Jämi Fly In 2014

I attended Jämi Fly In once again this year. We flew there with my schoolmate and hanged at the airfield for the day. I really liked this year's airshow since it included a lot of WWI fighters, which I am very fond of. It was nice to see the Fokker Dr.1 again and also the S.E.5.a for the first time. I was surprised by how small it was. I even thought it was 3/4 scale when I first saw it.

Some WWI warbird action at Jämi

C152 to Räyskälä

It's been quite a while since I've last flown with the C152, but a few days ago we decided to go flying with my classmate who is also my simulator partner. We took the OH-AWB and headed to Räyskälä to have some lunch. There's extremely good hamburgers there so it's always nice to go and have some.

Over Helsinki once again

Flying with the C152 after a few months brake was very fun and I didn't even remember how nice and simple it is to fly. Of course it's quite slow and a bit "cozy" especially with two persons on board but I think it's perfect for short trips like this one.

Landed at Räyskälä airfield

My classmate flew us to Räyskälä and I flew back, logging about one hour of flight time. I still have about 2.5 hours of C152 flying left so I think I'll have to figure out some more flights in the near future..

After the flight we had to plan an IFR flight from Helsinki-Malmi to Tampere. We're not actually going to fly it yet but the FNPT exercises include some homework like flight planning etc so we decided to do this one together to be better able to encounter possible difficulties. The planning didn't went so smoothly even though we finally got everything done. IFR flight planning still feels quite stiff and you have to scratch your head a lot, but I guess it starts to feel more comfortable if you just do it more. Hope so :)

Simulator training continues

For the past few weeks I have been flying in the FNTP for about three days a week and have now logged about 10 hours in it. So there's about 25 still left!

Coursemate doing some unusual attitude recoveries

After the three FNPT-rehearsal flights and the following basic instrument flights we've started to go through VOR, DME and ADF/NDB a little bit more deeply. We've flown and intercepted different VOR-radials and practiced the more challenging basic ADF-procedures. What's made these flights more fun is that even though we will move to approach and landing -training later on, we are already making practice holdings, approaches and landings usually based on the radio navaid that's the subject of the exercise.

Ready for departure at Tampere

At first the approaches were quite basic and the instructor helped a lot by giving radar vectors etc. but now we've been bit by bit incorporating more things to them and I feel that the challenge level rises very smoothly. It doesn't feel overwhelming but still there's certainly no place for any overconfidence!

First day of IFR training!

Today was our first day of instrument flight training and I've now flown for two hours with the FNPTII simulator!

FNTP II

Our IR-training consists in total of 50 hours of flying, of which 35 hours are flown with our FNPTII (Flight Navigation Procedures Trainer), which is a fixed-base "simulator" that emulates the flight characteristics of the Piper Turbo Arrow. After the FNPT flights, 15 hours are flown with the real plane and hopefully at least a few of the hours in actual instrument meteorological conditions.

My "office" at the moment

The first three flights (of which two I've now flown) are not actually part of the IR syllabus but are intended to give a little introduction to the trainer and make students comfortable with the controls before the actual IR training begins. However, we already did some interesting flight figures and ILS approaches just for practice.

ILS

Flying with the FNPT is actually quite demanding and somehow more challenging than the real aircraft since it's much harder to keep in trim. After two flights I already felt quite exhausted and tired. But after all, I like the challenge and can't wait to learn new things as we progress further.

Until then..!

At last it's behind me!

Whoa.. Frankly, I'm speechless at the moment.

I did the last half of the ATPL exams today and the day before, and I just got to know that I have managed to pass them all! I have thus reached my goal, which was to pass all of the exams in one go and with good grades. I couldn't be happier!

Never worked so hard for a piece of paper :)

Here's a little summary:

Subjects in total: 14
Number of practice questions answered: 22 542
Hours spent studying: Countless!
Average score: 91,4%

Well deserved..!

Now it's time to focus solely on flying! See you next time when the Instrument Flight Training begins! :)

A small update on the situation

Recently I've been extremely busy and it feels all things start to stack up quite a bit. I've practically done aviation-related things from eight to ten hours a day and don't seem to have much of free time for the next few weeks or so.

In addition to some few theoretical studies we have left, I've now been starting to practice question bank exercises more intensively. The final six exams will be on the 16th and 17th of next month. After that, all of it will hopefully be finally over. I have experienced some anxiety since I really want to repeat my success and pass also these six exams on the first time. However, studying seems to be much harder now that summer is knocking on the door and weather gets better and better, so I just have to focus and repeat to myself that passing these exams is the best way I can make all aviation-related things move forward.

We have also had our first briefings on the next phase, which is IR-training in the FNPTII simulator. Our course actually had some simulator flights already planned for this week but we requested to postpone those until the exams are over.

... :)

In addition to school-related things, I have two other flying-related things going on that have been taking a lot of my time. Both of them could be described as work, which I am extremely happy for. However, I've decided not to go too much in depth on those until things become more clear. I don't want to hype things before something actually happens for real.. Also, I have to somehow figure out how to write work-related things here since it's a bit more complicated than writing about school :)

I recently also joined Malmi Aviation Club and was going to start flying with their Cessna 172 and Diamond DA-40 but decided to put those things on hold until I have a little less going on...

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!