Finland International Airshow @ EFHF

One week after Tour de Sky there was the Finland International Airshow held at Malmi Airport and yet again I was on duty promoting the school. This time we had quite a lot on offer since examples from our whole fleet we're there for the public to see, including four C152's, the C172. one Piper Turbo Arrow and our sister company Scanwing's King Air C90 (which I'll be flying later on in our training) and even our flagship, the Cessna Citation CJ2+ business jet.

The weekend was fun, although I was very tired when it ended!

Pic's, or it didn't happen:

The C152's on display

Cessna 172 Crew ;)

One of each type we're flying in our training

Tour de Sky @ Oulu Airport

I got a chance to go to an airshow called Tour de Sky, which was held at Oulu Airport in northern Finland to present our school once again. We flew there with the school's Piper Turbo Arrow OH-PGA with three other schoolmates and stayed for the weekend. It was very nice to get a chance to fly cross-country with the Piper. We flew to Oulu via Jyväskylä so everyone could fly at least one leg.

Flight to Oulu, sitting as a passenger on the right seat

The weekend went nicely and people were quite interested in our Piper and school overall. It was nice to get to talk to different people and of course see all the airshow participants. There was quite a lot of jets, for example an Italian team called "Frecce Tricolori" consisting of ten jet fighters doing formation flying. Other memorable show's were the F-16 Demo Team from Holland and the MIG-29 from Eastern Europe.

Our nice PGA on display

SL's Dream Team

The crowd was quite interested in our aircraft, but we were more interested on the fighter jets ;)

Frecce Tricolori

A real 1:1 Hawker Hurricane. We got a chance to get a closer look on this beauty at Jyväskylä airport, where we both happened to land to refuel. 

Back to Malmi

Lappeenranta International Airshow 2013

I spent the weekend promoting our school in this year's biggest airshow in Finland, the Lappeenranta International Airshow (LIAS). When I heard of the opportunity to go there for free on behalf of our school, I instantly volunteered to be part of the team. I'm very happy I decided to go there instead of spending a free weekend in Helsinki.

After setting everything up we mainly did promotional work from about ten a.m. to five or six p.m. talking to people and telling facts about our training whenever asked and so on. The evenings went by in our camping site, which had a nice outdoor grill place and many small cottages for us to sleep in.

All in all, I met many interesting persons, got to know some of my coursemates and older students better and of course saw all the airshow's performers every day. So, a very nice weekend well spent!

Here's some pictures:

Our stand from the front. There was three of our airplanes for the public to see, the C152, Piper Arrow and the King Air.

The Team.

King Air on display. Visitors could also go inside the cabin. I got to spend a lot of time there too. This plane was essentially like a motor home to us during the show.

Promoting Scanwings and the Citation CJ2+.

The Royal Jordanian Falcons aerobatic team. The Jordanian king obviously has a soft spot for aviation.

The Harvard, a military trainer aircraft from the times of WWII.

Finnish Aviation Academy's Embraer Phenom 100, used in multi-engine training.

I got to fly back to Malmi as a passenger in the backseat of our Piper Arrow. Quite a nice way to travel and the view's were fantastic :)

Home at last :)

Promoting the school @ Air & Motor Show

An event focusing mainly on cars, bikes and aerobatic airplanes called Air & Motor Show was organized today at Malmi. Since our school's operating from there and has lately been doing a lot of work trying to gain more publicity, it was decided we would promote our airline and private pilot's courses at the event. I was of course one of the volunteers who immediately signed up for the task. I've been promoting gliding on behalf of Nummela Gliding Centre before and have always liked to do this sorts of things so I was very happy to attend!

We had a nice stand with our King Air at the front. Back at the hangar there was a Piper on which people could jump into and look at the interior. Inside our hangar there was also four C152's on display. We mainly promoted and handed flyers on our school's new PPL course with the conditional possibility to continue on to professional pilot training after the course.

Our stand and hangar with the King Air C90 on display. This one has an extended nose with a cargo hold making the plane look like a bird with a beak.

Introducing the Piper to a young boy, although I haven't even flown this one yet :)

I spent quite a while on the captain's seat of our King Air, checking everything out.. A very fine airplane, can't wait to fly this next year!

I took a little detour and checked out the competing flight school's Cirrus SR22, a nice and modern IFR-, G1000- and anti-ice equipped four-seater.