Summary of the PPL flight training period

Now it's the time to just believe that flying is over for this year. Weather keeps getting worse and in the last week almost no-one seems to have gotten in the air. Luckily, almost the whole PPL-phase is now completed and actually only two solo cross-country flights will have to be postponed to next year.

A rainy day and an Antonov AN-2

So, the first flight training period is now over and here's a quick summary of the flying hours I logged during the training:

Total time: 48h 25min
PIC: 12h 19min
Dual: 36h 06min

C152: 48h 25min

Take-offs by day: 159
Landings by day: 159

Sensory illusions, cross-country adventures and the end of the flight period...

Autumn weather has taken over Finland and chances to get in the sky get slimmer every day. Lately I've been having quite a lot of free time. Usually you can just continue sleeping in early morning after gazing out of the window and seeing some BKN003 SHRA weather.. Alternatively you'll wake up when your flight instructor texts you that the day is cancelled.

Ready for takeoff at runway 36, I miss this kind of weather :)

Some flying has happened though, including something new to me. The PPL flight training includes so called basic instrument flights, which are meant to teach the student pilot how to make a co-ordinated 180 degree out of a cloud in the case that you accidentally end up in bad weather. This is the sole purpose of the trainining and by no means it gives any competence on being able to actually fly in instrument conditions on purpose. Well, that training is also ahead of me later, when the IFR course begins.

We simulated instrument conditions by using special goggles that restrict the view outside of the windows and forces you to focus on your instruments. It was interesting to notice how much mental capacity is required even for the most basic of maneuvres when the visual horizon is taken away from you. Even straight and level flight requires much more work than usual, since the tennis ball -sized artificial horizon isn't as easy a reference than its natural big brother. I also experienced a somatogyric illusion when all of a sudden I felt a strong sense of turning left even though I was flying straight ahead. You almost start to correct this falsely perceived attitude before realizing that the artificial horizon shows that you're flying straight and level.

Coming in for landing!

One flight that's also behind me is the classic "Turku-Tampere" flight, which is the traditional way of flying that mandatory flight to controlled aerodromes that's in the PPL syllabus. The flight planning for this trip took almost three times as much time compared to the last cross-country flight we did to Hyvinkää and Lahti. I had to plan three flights: From Malmi to Turku, from there to Tampere and then back to Malmi. In addition, this was the first time I had to plan a route using flight levels (FL75) so some time was consumed in counting Top of Climb and Top of Descent -points.

Me flying the Charlie Alfa Papa, another successful landing completed!

Something funny happened to me the day before as I forgot to check our crew web in the afternoon, noticing the information about a cross-country flight late in the evening therefore having no time to plan the flight. So I woke up at two'o'clock in order to be at the airport at three in the morning. Planning takes time and I didn't want the flight to be cancelled. Actually it was quite epic to be at school in complete darkness, doing pre-flight checks with a flashlight...

Cross-country flying - SL Flight Training's style

The PPL flight training period goes on and now we've gotten into our first cross-country excercises. Solo flights have been flown in the traffic circuit and training area and every once in a while we have gone to the sky with the flight instructor to rehearse on some old things and learn new ones.

SL Flight Training's hangar, a few 152's in maintenance. On the right there's the Piper Turbo Arrow, which will become familiar to us in the end of the CPL training.

Cross-country flying using our schools professional methods and standard operating procedures have been the freshest and most new thing to me recently. I've flown a lot of cross-country on the ultralight side, and we of course did some operational flight plans and calculations but now the planning stage has risen to a whole new level. These flights are very thorough and everything needs to be prepared in advantage. We're training to become professionals after all, not recreational Cessna pilots.

After some basic navigation excercises I flew my first real cross-country flight. This flight was the so called "Hyvinkää-Lahti", which was a route from Malmi to Hyvinkää, from there to Lahti-Vesivehmaa and back to Malmi. The flight included touch and go landings on both of the aerodromes mentioned.

Nope, found no treasure over there this time.

Flight planning for "Hyvinkää-Lahti" took some 1.5 hours including fuel calculations, route plotting and making the operational flight plan. I did wind calculations, calculated ground speeds, magnetic headings and estimated fuel flow during the trip. Of course I had to gather all the radio frequences, aerodrome bulletins, route bulletins, aerodrome charts and information on touch and go landings. After that it was time to file the flight plans, order fueling and printing out all the notams, charts and weather information. Finally, when the pile of printed sheets exceeded the height of our Cessna's beacon, it was time to go and fly!

The flight itself went well and weather was decent enough for the whole trip. At the same time a few other planes flew the same route so had to keep my eyes open all the time. I must say that all the planning and preparing pays itself back when in the air, as everything feels so secure and organized. You know where you're going and what you're doing, have all the information at your hands and are always a bit ahead of your plane. Something I havn't always experienced in the past.

First solo flight!

Today was the day when my flight training had advanced to the point that I could fly solo for the first time. I would very much like to write the traditional story here, where I'm at first extremely nervous and then embark to the skies and come down safely with a huge sense of relief and personal accomplishment.

But... this was the fourth "first solo" for me, so I genuinely wasn't nervous at all and the flight wasn't anything mindblowing, although it felt nice of course. However I don't remember being especially nervous before and during my true first solo with a glider. I'm not saying I'm better than others in any way but somehow flying for me feels very natural and I just somehow know I can manage whatever comes up. Sometimes I bit envy some of my coursemates who have come to the school with zero hours of flight experience. Everything is so new and exciting. I suppose I'll have to wait a while before something totally new comes to me, since this PPL course has been very familiar so far.

Still, it's always nice to fly without an instructor. There's always these waypoints in flight training where having an instructor on board doesn't really add to the experience and you'll have to fly solo for a while to make progress. So now it was fun to fly alone and enjoy the silence and Cessna flying.

The day's sortie was a flight in the traffic circuit, where I had to make five touch and go landings in the vicinity of Malmi airport. After this it was time to park the plane and head for the hangar to receive some applauds and congratulations.

...and yes, there came the cold water! :)

About ten hours of Cessna-flights behind

We've now been flying for two weeks and now something like 20 percent of the PPL flight course is now flown. Bad weather and low-base autumn clouds have bothered a little bit but we've still managed to get airborne almost every day. The 152 starts to become quite familiar already as I've grasped a certain routine to checklists and operational procedures.

The most well-equipped plane from SL Flight Training's C152 fleet, the Alfa Whiskey Bravo.

Tomorrow we're taking a checklist exam where you're supposed to remember all of the checklists by heart, so that you are then not dependent on them in flight. Although checklists are an essential part of flying and especially our professional pilot training, it wouldn't be convenient if no-one of us knew how to fly the Cessna 152 without all the checklists. After all, it's an extremely simple airplane to operate compared to large commercial airliners.

Flaps down is a sign meaning that pre-flight inspection has been done.

Beginning of flight training!

Our PPL flight training started this week and now in the past few days we have flown a total of four school flights in the Cessna 152. Flying itself feels very familiar but of course there's always something new to learn in a new airplane type. However, most of my mental capacity in flight goes to memorizing and learning all the call-outs and checklists in English language. We operate the 152 like a much larger airplane with more complex procedures than what are really needed. The intention is to prepare for the future. We are not here to become private VFR-pilots after all!

The first aircraft assigned to me from SL Flight Trainings C152 fleet was the OH-COY.

SL Flight Training has a fleet of nine Cessna 152 aircraft, which are one of the most popular training aircraft of the world. The C152 is essentially an upgraded version of the C150, which is the fifth most porduced airplane in the world with almost 24 000 individuals made. The winner is the Cessna 172, a four-seat variant with over 43 000 planes produced, two of which can be found in my school's hangar...

The Coyote and a nice summer day. This is one of the two odd birds not painted in the school's livery.

Most of the school's C152 fleet, actually seven of the nine planes are painted in the school's livery of red and brown stripes and every plane has an SL logo on tail. The fleet consists of register marks OH-AWB, -CAP, -CJM, -COD, -COG, -COY, -CTC, -CVP and -CVY. I'm hoping to fly all of these and determine my own personal favourite :)