Third solo - first solo to training area

So, it was finally time for my first solo-flight to the training area!

I arrived at Helsinki-Malmi airport a bit early on Friday the 1st of February. I'd had a test at school that day so I was finished early as well. There was plenty of time to do all the pre-flight checks before pulling the plane out at 14. I had to wait to 14:15 for my instructor to arrive, so I completed the checks, jumped in and closed the canopy meanwhile.

My instructor basically just checked that everything was alright before he left. I read through the checklists and started..... well... tried to start the engine. The engine of this plane can be rather tricky to start, especially when it's semi-hot. I did three attemps, non of them succeeding. Batteries of GA-planes are also drained really quickly. I switched off the battery and called my instructor. We did some attempts with him on the outside, and then he jumped in to try himself. The problem is however that the DA-20, unlike many other similar planes, CAN'T have the canopy open with the engine running. After MANY attempts, we got the engine running on the very last fumes of the battery. The battery was really close to dead so we quickly switched on the generator and turned off all other electrical consumers (exept strobe lights). Running the engine at a bit higher RPM than normal and letting the battery charge for around 10 minutes, it was now my turn since it was a solo flight. We shutted everything down, my instructor left and I tried starting it again. I succeeded and pretty delayed, I could still fly! I just had to do it a little bit shorter than intended, though not much really.

At the run-up checks, the RPM DID drop over the limits when checking the magnetos. I had to do the rest of the checks, then try again. I also leaned the mixture a bit while running on the 1700 RPM to get the heat up and clean the spark plugs. All other checks completed, I tried again, and luckily, the drops was within limits now! The plane hadn't been flying for some days and also been to maintenance.

I reported ready, but had to wait a while. The traffic circuit was relatively full. I managed to get a "slot" and first got cleared to line-up and wait whichafter I got my clearence.

I did a right turn to DEGER and reported outbound when I reached DEGER. It felt special, but very good to now fly outside the airport-area alone. I climbed to around 1000ft, before I turned towards a friend of mine's house. I circled the area a little before continuing towards Porvoo. First I flew along the coast-line, then I started following the highway. This was the first time I flew directly above Porvoo! I circled around a little, before turning back. I followed the highway to somewhere around Söderkulla before I flew towards the coast and circled the area of my friend's house for a while. During the flight I did a lot of maneuvers and enjoyed "hanging around", getting more known etc. The flight was unforgettable. Just me and the plane.

So it was more or less time to return. I was a little close do DEGER so I flew towards Söderkulla and the Ingman (ice cream) factory again. I contacted the tower at Malmi, but realised I had forgotten to listend to the ATIS! I had say call you back and quickly listend the ATIS to get the weather info (to advice the tower that I had the information and the pressure in hPa). So I got cleared to enter the control zone and join the base-leg for runway 36. I flew towards the airport but started doing a little mistake here. I should have turned to the left earlier and followed a road (where there is a chimney as well) to avoid the noise abatement area and actually reach the base-leg better. I had drifted too close to downwind and I found myself over the noise abatement area, realising I was a little off the track I was supposed to correct it, when the TWR told a Cessna "... follow Diamond, now trespassing noise abatement area". I got a bit stressed, and more or less, joined the downwind-leg instead (if it counted as I joined downwind or if I made a straight line between almost-downwind and base-leg I don't know, but it wasn't a very big problem. There are room for mistakes and especially for students, we are still learning! :) My next mistake was to drift a bit too close the the runway so I had to extend a little and make a more or less 180 degrees turn to avoid another noise abatement area (Malmi cemetery). The landing went fine, but I had to quickly leave the runway for the next plane to land. A little shaky and definitely embarrassed, me and my instructor debriefed well. This wasn't dangerous at all, just embarrasing to me. Noise abatement areas are not forbidden to fly over, more like avoid as best as possible. Things like this DO happen and there is room for it. This wasn't even a big mistake, just embarrassing. I gained experience from that, making me a safer and better pilot in the future. I look forward to impress the ATC in the future as well ;-)

The flight was really unforgettable!

A video and some pictures below. The (small) ciry is Porvoo.

Stay tuned for more!

Helge