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...