The Piper-phase continues..

Another week has passed and I've been flying more flights with the Piper Turbo Arrow. I now have about five hours of experience with the plane and I've counted that our syllabus includes a total of about 20 hours of Piper-flying. That's more than it used to be a few years back, fortunately.

In addition I've now also flown my VFR Navigation Progress Check, which was the last flight (in the CPL syllabus) with the Cessna, 172 in this instance. The aim of the flight was to check that my cross-country flying, flight planning and airplane handling are in a level expected at this point from a commercial pilot student. We basically did everything one can do with a small plane, diversion exercises, simulated instrument flying, low-level navigation, sudden engine failures and forced landings, touch-and-go landings, spot landings to uncontrolled airfields and radio navigation. Needless to say, the flight was quite exhausting!

Taking off from Malmi runway 09 on a rainy morning.

It has been increasingly rainy for the past week, which has lead to unfortunate cancellations. On top of that there was a battery-problem that grounded our plane for a few days, so this week I've only gotten airborne on one day!

The view from the back seat at about 2500 feet.

The only flight I got to fly was a combined basic instrument & traffic circuit exercise, in which we flew to Lappeenranta, did the traffic circuits there and then flew back. We usually conduct these flights so that there are two students on board. The other one flies there and the other one flies back. In this case I was sitting as an observer on the first leg and then flew back to Malmi.

VFR on top, at 4000 feet.

The flight to Lappeenranta had some awesome scenery involved since we flew on top of an overcast layer of clouds for most of the time. At some point it seemed the random open spots started to disappear so it was necessary to dive below the layer.

A Ryanair B737 landed in Lappeenranta right after us.

On this flight it finally seemed that the radio navigation exercise with instrument goggles on didn't take that much capacity and I could actually enjoy the flight. I think the careful flight planning also did its part in reducing the workload. Or maybe it is the relative stability of the Piper compared to the Cessna.

First flights with the Piper Turbo Arrow IV

Finally the Piper flying has started and I now have about three hours of flight experience with this fine bird. In addition, I've been sitting a lot in the backseat as an observer. With this experience, I must say that I like the plane very much and would love to go somewhere far with it. For a basic half-hour scenery flight the C152 is maybe better with its simplicity but this one is aimed for cross-country flying and feels far better suited to it than the C172, for example. I think that after gaining my licence, I'd rather fly Pipers than Cessnas except for the 152 maybe.

My new favourite!

The Piper feel different to the Cessna, being a faster airplane with a low-wing configuration. When applying full throttle in takeoff, you actually feel a little force pushing you to your seat. Also, in the air, the plane handles very firmly and calmly and feels like a real airplane!

The passenger cabin. With its soft seats and window curtains it almost feels like being onboard a real regional airtaxi.

The first three flights have been training area exercises in which we have learned some basic maneuvres and procedures and gained a little touch on the plane itself. We've also been practising some emergencies like landing gear failures, engine failures and forced landings. Everything so far has been very interesting and I'm very much looking forward into flying more with the Piper Turbo Arrow!

Flying between cloud layers!

My last time flying the Cessna..

..Well not, actually. But today I've flown my last remaining solo cross-country flight in our CPL flight training syllabus, which is also my last solo flight in the school program. Actually we still have one Cessna flight left, which is the VFR navigation progress check we're supposed to fly after flying five hours in the Piper. For some reason our syllabus doesn't give us the required 50 hours of cross-country PIC needed for the instrument rating so in reality we'll be flying some cross-country with the Cessna's off-syllabus after receiving our licences until we get the total of 50 hours.

Heading to Kuopio at 3000 feet. Some stratocumulus is starting to build up from the morning fog.

So, since a few of our 152's were standing at Kuopio because of the night flying training, my objective was to fly there in the backseat of our C172 and then take a Cessna and fly it back to Malmi. So off we went with a plane fully loaded with three students (with the same objective) and a PPL-licence holding student in the captains seat. I was clearly in the role of cabin crew since I bought everyone some drinks and food for the flight from Malmi's restaurant.

The flight to Kuopio was totally epic since the whole middle-Finland was overcast with radiation fog that had convected to very low stratocumulus. Flying on top of such a layer gives you a strong illusion of being very high, the view is almost the same as one would see from an airliner. Very nice..!

"Oscar Oscar Kilo, Flight level 360 established.."

Landing to the destination was a little tough because of low clouds but luckily we found an opening from which we could dive into the airport. Flying at 5000 feet, we saw that the cloud layer was open from all sides except the south so we would definately get safely to the ground in VMC. It was only that we were lucky to be able to fly straight to the airport without flying further north in order to get down from the cloud top.

After having landed to Kuopio, it was quite clear that I could'nt get back into the air again due to the low cloud base and our extended student minimums (8km visibility, 1500ft cloud base). The visibility was great but clouds were at 800 feet so we headed to the canteen to plan things out... ...but after two hours all the clouds had gone and it was total CAVOK at Kuopio, so off we went!

All of our four planes lined up at the holding point, me being number two. A Finnair E170 landed before us.

I headed to Tampere in order to gain a little more flight time. It was fun to fly to the same place with three planes and discuss everything via radio. There's a frequency one can use for normal conversation where RTF phraseology is not required and ATC isn't present.

Jyväskylä Airport EFJY. I've never landed there and saw this one from the air for the first time.

Flying was very easy since I had plotted my route from VOR to VOR and just followed the radials checking the map every now and then. The weather was absolutely perfect and the plane required almost no control at all...

Tampere EFTP. A military C-17 Globemaster in the background.

After refueling at Tampere, it was time to head back to a very uneventful last leg back to Malmi. A nice cross-country experience, and a perfect closure to my Cessna-flying... ...at least for a while :)

Piper ground training & First simulator exercises

We've now been sitting in the classroom again studying the techical aspects and procedures of the Piper Turbo Arrow. The Piper's role in SL Flight Training is that it's a so-called "complex airplane" required to be used in CPL flight training. By complex the requlations refer to an aircraft with retractable landing gear and a constant speed propeller.

Our school has two Piper PA-28RT-201T Turbo Arrow IV airplanes, the light brown and blue OH-PGA and the red OH-PBA. They are equipped with quite the same amount of features. The PBA has an RMI instead of the PGA's RBI, but the PGA has a two-axis autopilot while the PBA has only a basic wing leveller.

There it is, waiting for me to fly it :)

The theoretical studies were quite straightforward. We went through the basic systems of the plane mainly focusing on the differences compared to the Cessna's. We also studied all the different airspeeds one must know in advance.

After the classroom studies we had some ground training in our hangar, where we went through the pre-flight inspection items and discussed the plane's cockpit, instrument panel and all the different levers and switches.

Some techical aspects we went through.

When the theoretical studies and ground training was complete, it was time to fly for the first time in our schools FNPT II simulator, which is configured to resemble a Piper Turbo Arrow. Our syllabus included three hours of simulator flying in three different sessions, which basically consisted of exercises closely related to the upcoming Piper flights.

SL Flight Training's FNPT II simulator.

Although the simulator isn't realistic enough to give a feel of flying the real Piper, it was useful as a means of learning the new checklists, by heart items and callouts. The more complex environment calls for more complex checklists and procedures so there was quite a few new things to learn. However, I felt I got quite a good grasp of the differences already. The hardest thing in my opinion was all the different power settings (manifold pressure / RPM) and remembering, which lever to move first.

The cockpit of the FNPT II. Much better lightning than in the real plane!

Night flying @ EFKU

One of probably the nicest experiences in my pilot training is now added to my collection of memorable flying moments!

In other words, I've now returned back to home from a five-day trip to Kuopio airport, where we had our night flying course. We were advised beforehands to shift our sleeping pattern because at Kuopio, the day would start at about nine o'clock in the evening and end at about four or five in the morning. We would be sleeping in a school apartment, which was located at the airport at less than a hundred meters from the apron.

Ready for taxi in to the darkness.

The first night's program was to fly the two training area exercises combined into one flight and we were briefed thoroughly about minimum safe altitudes, the locations of the different training areas (only one plane in each of them, to avoid collisions at night), and safety precautions as well as operational procedures and differences in everyday flying-related tasks at night. We were allowed to use the briefing and flight preparation lounge of a local parachuting club and it was very cozy indeed.

It was a really nice and special feeling to take off for the first time at night. I had somehow in my mind associated night flying with the relaxing post-sunset twilight summer flying I'd done before but somehow the amount of darkness only really occurred to me after we started taxiing to the runway. It really was pitch-black and you could see nothing but darkness and the aerodrome lights. Also the flying felt like a combination of VFR- and instrument operation. We did some instrument turns, 30- and 45-degree turns, spiral dive recovery procedures, slow flying and stalls and then returned for landing.

The C152 cockpit at night. Only the VOR and ADF are actually lighted. The lightning for the rest of the instruments comes from a red light in the roof.

Since there were a few signs of worse weather ahead, the second night was dedicated to cross-country flying, since it has the most restricting minimum weather. My cross-country flight was from Kuopio to Joensuu via a few enroute checkpoints and from there back to Kuopio. For the first time in a long time I actually took my time planning this short flight and calculated every useful VOR-radial and DME-distances for every checkpoint, thoroughly checked the MSA's and wrote notes to self about the different frequencies and tasks at every phase of the flight in order to ease my workload when actually airborne. The flight lasted a little less than two hours and had to be one of the most atmospheric flights I've ever flown. Night navigation was very interesting and challenging and somehow everything felt more epic than in daylight.

The route for my night navigation exercise.

Flight planning and efforts to improve night vision ;)

We only had traffic circuit exercises left for nights three and four, and since the weather stayed good we got to fly all of them in time. Normally, I've been getting a little bored of the traffic circuit flights at this point but these I looked very much forward into. We made some interesting landings with the Papi-lights off and simulating electrical failures by turning all the instrument and cockpit lights off.

After two flights with an instructor, it was my turn to go solo and fly five take off's and full stop landings at night in the traffic circuit. This solo flight was brief and ended before I got to think about what I was doing, so I didn't quite get into the "here I now am, flying at night" -feeling but all in all, it was memorable and fun.

On final runway 33.

So now its actually dark. An approach with a simulated electrical malfunction.

I'm very much looking forward to continuing night flying when I get my license!

PS. Starting monday next week, it's time to say farewell to active Cessna-flying and defect to the Piper-side of the single-engine piston fence :)