some glider aerobatics!

It's been quiet lately. Bad weather and the fact that our school's new course have now been starting flying means I have been grounded for a while. There have been days when I've had a plane reserved for me but I've been very unlucky and it always seems to rain when I'm about to have a school day. I also requested a few days off a while ago due to a trip to Copenhagen, and all this has led to a situation where I've now had a three-week "vacation" having only gotten airborne once during this period! But I'm in no hurry since I only have two PIC flights left before we'll move on to the Piper and I think I'll manage to fly those flights out of the way.

Recently I've been hanging around for two complete days at Nummela airfield gaining a little extra motivation and of course flying a lot. In addition to practicing with the ultralight, I also got to be on board the towplane for quite a few flights. It's really nice since I've been offered a chance to fly this plane part-time after I achieve my license. What a fun way of gaining valuable experience and those golden hours! The plane in question is the PIK-15 "Hinu", which is a finnish-made plane designed solely for aerotowing. I'll go more in-depth once I start flying it myself.

The cockpit of the PIK-15 Hinu. A very simple layout, even compared to the C152. No radio navigation equipment, no transponder, just the basics you need to get flying.

There the glider is, following us!

I also got to fly a little aerobatic flight with our two-seater glider ASK-21 with one of the flight instructors at the field, who is my good friend. Nice!

A slightly different perspective on the world

Approaching the airfield and making a high-speed pass..

When the day started to come to an end me and the tow pilot decided to fly a little cross country flight with the FK9 ELA. We flew first to Torbacka, which is an ultralight-only grass field with only 300 meters of runway, from there to Hanko, then to Genböle grass field, and from there back to Nummela via Kiikala aerodrome. What's better than casually flying around with another pilot-friend, talking about the hobby/profession and enjoying evening scenery? Nothing.

You've seen lots of nice scenery so here's something else for a change. Here we're flying towards Hanko airfield at FL085.  Notice the airplane profile setting ;)

Some information about the future:

Starting next tuesday we will be having our Night Rating theory course, which lasts for two days and after that we are going to some other airfield, probably Mikkeli or Kuopio, for at least one week to fly all of the night flights in the CPL syllabus. After the night rating we'll fly a few flights in the FNPTII for the first time and then move on to the Piper Turbo Arrow IV. Looking forward to all of this!