Here's a (one-way) log of my flight a bit over a week ago from Helsinki-Malmi (EFHF) to Hyvinkää (EFHV). My phone battery was running low, so to preserve what I had I turned the phone off completely for the return flight. The return was the other way around Helsinki-Vantaa terminal area, from Hyvinkää via Vihti VOR (VTI) to Nummela airfield (EFNU).

Very long time, no update. Sorry about that... I might still write my flying lesson notes sometime, but we'll see. Henceforth I'll try to update at least some of the more interesting flying stories, and why not other events as well.

Flying hasn't been forgotten, though. I got my PPL(A) with night flying qualification in June 2009 and flew the transition course for a GPL licence in July 2010. Whee. :) Currently I have about 120 hours of total time and will participate in a SAR flying course in a couple of weeks. Voluntary airborne SAR duties will first include flying as a spotter and then as either pilot or MC (mission commander). Flights will be done to e.g. find missing persons, provide an aerial view for police, fire department or other officials, as well as patrol for forest fires and provide guidance to responding fire units.

Other plans for future skill development include difference training for EFIS ("glass") cockpits and constant-speed props, as well as - if all goes well - SEP(SEA), which means a seaplane rating.

My last flight was yesterday. After finishing up 50h maintenance on the club's Cessna 152, I decided that the perfect winter weather was too good to go to waste and took a short flight over Espoo with another pilot from the club. My previous flight on the type was on July 2010, so it was about time, too. :D Despite the long break, what I learned during basic training about the plane has apparently been storedd somewhere deep, as flying the plane was just as familiar as it has been. Thanks for that must go to my excellent teacher, who's apparently nowadays the chief instructor at one of the leading flight schools in Finland.

That's it for this update. Pictures and more details will come in later updates, this is just a "yes, I'm still alive" kind of thing :D

Lesson 29 (Tue, Sep 8.)

Riding the waves... Today's topic was radio navigation. For this, we flew first to the Porvoo VOR (PVO), then from there to Orimattila, where the Orimaa (ORM) VOR resides, from there to Antoni (ANT) at Kärkölä and then back to Porvoo again, before landing at Malmi.

A brief tutorial might be in order. VOR, short for VHF Omnidirectional Range (where VHF stands for Very High Frequency. Second-level acronyms are fun, eh? :) is a system for radio navigation. It consists of ground stations which send a specially modulated signal. The carrier signal contains the station's three-letter identifier as AM-modulated morse code. On the same carrier, there is a sub-carrier wave at about 10 kHz. This sub-carrier contains an FM-modulated 30 Hz tone for phase reference. Another, amplitude modulated 30 Hz tone is created by the rotation of a directional array 30 times per second, transmitting on the same frequency. This produces a "beat" to the main carrier, effectively creating a 30Hz amplitude-modulated tone. The phase difference between the reference and the rotationally-created beat tone can then be measured, and will result in the direction from the station to the airplane. There is an instrument in the plane to do this measurement, allowing the pilot to set the desired phase difference (i.e. direction to/from the VOR station) and then indicating the deviation from the desired difference. Got it? :)

Okay. That probably didn't clear it up too much. Suffice it to say that the VOR system allows the pilot to select a course along any straight line drawn from a VOR ground station (called a radial) and then intercept and track the radial (i.e. fly the course) by monitoring an instrument in the cockpit.

We did a bunch of radial intercepts, rehearsed finding out the current radial (e.g. in case air traffic control asks, or I happen to get lost during a cross-country flight) and flew according to the VOR indications. Towards the end of the flight, it was starting to get pretty dark outside. To stay legal, we filed an in-flight flight plan for the remainder of our flight, entered Malmi airspace via DEGER and landed with no fuss.

Lesson 28 (Tue, Aug 25.)

The last trip alone to the practice area for a while. This time, I had another instructor supervising my flight as "my" instructor was off flying somewhere. I proposed to the other instructor that I would do more stalls and tight turns, the answer was "OK, SMS me when you leave and again when you come back, I'll meet you then". Yessir. :)

The flight to the practice area and my maneuvers there were uneventful. Things started happening on my way back. First of all, when coming back via DEGER there was another plane entering just before me, as well as a couple coming out at approximately the same time. I kept my eyes peeled and spotted the traffic OK, and eventually got to join right downwind for runway 36. As is the procedure at Malmi, I reported when on base leg, which resulted in the following exchange:

Me: "O-AO, right base runway 36, to land."
Tower responds: "O-AO, continue as number two, number one on final"
Me: "Continuing as number two or actually as number three, number one on short final, number two on final in sight, O-AO"
Tower: "Disregard the one over the threshold, number one on final"
Ummm.. ookayy, if you say so... I had a good view of everybody anyway, so I just reported:
Me: "Traffic in sight and continuing approach, O-AO"
This whole thing left me a bit puzzled but I decided to talk it over with my supervising flight instructor after landing.

The events didn't stop there, however. The plane in front of me also did a full-stop landing and was somewhat slow taxiing off the runway. Tower anticipated this: "O-AO, Wind 350 degrees, 8 knots, expect landing clearance over the threshold." Me: "Expect late clearance, O-AO". By this, the tower bought a few seconds more time for me, as I could prepare for landing and delay a go-around for as long as possible. The plane in front of me eventually did get off the runway and the tower tried to radio me the clearance. Sadly, somebody else was transmitting at the exact same time, and I heard something that sounded like a clearance over a significant amount of interference. Being a conscientious student, I wanted to verify: "Transmission blocked, O-AO". Tower responds, _very_ quickly: "Cleartolandoscaralphaoscar". I acknowledge and drop the wheels on the tarmac. No sweat.. :)

After taxiing to parking and securing the plane, I met with the supervising instructor who had listened to the radio traffic. The verdict was that I was in the right and the tower was in the wrong. When first reporting the traffic, the plane I was later told to disregard was nowhere near the threshold and should have been counted as significant traffic. The proper radio call would have been "O-AO, confirm as number two, number one and number two in sight" but my spur-of-the-moment improvisation was OK, too. Also the late landing clearance was handled properly. Yay!

Lesson 27 (Sun, Aug 23.)

Now we're going somewhere! The first "cross-country" trip with my instructor. Our route was around the Helsinki-Vantaa TMA (Traffic Management Area). Routing: Malmi - DEGER - Sipoo church - Järvenpää grain silo - Hyvinkää airstrip - Vihtijärvi - Nummela airstrip - Espoonlahti radio mast - NOKKA - Malmi.

I'd scratched my head filling the OFP (Operational Flight Plan) for the flight for a couple of hours on the previous evening and got it more or less right. The wind calculations I did just before departing. Otherwise the planning went fine, but I did the wind calculations according to wind on the ground, not at 2000ft where we flew most of the time.. Whoops. :) Not a big issue but a learning experience anyway.

The flight was really good at teaching me which terrain features are discernible from the air (road crossings, lakes with prominent shapes or islands and, my favorite, major electrical wiring) and which are not (villages).

On our way back from Nummela to Malmi via NOKKA, we knew from the radio transmissions that another plane was somewhere in the same approximate area of the sky as we were (they departed Nummela shortly after we overflew it and their plane was a bit faster). Both me and my teacher craned our necks this way and that, trying to locate the plane. At one point I even looked around our shadow, visible in the sea, trying to spot other plane-shaped shadows.. We were only able to see it after both we and it entered Malmi airspace via NOKKA. The situation was a bit unnerving before we sighted the other plane, however, as we were in front and they were behind us, they were responsible for collision avoidance.

Twice alone in the skies today. Two trips to the practice area. Good, if a bit turbulent weather today.

Lesson 25 (Mon, Aug 18.)

The first flight of the day was my first alone to the practice area above Emäsalo, Porvoo. Woot! The feeling of leaving the controlled airspace around Malmi and really being the only one with authority on where to fly the plane was awesome! More of this, please...

The directions I got from my instructor were simple. "Just do some banks, climbs and glides. Nothing fancy, no stalls or tight turns. Just do something useful and don't waste the whole flight sightseeing.." And that's what I did. Climbs, glides and banks. Of course, I was the one to select the locations where I did those.. :)

Lesson 26 (Mon, Aug 18.)

More basic handling at the practice area for the second flight of the day. Tight turns (45° only, not 60°, I was told..), slips and stalls. "Be careful and keep the ball centered while stalling" was basically the only guidance I got before leaving. So off I went, turned, slipped and stalled. I did several stalls, both in clean and flaps-out configurations. Fun and games :)

Lesson 24 (Sun, 17.8.)

Not-so-good weather today

I was supposed to go fly alone at the practice area but the weather was marginal. Still within VFR limits, but not good for my first attempt at finding my way there and back again :)

So, after pondering for a while, I and my teacher decided to go fly some basic instrument training. Even though I'm not training for an instrument flight certification, the basic private pilot license requires 5 hours of instrument flight training. The only purpose of this is to get the student used enough to flying with instruments (and the different ways an average human's sense of balance will try to kill the unprepared pilot when visual references are lost) to be able to make a 180° turn if the pilot inadvertently enters a cloud.

So, after taking off and exiting from Malmi airspace, I put on a pair of glasses (Jeppesen Shades). The purpose of the glasses is not to help my vision. Instead, they limit the things I can see to only the instruments (unless I peek..). The effect is pretty good. Instrument flying is great fun, but it's also extremely difficult. The way to do it would be to keep a constant scan of all the instruments instead of focusing on a single one. I think this skill will get better once I have a bit more practice in it..

We did basic turns, climbs, glides, stalls and tight turns. Superfun but I still need a lot of practice..

Lesson 23 (Fri, Aug 15.)

Still more soloing. 6 landings in the landing pattern in a gusty, bumpy weather. Nothing really special with the flight or my landings.

I did get a bit weak on my knees after landing. The first thing my teacher said to me after I climbed out of the plane was "Have you heard yet?" "Ummmm, heard what?" I replied. Earlier that day, a Piper Arrow operated by Patria Flight Training, a Finnish commercial pilot training company, had crashed into the Saimaa lake, killing all three persons on board. My condolences to the next of kin, relatives and friends of the three guys. They were living their dream and died "with their boots on" and doing what they probably loved very much, but it still doesn't lessen the sorrow of death.

Lesson 21 (Sat, Jul 26.)

More soloing. The first lesson of the day was just standard touch'n'goes in the landing pattern. I landed with first 30° and then 20° flaps, after the shifting wind and turbulence became more pronounced. The landings were all OK, the first one was maybe a tad rough but it too was not too bad.

There was some other traffic in the pattern so a sharp lookout had to be kept for the whole time. Listening to the radio traffic helps immensely in this, I noticed myself building a mental picture of the planes in the Malmi airspace relative to me. "O-XX, okay, he just did a touch'n'go so he's behind me, O-YY should be joining the pattern via NOKKA ... oh, there he is, O-ZZ is number two in the approach and has just turned to the base leg, ..umm.. oh, there" etc. I have a distinct feeling that this skill will also get better with more experience.

After the lesson, a short chat with my instructor as well as a friend of mine who had the next reservation on the plane. The instructor didn't have much to comment, "the landings looked okay, I went and had a meat pie at the restaurant." Evidently he wasn't too worried :)

Lesson 22 (Sat, Jul 26.)

Yet more soloing in the pattern, once I got there.. I received a taxi clearance from Malmi Ground and taxied to holding K (at the start end of runway 36) as directed, did my runup checks, told the tower that I was ready and waited. And waited. And waited yet some more. Then I started worrying that they had somehow managed to forget about me (silly, yes, I know. There's a direct line of sight from the tower to holding K...), worked up my courage a bit and called the tower. The discussion went like this:

"Malmi Tower, O-AO, ready at holding K, any estimate for a departure time?"
"O-AO, shortly after you have received your takeoff clearance"
"O-AO, roger..."

I was a bit red-faced after that. I hope the tower wasn't too pissed of at my impatience... I did receive my takeoff clearance some minutes after my radio call, so they let me up in the air at least :)

For this lesson, I did landings with 20° and 10° flaps and one without flaps at all, just for fun. :) One of the landings (#3, I think) bounced a bit, also one was a bit rough (due to the about 10kt headwind suddenly extinguishing itself for a couple of seconds when I was about 5 feet above the runway. "aaaand pulllll...." *THUNK* "Um. That wasn't too nice.." No damage to the plane or myself, just a reminder about how unpredictable the winds can be on a windy, hot summer day. Anyhow, after discussing my landings with the teacher, he indicated that everybody else was also doing not-so-spectacular landings that day and mine looked just fine. He had even seen the rough landing and just commented that it was good that I had enough pull on the stick (so that I landed on the main gear, not on the nosewheel) and there's really nothing one can do when a headwind suddenly diminishes right before touchdown. So I think I did OK.

Intermediate checkride (Wed, Jul 23.)

Every pilot-in-training needs to fly an intermediate checkride ("välitarkastuslento" in Finnish) before being allowed to fly solo. The checkride cannot occur before 10 hours of flying time and 45 landing has been made, and is usually done between 10 to 20 hours of flying time. The checkride must be flown with a different flight instructor than who does the basic training, to provide independent confirmation that the student actually has learned the stuff he was supposed to learn.

My checkride instructor was Onska Viljamaa, a grand old man of Finnish general aviation. With 55 years of flying experience(!), there really is nobody like him. We did a takeoff, some basic handling (turns, a stall, slow flight) in the practice area and then a couple of landings in the pattern. It would have been really nice to fly longer with the guy, he sure has a lot of experience and is willing to share it. Hopefully I can fly with him again sometime in the future!

The intermediate checkride was passed OK. As we walked from the plane to the hangar, Onska asked whether there was a reservation for the plane right after us. After a quick check, the answer was no. The next reservation was hours away. "Okay, go and do five landings in the pattern. I'll monitor the flight." Ummmm... Ooo-kayyy. Okay. Yes. Yes!

First solo flight (Wed, Jul 23.)

!

!!

!!!!!

I walked to the plane, strangely feeling not that much at all. No fear, no apprehension, not that much elation either (don't know what was keeping that in check but I think it's a good thing). Just a nagging thought that told me I need to be extra careful with everything. So I tried to be. I did a walkaround, stepped into the cockpit, strapped in and noticed that even the small Cessna 152 feels a lot roomier when you're sitting there alone. :) Following the checklist, I started the engine, listened to the weather from ATIS and called the tower.

"Malmi Ground, OH-CAO"
"OH-CAO, pass your message"
"OH-CAO, practice flight to the circuit, first solo, 1 person, pilot-in-command Sorvakko, overseen by Viljamaa, flying time 25 minutes, endurance 3 hours, information Yankee, QNH 1019. Request taxi"
"O-AO, taxi to holding runway 18, cross runway 09."
"Taxi to holding runway 18, cross runway 09, O-AO."
"Ground."

A slight application of power, brake test and I was off taxiing, on my own for the first time! I taxied to holding, did the standard runup checks (a runup check is done at ~1700 rpm, both magnetos and the carburetor heater are checked, as well as the alternator (charging, no overvoltage), vacuum pump (suction "in the green") and engine instruments checked). Operation at idle power is also verified. After that I signaled my readiness to Malmi Tower, who gave me my takeoff clearance. I taxied to the runway, turned my transponder on, checked the gyroscopic compass once more and took off alone for the first time in my life!

I did 4 touch'n'goes and 1 full-stop landing. They went okay. None of the landings were perfect (I had a bit too much speed on final almost every time) but they were from OK to good, every one of them. I was actually amazed at how "normal" it all felt, even though the seat next to me was empty. Everything went exactly as during the previous training flights. After doing the fifth landing, I taxied to the apron, shut down the plane and got out. Onska congratulated me for a job well done and told that as he's alone, he's not going to throw me into the water fountain (a tradition at Malmi after the first solo flight). Saved me from getting wet, he did. :) We spoke for a while, I thanked him and then he left. He told me I owe him a cup of coffee and a bun, I think I owe him more than that. I'll have to figure out something :)

The exhilaration struck after walking around Malmi for a while. After that, it was very hard for me to wipe the grin off my face for the rest of the day. Whee!

The subject says it all.. :) Two flights.

Lesson 18 (Sat, Jul 12)

This flight was a practice run for my intermediate checkride, coming up at some point in the future. We went to the practice area, did turns, slow flight, stalls and tight turns. Came back, approached and landed.

Would've passed easily had this been a real checkride. No problems with anything. :)

Lesson 19 (Sat, Jul 12)

Tired with pattern and basic practice flying, we decided to do something different. As we had already trained spot landings (thereby teaching me the basics of how well the plane glides etc.) we did some simulated engine failures over Sipoo.

The drill: Teacher pulls the engine to idle, I convert what excess airspeed I have to altitude, trim the plane for best glide speed (60-65 knots, depending from whom you ask..) and select a suitable field, stretch of road (avoid these if possible) or another suitable location for an emergency landing. Then I need to figure out the wind direction and fly a landing pattern(ish, this can be altered to suit my needs). I also need to inform ATC (or anybody else) if possible. During our practices, I didn't actually transmit anything, I just made the call on the intercom "Malmi traffic, OH-CAO, mayday, mayday, engine failure, doing an emergency landing 5 miles north of the refinery". As I approached the field I had selected, the engine mysteriously sprang to life again at 500ft altitude (as air law forbids flying below 500ft..)

We did a bunch of simulated emergencies, no sweat. However, I figure that there would be very much sweat if the engine decided to seize or otherwise throw up what oil it has inside it to the windscreen or if there was some other reason to make a real emergency landing...

Sometimes you just happen to be in the correct place at the correct time.

Rockets, RC planes and General Aviation (Mon, Jun 7.)

Me and a bunch of friends were at the Nummela airstrip (EFNU), about a half hour drive from my home. The strip is used by the Finnish Space Research Society (Suomen Avaruustutkimusseura) to host miniature rocket flying events.

We were there to fly some miniature rockets. Me and a friend of mine also flew our RC planes a bit (yeah, I have a somewhat nerdish set of hobbies..). I launched a rocket first, to great success. Then I flew the RC plane for a while, after which I started to prepare for another rocket launch. There were also several other RC aircraft and one RC helicopter in the air so there was something to watch all the time. :) During my launch preparation, I noticed an oldish-looking two-seat aircraft with a couple of older gentlemen fussing around it standing in front of the hangar across the runway from where we were. Out of courtesy, I decided to wait until the guys left with their plane. The plane did start up soon, but shut down after about a minute. At this point I decided that I'll launch the rocket anyway as the plane was evidently going nowhere quickly.

The second launch was a success also. After fetching the rocket from where it fell and walking back to the our launch site, I saw the gentlemen walking towards us. First I worried that I had scared them with my launch, but they were on completely different business. "Would you, perchance, while you have these model planes and rockets, happen to have a small 12V battery with you? The battery in our plane is completely flat and we need the power to generate the magnetizing current for our alternator.." Of course we did and much hilarity ensued.

We understood the problem the guys were having pretty quickly. For those of you not so technically inclined, here's a short explanation. In a piston-engine plane, as well as in cars, there's an alternator taking care of producing electrical power for charging the battery and powering the electrical systems of the car/plane. As opposed to a generator which has a permanently magnetized rotor, an alternator needs a small amount of direct current to magnetize the rotor. This rotating magnetic field then generates an electric current in the stator coils by electromagnetic induction. If the alternator's rotor isn't magnetized, it is unable to provide any power at all. So what the guys needed was something to provide just a little bit of DC current, to get it to magnetize the rotor of the alternator so that it can then start providing the plane's systems with electrical power.

After rummaging around our equipment for suitable cables, we went to the plane, opened the cowling and connected our battery in parallel with the plane battery (trusting that our longish, thin wires would provide enough resistance to keep the currents manageable..). The plane was then handstarted as our puny little battery would be no match for the starter motor. The experiment was a success and the alternator started producing current for the plane's systems. The battery in the plane was apparently completely dead, as it didn't charge at all.

After shutting down the engine, we disconnected the leads from the plane battery and closed the cowling. The idea was to connect our battery to the main power bus (behind the circuit breakers) and feed the magnetizing current that way. The connection was made (after some huffing and puffing) and the plane's systems were again energized. The alternator, however, stayed dead. Apparently there was a diode or something else in between..

While we contemplated our options, a Czech ultralight plane made some (very) low passes over the Nummela airfield and eventually landed right next to us. After the pilot taxied to park beside us, shut down his plane and climbed out, his first sentence was "Hello." The second was "Was this the correct runway to land on?" :) The Nummela airstrip has one grass and one paved runway and, with no control tower and no radio traffic on the field frequency, the visitors had just decided to land near to us. The guys were very friendly and reported that they had started out from the Czech Republic with about 10 hours total time on their plane, now had a bit over 40 hours and were returning from Nordkapp. Kudos to the guys, it must have been a really nice way to spend a summer holiday!

Turning back to the powerless plane beside us, we tried to figure out a solution. We needed to deliver power to the battery circuit or somewhere very near it. The battery was inaccessible when the cowling was closed, but the cowling couldn't be left open for the flight and couldn't be closed with the engine running. This left us with only one option. With the cowling open, we connected the wires to somewhat accessible locations (a grounding point and the voltage regulator). We then routed our wires through the oil-inspection hatch on the cowling and screwed the cowling shut. After that, the engine was throw-started again and our battery used to energize the electrical system of the plane. The alternator dutifully started up, and with the engine running, the plane was good to go.

Now the only issue was to get our "jump-start" wires out from the plane's engine compartment. This doesn't sound like much but please bear in mind that there's not that much room available between the wing and the spinning propeller. Also, the wires had to be removed via the oil-inspection hatch. After some slow and careful feats of manual dexterity, the wires were removed. We then did a radio check (luckily we had our airband receivers with us) and off the plane went! It took off and overflew the field at fairly high speed (and an altitude of approximately 3 feet..) before climbing and disappearing into the horizon.

Rockets, RC planes, ultralights and jumpstarting a plane adds up to an extremely nice general aviation evening!

Lesson 16 (Sun, Jul 6.)

An uneventful flight in the pattern again. Some other traffic in the pattern, but not that much. Runway 09 in use which was a first for me.

We did landings with full (30°) flaps, without flaps and for completeness's sake, with 10° and 20° flaps too. The landings are still not as consistent as I'd hope they would be, but they are safe and not too hard.

Lesson 17 (Sun, Jul 6.)

The traffic was very light at this time in the Sunday evening. There were only a couple of other planes in the pattern and the air was calm. This was, then, a very good moment to do spot landing practices. I can't say that I'm any good at it (I tend to overshoot the aiming point and/or come in too fast) but not too shabby either. Once we get to forced landing practice, we'll see whether I'm really any good at estimating the glide range or not.

A fun lesson overall. :)

The weather for today's classes was, well, interesting. Every once in a while, I had the feeling that I was sitting inside a washing machine from all the bumps, bounces, twists and jostles that the wind and turbulence made our little airplane do.. :)

Lesson 14 (Sat, Jul 5.)

Circuits yet again. The wind was very variable and the air was also otherwise anything but calm. I had some problems maintaining a stable airspeed on final approach. Adding some speed and coming in for landing a bit too fast helped a bit, although it of course causes other problems on touchdown.

The approaches and landings (to runway 18) ranged from acceptable to good. I just need to learn to fly better in turbulence, to be able to figure out quickly which attitude changes need to be corrected and which will automatically sort themselves out.

Lesson 15 (Sat, Jul 5.)

Lesson 15 was basically more of the same. The wind hadn't changed at all, and the air was, if possible, even more turbulent than before. I think that I got a bit better in handling that during the day. Learning experiences again! :)

To conclude the lesson, we attempted to do a spot landing (maaliinlasku in Finnish), just to demonstrate how it works. Due to the busy traffic in the circuit, we had some problems communicating first our intentions and then our readiness to commence the spot landing, did some orbiting and finally managed to do one spot landing before our time ran out.

For those of you who don't know what a spot landing is, the point is to be able to land the airplane at a precise spot (the aiming point is the runway threshold) with no engine power, starting from a known point (abeam of the threshold on downwind at 1000 ft, in our case). The goal is to be able to judge the prevalent wind and the airplane's gliding characteristics to get the airplane down as close to the aiming point as possible. There are even competitions for this, but the skills are good to have if a forced landing to a tight field or other area is ever required.

Now! New and Improved! We are committed to enhancing your Reading Experience and providing new services to ensure your continued enjoyment!

...cutting through the sales BS, I hacked up an RSS feed for this blog. Enjoy!

Circuits (or landing pattern flying as it's called in American English) today.

Lesson 12 (Sun, Jun 29.)

We took off from RWY36 into a light wind and partly cloudy sky. The first couple of landings went, well, OK but something was definitely missing. I requested that the teacher would show me one final approach and landing, which he dutifully did. This enabled me to see the desired pitch attitude of the plane in the moments before touchdown. My problem was that I flared the plane (pulled it up from a nose-down to a nose-up attitude just before landing) way too early, causing the plane to balloon (rise back up into the air) and then threaten to stall too high. Seeing how it's supposed to be done made it very much easier for me to duplicate it, thus making my landings much nicer. Two of my last landings were actually very good. Whee! (again :)

There was some traffic in the circuit or otherwise taking off and landing for the whole time, so we needed to keep our eyes open and adjust the length of our downwind legs to get proper spacing between us and the other planes. That, too, is getting easier everytime. Learning is a wonderful process...

After the flight, we taxied to the fueling station at the airfield and filled up the plane's tanks. Self-service, so I got to practice how to do that too. :)

Lesson 13 (Sun, Jun 29.)

Takeoff from RWY36 again, and a few landings there. Flying in the circuit was great fun, as there was some localized rain above and around Malmi airfield. Sometimes we landed in the rain and sun was shining at the other end of the runway, sometimes we approached and landed in dry conditions but flew through rain taking off and sometimes it rained during the downwind leg. It never rained for a complete circuit. Peculiar. :)

During one downwind to RWY36, I got to see one of the most beautiful rainbows I've ever seen. It was nearly a complete circle, about 20-30° short. It was also extremely bright, as it was generated by the same rainshower that we were flying through. Pretty!

During our fifth downwind, the tower revised our approach clearance from runway 36 to runway 18. The wind had changed direction. We were cleared to do a 180° degree turn and join left base for runway 18 (from right base to runway 36, i.e. the same place we were but going to the other direction). A mental flip of a coin, a ~200° turn to the right and then a 20° turn to the left and we were where we were supposed to be. The last couple of landings were to runway 18. This is actually a bit easier than runway 36, as the final approach is a bit longer.

Next time: more circuits. First solo flight is getting closer and closer.. :)

Lesson 10 (Sat, Jun 28)

Today's first flight was about stall and spin recoveries. We started with slow flight without and with flaps, and then did some stalls in both configurations. These went fine, but on my request we drilled the flaps down stalls many times to ensure that I remember the proper procedure:

• Release backpressure on the yoke
• Let airspeed build up to the green arc, after that wings level
• Set full power, carb heat off, flaps 20
• Accelerate to 55 knots
• Positive rate of climb: flaps 10
• Accelerate to 67 knots
• flaps up and level off

Lesson 11 (Sat, Jun 28)

Final session at the training area for now, after this it's circuits for a while. The main topic for this flight was tight turns. We started with turning at 45° bank angle, which we'd been done once before. Then we moved on to turns at 60° (whee) and 80° (WHEE!). :) Holding altitude when banking at 80° requires about full power on our little Cessna, as well as a huge amount of up elevator (meaning a hefty pull on the yoke).

Why, you may ask? To understand this, a brief lesson in aerodynamics is in order. To stay up in the air, an airplane needs to generate lift. This is done by its wings. In straight and level flight, the lift vector (i.e. an imaginary arrow describing the lifting force generated by the wings) is pointed straight up from the plane. As the plane banks, the lift vector still continues pointing up from the plane, however, this is no longer perpendicular to the downward force exerted on the plane's mass by gravity. To overcome gravity, more lift must thus be created to keep the gravity-opposing component of the lift vector equal to gravity. As the bank angle increases, the gravity-opposing component must increase even more. This increase is done by increasing the angle of attack (the angle at which the wing moves through the air) of the wing by increasing the pull on the control yoke, thus causing the elevator (the horizontal part of the plane's tail) to force the nose further up. Increasing the angle o attack also increases the other component of the lift vector, thereby tightening the turn. It also increases the acceleration (measured as G-force, 1G equals the acceleration caused by the gravity of the earth (9.81 m/s²) acting on the plane and its passengers.

There's a limit on how much G-force an airplane can handle and thus how tight turns can be made with it. This depends on the aircraft structure as well as the systems installed in it. There's also a limit on how much G-force a human being can handle, but this limit cannot be exceeded with a Cessna 152.. :)

Otherwise the flight was uneventful. Maneuvers at the practice area are pretty much done now.

Had two lessons again, a week ago. I was supposed to have had four (two on Saturday, two on Sunday) but I got some kind of food poisoning on Saturday and spent the day with a fever alternating between sleeping and running to the bathroom.. Fortunately, that cleared up before Sunday!

Lesson 8 (Sun, Jun 15.)

As there was a few weeks' pause from my previous lesson, the first flight of Sunday was spent on a quick refresher flight. This went pretty much uneventfully, except that I took off from RWY27, a first. Had to consult my aerodrome map before starting to taxi after receiving my clearance.. The taxiway from the apron (parking area, in front of/around the terminal and hangars) to the holding and runup area (area next to the runway where the engine and other final checks can be done) at RWY27 is somewhat .. peculiar. Feels like driving through a narrow road in the countryside!

The only thing I needed to brush up on was stall recovery with flaps down. I let my airspeed build too much (i.e. lost too much altitude) recovering from the stall before pulling the wings level. Ah well, a few repeat practices took care of that problem.

Lesson 9 (Sun, Jun 15.)

"Malmi ground, OH-CAO, training flight to the circuit, 2 persons, PIC XXXX, flight time 35 minutes, endurance 2 hours, information Quebec, QNH 1002. Request taxi." For those of you who aren't used to aviation radio calls, the call above delivers the following information: I am calling Malmi ground from a plane whose registration is OH-CAO. I'm making a flight plan to the circuit (more on this in a moment). In the plane, there are two persons, the Pilot in Command is XXX (my instructor). Our estimated flying time is 35 minutes, with fuel in the tanks for 2 hours of flight. We have received the ATIS (Automatic Terminal Information Service, weather and other terminal information delivered on a separate radio frequency) report with the identifier Q, and the QNH (altimeter barometric setting) given in that report and set by us is 1002 hPa. Finally, I'm requesting taxi clearance (implicitly to the active runway).

The most interesting part of the previous call was the word "circuit". Oh yes, circuits! The traffic circuit around a runway consists of four parts, separated by 90° left (usually left) turns. The first part after takeoff is the upwind leg. This continues straight on from the runway. After climbing to a suitable altitude, the next part is the crosswind leg. This leg is flown to get the plane in the circuit to a safe enough distance from the active runway. After another 90° turn is the downwind leg. This leg is parallel to the runway, into the opposite direction from takeoff. This leg is flown to get the plane to the downwind side of the runway so that the approach and landing can be flown into the wind. The turn to the base leg is done a while after the end of the runway has been reached. The purpose of the base leg is to bring the plane to the starting point of the final approach, which follows after the final 90° turn, leaving the plane aligned with and approaching the runway again, ready to make an approach and a landing.

Flying in the circuit consists of roughly the following items to be taken care of:

• Takeoff, clear of obstacles.
• Passing 500ft, turn to crosswind.
• Turn to downwind, set cruise power and wait.
• Abeam of (next to) the runway threshold (the line from which the usable landing area of the runway starts), decrease power and activate carb heat (hot exhaust from the engine is redirected to the carburettor intake to prevent it from freezing)
• Speed check - flaps 10 (speed must be below 85 knots before flaps can be extended)
• Turn to base, flaps 20, announce ourselves to the tower: "O-AO on base for runway 18, touch'n'go"
• Turn to final, flaps 30 (full flaps)
• Acknowledge the landing clearance when the tower gives it: "Clear for touch'n'go runway 18, O-AO"
• Try to make a stabilized approach and a good landing!
• After touchdown, flaps up, full power, carb heat off, wait for the plane to accelerate to 50 knots, rotate (pull back on the yoke), takeoff and around we go again

As you can probably imagine, the would-be pilot is quite busy for the whole time. It's still superfun (or so I say now, there's a distinct possibility that this will get boring after some repetition.. I'll enjoy it while it lasts, anyway!

Viva Las Vegas etc.

I'm currently located in that "oasis in the desert" or, as it's more aptly called, Sin City. No, I'm not here just for the fun of it (my idea of fun does not really include sitting by a slot machine in a dark lobby listening to an infernal beeping and clinging noise), but I'm here, nevertheless.

A couple of days ago, I had a bit of extra time for playing tourist. Given that I've never been to this part of the world before (numerous times to the US but never before to Nevada) I decided I wanted to take a good look into a couple of sights in the general area, namely the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon.

I started out from my hotel in Vegas at around 8 in the morning. After driving for some time, I thought that some coffee might be nice, and lo and behold, Starbucks right when I wanted one. One quick fueling stop later, I was on my way towards the dam. I first drove over the dam and left my car on the Arizona side, then walked back to the Nevada side where the museum and other exhibits are. After walking around on my own for a while, I decided to participate in a tour of the dam. That one proved to be worth every cent, as the tour guide was knowledgeable and funny (although he did resort to dismal puns every once in a while, e.g. "Did you like your dam tour?" on the elevator on our way back from the generator room. There was a distinct groan in the cabin which I think didn't originate from the elevator machinery...). The dam is a real marvel of civil engineering, especially considering the fact that it was built in the 1930's. Also its scale is nothing short of astounding, even though it is no longer the largest dam in the world.

From the dam, I started my drive towards the Canyon. The road there is .. interesting in a certain sense. Very very long, straight stretches of road, with no buildings, people, cars or animals in sight. Made me feel lonely a couple of times on the way. The trip from Vegas (or the dam) to the Canyon is also quite long. I kind of knew this before I started on my trip, but the point struck home only during the drive.. At one point I started to worry whether I'd make it there before sunset!

I did make it there before sunset. During the drive, I'd been debating with myself whether or not I should take a helicopter tour of the Canyon. In the end, I decided to take it and BOY am I pleased I did!

Four Icelandic persons, yours truly and our pilot started the ride with a security briefing, after which we boarded one of Maverick Helicopters' Eurocopter EC-130s. For some reason, the pilot commented that we were much quicker with the safety belts than any other group in a long time, I wonder why... Then our pilot started up our chopper, waited for a while for a ground person to give us a thumbs-up and off we went!

...Off we went approximately two feet. Then we swung gingerly around and air-taxied slowly away from other choppers. At this point, encouraged by the (bad) jokes from our pilot, I commented to the intercom with my best announcer's voice: "Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached our cruising altitude of two feet..." Apparently our pilot found this funny, because he chuckled on that for a while :) In the meantime we'd gotten far enough from others, turned our nose to the wind and off we went. Whee! I have got to get more chopper-time sometime...

We flew over the Kaibab national forest towards the rim of the canyon, via a circuitous route (there's a no-fly zone around the main visitors' area of the Canyon so that people are not constantly buzzed by helicopters and planes). The experience of flying low over the ridge of the canyon, with the ground very suddenly dropping away from under you, was very profound. I was basically speechless for a while, with my lower jaw hanging somewhere on the helicopter floor...

The tour went around several scenic points on the canyon, with our pilot explaining and pointing out this detail and that. He was a very good tour guide and apparently at ease with flying the helicopter and talking constantly at the same time :)

After the chopper tour I drove to the Canyon myself. There is a large amount of hiking trails etc in and around the canyon, as well as predefined viewing points for those who don't have the time to go really walking around, like me this time. The sun was setting rapidly, but I took a bunch of pictures and generally just marveled at the immense scale of the rock ledges, old landslides etc. that make up the Canyon landscape. There's really no way to describe it in words, and I don't think my pictures managed to capture the scale properly either. My memory, however, certainly did and won't very easily forget..

The drive back went a bit quicker, as I only stopped at the dam to take a few in-the-dark pictures of it. From there I drove straight to my hotel, got to my room and basically collapsed to my bed. A long day and some residual jetlag made for a good night's sleep!

Today's topic: Unusual attitudes and flight modes. Today's feeling: Whee! (seems to be a recurring theme...). Today's observation: Handling the radio communication doesn't really require much effort anymore.

Lesson 6 (Sun, May 25.)

Takeoff from RWY18 again into a nice, calm weather. Some turbulence near the airport but once we got closer to sea it went away. Did some wing waving again on the way to the practice area, went somewhat better but still not spectacular. I think I'm slowly getting the hang of it, though :)

After a couple of slow flight refreshers we started doing stall practices. Stalled wings level with and without flaps. Without flaps was OK, with flaps needed a couple of iterations before I understood just how much rudder I had to kick during recovery. Evidently the ideas / knowledge of maneuvers are all already in my head, what I'm lacking is a feel of the conrols. That'll come.

Flew back, did an approach (finally managed to remember, read and complete the approach checklist) and landed. No fuss. Not a spectacular landing but not at all bad, either. Cool!

Lesson 7 (Sun, May 25.)

Again, takeoff from RWY18 to an absolutely smooth evening sky. Wing waving again during the fligh to the practice area, now I think I got it!

We did a figure-8 (first bank ~240° to the left, then do the same to the right) and discovered that it was basically boring.

Moving on to more interesting things, we did more stalls at the practice area. We did a couple of no-power stall recoveries, no sweat with those either. Also, we did a couple of stalls during bank, which were quite fun. The plane usually wants to dip the inner wing of the turn during the stall, which would then rapidly degenerate to a spin if left untreated. Nose down - speed green - wings level - level up - max power and there we are again, airspeed rising, altitude can be recovered if desired etc.

The main topic for this flight seemed to be recoveries from spins. The teacher put the plane on the onset of spin and said "recover". All this requires is to ease pressure on the yoke, let airspeed build up to the green band, level the wings, pull up to level flight and set max power. Not such a hard thing to do, but it's good to get a routine for these types of recoveries, so that they come automatically if needed for real.

The lesson ended with the teacher demoing a spin. I haven't lost that much altitude that quickly before.. :)

Flew back again, did a good approach behind a biplane and landed. Another good landing to end the day, and we got down just before the tower closed. Cool again. :)

Two lessons again today. Some things went better than before, some things I still have not quite gotten the hang of.

Lesson 4 (Sat, May 24.)

Radios and all other stuff handled by me from this point on. Preflight, taxing and takeoff from RWY18 (hadn't done that yet) went uneventfully.

Once in the practice area, we did climbs and descents at different airspeeds (and climbing and descending turns), nothing really special there either.

Returning was a bit more eventful. We estimated arriving to DEGER at the same time as a Patria Flight Training Bravo did. We eventually saw him off and slightly forward of our right wing. I decelerated a bit to gain some separation between us. When approaching the pattern, an ultra also joined us (with the ultra as #1, Bravo as #2 and us as #3). We all joined the downwind leg right after each other.

Eventually the separation between us got a bit too narrow and to sort it out, the controller ordered me to to a 360° turn. Tracking the other planes very close to us, doing the approach preparations and then trying to keep my speed up with my plane in a dirty config (20° flaps) almost overwhelmed me, and I lost some altitude (from 600 to 500 feet, approximately) in the bank due to a too low power setting. After adding power, things again went better. :)

After the flight, my teacher commended me for my mental simultaneous capacity. My own feeling wasn't that good but evidently I did something right, even though I did lose the altitude...

Overall, a nice flight and I again learned much new.

Lesson 5 (Sat, May 24.)

Malmi tower closed just before we started taxiing, so it was untowered airport procedures for the whole time. We were off to the practice area again, with 10° flaps on takeoff this time (from RWY18). After getting to the practice area, on my request, we tested the effects of flaps (the effect they have when operated and the power requirements they impose).

The rest of the time was spent doing slow flight and then stalls. I was a bit too shy pulling the plane up to a stall, but once I realized the amount of control deflection required I did manage to get the plane to stall a couple of times. Full power - carb heat off - nose level -- no sweat. Teacher demoed a spin (i.e. a stall done sloppily, causing the plane to fall on one wing or the other and start spinning) and a recovery. This is supposedly frightening, but I trust my teacher :) It might get frightening once I have to do it myself...

On the way back, we both kind of forgot that we need to be below 700 ft at DEGER. I noticed that before my teacher did (or else he was just testing me), pulled the carb heat on, cut power and sideslipped to lose altitude as quickly as possible. Got to the target altitude right on time.

The landing could have been better, I have to say. I left some power on at the threshold without consciously being aware of it, and that kind of left me hanging a couple of meters in the air. I'll need to do better next time. (once we get to really doing landing practice I expect things to get better. Repetition is always a good strategy for learning. :)

Just as a note to myself, and maybe to others who might be interested, I will try to mark up what I did on each flying lesson.

Lesson 1 (Sat, May 17.)

Preflight checks, general discussion about startup procedures etc. Teacher handled starting the engine etc. Teacher also handled the radios, but after getting a taxi clearance I taxied to EFHF runway 09 and held short. Runup checks were done very slowly to get me familiar with each step. Then on to rwy 09 and up towards DEGER.

At the practice area, basic handling stuff. Effect of controls, banks, climbs, glides etc. Not much time before we had to get back to DEGER, right base to rwy 36 and a teacher-assisted landing. (I don't exactly know what or how much he did but he did something).

Lesson 2 (Sun, May 18.)

Again preflight, this time done more by me and monitored by teacher. Running startup checklists also done by me. Radios still with teacher, taxi to RWY 36, takeoff, DEGER out. Wing-rocking en route to the practice area. More of basic handling, effect of speed on handling etc. Climbing and descending turns.

Back DEGER in, right downwind to rwy 36, had to extend downwind because of an ultralight as number one. Did a slightly less assisted landing.

Lesson 3 (Sun, May 18.)

Second hop for the day. Preflight, startup, I copied the ATIS and filed our flight plan over the radio. Ran the run-up checks, got takeoff clearance and taxied to the runway. Used callouts on takeoff run (how professional of me, eh? :)

Off towards DEGER, our flight plan was closed by TWR due to TWR closing. Malmi thus turned into a untowered airfield.. More wing-rocking en route to the practice area. Short recap of basic handling, then slow flight with and without flaps. Teacher showed what stalls feel like.

Due to Malmi TWR being closed, we got to choose our own route back. Came back via NOKKA, did a long straight approach to rwy 36 (shame on us) and I managed a surprisingly good landing. Let's hope there's plenty more to come :)

The long hours spent on aviation theory classes last winter have finally paid off! I had my first 3 flying lessons (35 to 45 minutes flying time per lesson) last weekend, and pretty much all I can say is "whee!".

The lessons were all about basic handling, learning checklists etc, and they were great fun! My instructor is gradually advancing the level of difficulty required of me (making radio calls etc. came on lesson 3). Level flight and basic turns are slowly starting to feel good, but I still haven't mastered rocking the wings properly (I have issues gauging the proper amount of rudder input). That'll come eventually, I'm sure of it.

We also did some slow flying and my instructor demoed stalls for me on lesson 3. Lesson 3 ended with a landing that, while not spectacular in any sense, was anyhow something that earned me a comment "well, you're not going to kill yourself on landings anymore" from my instructor. I'll leave it up to you to decide whether this was a good or a bad thing :)

Next lessons will probably be on next weekend, here's hoping that the weather stays fine even then.

Whee!