First ultralight flights of the year!

I've been hanging around at Nummela yet again for a few days now and got a chance to fly a little with the Fk9. After I finally managed to get the battery working and was able to start the engine, I went for a little rehearsal flight. I had studied the manual a bit and wanted to go through some basics like slow flying and stalls in order to re-familiarize myself with the plane.

It's like riding a bicycle, really...

Ready for some evening flying :)

After the rehearsals it was time to grab a local friend on board and fly a little cross-country trip from Nummela to Kiikala and Forssa airfields. I also ended up in Nummela the day after and flew with a friend to Malmi for some refueling. From there we went to Torbacka grassfield and then back to Nummela. On the way back I got to show and demonstrate my friend some basics of flying. It was all very nice and we had a great time!

Day off

This one morning I looked out of the window and saw a very nice autumn day beginning. I didn't have a school day but just had to go flying. So towards Malmi I went and took my ultra-aviation club's Zephyr out of the hangar.

Heading towards Hyvinkää

I've now been flying ultralights for about one hour every month. And since I don't have any solo flights left in school anymore, it's nice to be able to fly just for fun once in a while.

The simple panel of the Zephyr, with only the basic flight and engine instruments.

I flew a little cross-country flight to Hyvinkää and Nummela, making landings to both airfields. It was fun to fly alone in an ultra after a long time of taking friends up into the sky. I got to experience the incredible rate of climb these little airplanes have. Quite a different feeling when comparing it to the Piper.

Nummela airfield ENFU

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!

Jämi Fly In 2013

Last sunday we decided to attend Jämi Fly In and fly there with an ultralight airplane with my father. Jämi is situated not too far away from Tampere and the flight time from Nummela airfield is about one hour depending on the wind. Jämi Fly In has traditionally been a very good event which started out as a gathering for experimental airplane pilots and has now evolved into a family event with an airshow and lots of food and aviation related shops and stalls.

Our ultralight parked at Jämi airfield.

The flight to Jämi was nice. We cruised at about 2500 feet and the wind was all the time very light so it was an easy go. I had carefully read through the arrival procedures and made the appropriate user waypoints to the GPS beforehands so navigating and arriving at the airfield didn't pose a problem. There was a certain predefined route, which you had to follow unless instructed otherwise. This was to keep the traffic situation under control although the airfield stayed as an uncontrolled aerodrome for the whole event.

Some aerobatics :)

The airshow included lots of model airplanes, glider aerobatics, other aerobatic performances with a Pitts Special and Su-26, for example, parachuting, experimental airplanes, the Tuulia Team (which flies the same Tuulia's I have a licence for) and the Fouga Magister. My favourite was of course the Fokker DVII, which was flown by a Swedish airline pilot Mikael Carlson. I love WWI fighters and it was very nice to see this one flying!

The Fokker DVII

Another interesting airplane we saw was the Tiira, which is an illegally built experimental aircraft made out of home materials. It uses greenhouse plastic for covering material and has no ailerons. A certain Finnish gentleman built this plane in the 70's and flew many years without a licence until the police came and took the airplane away (he has built at least two new ones after that and continues illegal flying). It now stays in a museum. What's also interesting is that this one hasn't got a single instrument on board. What an aircraft!

I'd like to give this one a go... or maybe not!

I guess this rules out instrument flying?

Flying the Fk9 ELA

At the same day I flew gliders at Nummela, I also got a chance to fly my Fk9 ELA ultralight for the first time this year. The Fk9 is an ultralight plane that my father bought together with his friend for the purpose of leisure trips and recreational flying. The plane was flown to Finland in the spring 2010 and from there on it's been flown for about 300 hours. I think I've flown a little over half of those hours.

The OH-U619. Quite a nice and sleek side profile!

The Fk9 ELA is a German-designed two seat ultralight fitting into the new European light aircraft category. It has been in production since 1989 with over 400 sold individuals. The aircraft is of conventional layout featuring a hight wing with struts, side-by-side seating, flaps and fixed undercarriage. The ELA version is made almost entirely of composite material and features winglets. My plane has a Rotax 912 ULS (100hp) engine installed, which gives it enough power for float operations (which we originally considered trying out but the idea has now been put on hold) and more than enough power for land operations.

A very comfortable "working environment". Notice the slight bank angle caused by the pilot taking pictures and not concentrating on flying!

This individual has a number of additional features installed particularily in the cockpit. The avionics feature a nice Dynon EFIS dislay and a large Garmin GPS with lots of easy-to-use flight planning features. It really makes cross-country flying easy although I always have paper charts on board too. On top of the EFIS, there's a traditional altimeter and airspeed indicator in case of an electrical problem.

On the right there's an electronic multi-function engine display, showing the RPM, CHT and fuel flow, for example. It now shows a typical cruise situation with about 4200 RPM, cylinder head temperature of 73 degrees and fuel flow of about 11 litres per hour. You could also cruise continuously with a higher RPM and thus greater speed but then fuel consumption increases to about 15 litres per hour and I don't like the high-pitched sound the engine makes. When flying ultralights, there shouldn't be any hurry in the first place :)

On the top center, there's a multi-informaton display showing for example the flap positions and fuel quantity (although I always use the mechanical fuel gauges). What's especially handy is that this display also includes electronic checklists, which are easy and natural to use. The checklist dissappears only if you've clicked all the items once, so it's hard to miss anything, and with a double click it automatically moves on to the next checklist. Very nice!

Dusk at Nummela

The Fk9 ELA is an absolute joy to fly. It's handling characteristics are very forgiving and the plane is very stable yet still easy to manoeuvre. It has a cruise speed of about 105 knots so it's a bit faster than a Cessna 152. Rate of climb is about 1000ft/min and stall speed is 35 knots. Stalling is almost "dangerous", since it is so uneventful and calm that you barely notice the whole thing! So it's a good idea to watch the ASI especially when landing.

A few challenges with the Fk9 is that it's quite slick and really doesn't like to slow down so quite a large power reduction is required on downwind to achieve Vfe. The airplane has three flaps settings and with full flaps it finally really slows down and you easily feel the additional drag in the cockpit when selecting full flaps. With full flaps the Fk9 can be very slow and it almost feels like you could land the plane with zero ground speed.

Overall, this has to be one of the best ultralights out there and I've noticed this plane has gained lots of positive attention everywhere it goes!

Here's some specifications (stolen from wikipedia):


General characteristics

• Capacity: 2

  

  A view from the front, nice three-blade propeller.

• Length: 5.85 
• Wingspan: 9.85 m
• Height: 2.15 m
• Wing area: 11.60 m²
• Empty weight: 278 kg
• Max takeoff weight: 544 kg or national ultralight limit (472,5kg in Finland)
• Powerplant: 1 × Rotax 912 ULS 4-cylinder horizontally opposed (100 hp)
• Propellers: 3-bladed Junkers with ground-adjustable pitch

Performance

• Cruise speed: 196 km/h; 106 knots at 75% power
• Stall speed: 64 km/h; 35 knots
• Never exceed speed: 230 km/h; 124 knots
• Range: 1,000 km; 540 nmi
• g limits: +6.01/-3.0
• Rate of climb: 5.0 m/s (980 ft/min)

The "Six One Niner" parked near Nummela's runway 04

This time I didn't fly much mainly due to the lack of fuel on board. I didn't have the time to get more and refuel the plane since my main focus was getting the glider flights done. So I made some short hops around Nummela airfield waiting for a my turn to hop in to the glider. I practised some stalls and made a few landings with different configurations.

I can't wait to start cross-country flying with this later on and enjoy my last summer of recreational ultralight flying before gaining my CPL and moving on to single-engine piston airplanes. I already have a lot of passengers who've asked for a chance to get a ride in this one. I think I'll be once again flying to Mariehamn often, since that's my favourite route here in Southern Finland. There's even a restaurant with a chance to order a 1kg steak, and we've already made a pact with a friend.. :)

Flying with the Zephyr!

A very nice anticyclone has decided to rest and stay over Finland and for a long time now I have enjoyed beautiful early spring weathers. Every day there's a clear beautiful sky with cirrus clouds, and the weather is mild and very calm. So with a sports licence in my pocket why wait for the beginning of the flying period in my flight school?

So I've now been flying with the ultralights in my aviation club..

Mäntsälä Aviation Club's Atec 122 Zephyr, OH-U645 at Utti military airport. With this, you can almost land on the runway... ...sideways!

So I've been flying the Atec 122 Zephyr ultralight, which is a quite fast two-seater airplane with a low-wing configuration. This is the same type of plane I flew when training for my licence so it's quite familiar to me. I've logged about 70 to 80 hours with the Zephyr.

At Lahti-Vesivehmaa EFLA, this time flying the U635.

Since my last flight with this type was over three months ago, according to my clubs regulations I had to book a review flight with an instructor. So we took off and did some basic stuff like stalls and coordinated turns in the training area near Helsinki-Malmi after which I embarked on a solo flight circling the city of Helsinki. A few days after that I went cross-country flying for the first time this year. I planned a flight to Hyvinkää airfield and from there to Utti military airport and back to Malmi. I've also now flown again to Hyvinkää to train landings on a slippery runway.

My most recent flight was to Lahti-Vesivehmaa. There I came across a little incident when brakes on the left wheel of the main undergarriage decided to freeze and I had to call the maintenance people form our club to help since there was no suitable tools onboard the airplane. The Result: three hours of waiting in very cold and windy conditions at the airfield. Fortunately I came across some flight instructor of the local flight school and I got access to the airfields "tower" where there was warm.