The day for my 2nd flight arrived! I took the bus with my grandfather to Helsinki Malmi airport and met my instructor 17:00. He then told me that the tower was closed for some reason, so we had report our positions and intentions on the traffic radio, and also confirm and close the flightplan manually via phone. I filed the flightplan with help from my instructor and I called the ACC to confirm that it had been picked up and it was transferred to the right system. Then we jumped to the aircraft, the same aircraft as usually; the Diamond DA-20 C1 registered OH-KAT. and I performed all the walkaround checks, fuel draining etc. In the aircraft I read the checklists and fixed everything. When ready to start the engine, I was now doing it for the first time, and it works just like a car. I was also taxiing and it wasn't that hard as I had possibly thought it was. I also gave throttle on take-off, and lifted with the stick, but the instructor used some pedals so this was also partly my own, first take-off. In the air we were suddenly a little too high (we were supposed to hold 700 feet AGL to our reporting point NOKKA, but we were reaching something like 800 and had to quickly pull down). It felt like a roller coaster, and after our small dive I felt the G's. I was flying and we were going to practice turns mostly west of Helsinki (over Espoo) so we flew to our next reporting point; ESPOONLAHTI. We flew just south of Helsinki, over the water, and that was the first time I saw the city close from the air in a small plane! I was so busy flying that I didn't see my house on the way to ESPOONLAHTI. Then round ESPOONLAHTI we practiced turns in different banking angles as well as 180 and 360 degrees turns. After that we started to fly home and I now saw my house from the air, for the first time! It was fantastic to see Helsinki from the air, finally! On the first flight we flew in another direction, that's why I didn't saw it the previous flight. We reached NOKKA and I now perfectly well know where NOKKA and DEGER (the two most important reporting points) are. On approach my instructor took over the controls and landed, but with my hand also on the stick to feel the movement. We shutted down according to the checklist, but when I was going to push the plane into the hangar I wasn't able to move it. So for next time, the parking brake should be off when pushing it. I was sure I had switched it off but my instructor knew it was the first thing to check when the plane wouldn't move. The checklists tells one to turn it on once parked, but it doesn't help when you are going to push the plane after getting out of it! My next (training) flight will be on the 31st of July! But I (thankfully) have one more leisure-flight before that, when I'm going to Norway, in the DA-40, that I will also fly in Finland later in my training! It is like I said, not a training flight, but we will practice some airwork so it's a good preparation. Stay tuned! Helge And the pictures of course (only taken with iPhone 4): Helsinki from the air  Me (this time with the sunglasses)  The instrument panel  The plane after the flight, parked in the hangar  Again; Stay tuned!
Helge
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So the day finally arrived! I met up at Helsinki Malmi airport at around 16:00 to start the briefing. Since it was my very first flight we did some extra briefing. Sadly it was raining and it looked really dark for the flight, however the weather was improving. After around 1,5h of briefing and checking the weather as well as filing the flightplan, we were ready and it looked like we could fly. The plane I'm flying in the beginning is the two-seater Diamond DA-20 C1. We moved to the hangar to do some of the walk-around checks and then we pulled the plane out for the rest of them. The weather was much better now! We got seated, wen't through the checklists and started the plane. The instructor handled the ATC communication and taxied the plane. I was trying the brakes on the taxiway, but the instructor taxied the plane like I already said and took off. He flew the plane out of the aerodrome area and towards our reporting point called "DEGER". We were cleared 1300 feet and below. It was pretty turbulent! He was flying but I had the hand on the stick to feel the movements. When we reached DEGER, it was my controls and we did a lot of turn practicing around the highway to Porvoo and over the archipelago. After hearing "your controls" - the word to switch person flying the plane I just had an amazing feeling flying the plane. I was flying again! We didn't fly all the way to Porvoo, after some time we headed back to the airport. I just loved to fly again! It was almost one year since last time I had the controls of a GA plane. The DA-20 (C1) was pretty easy to control even though it was very turbulent! We then headed back from flying over the archipalego via a refinery and then via the Helsinki-Porvoo highway back to Helsinki Malmi airport. I flew the plane most of the time until we were really close to the airport, then the instructor took over the controls and landed. After landing and taxiing to hangar we shutted down the plane and wen't through the checklists. The time the plane was in the air was 26 mins. and the block-time, the time including taxiing etc. was 33 mins. In other words a very short flight, but it wasn't supposed to be much longer anyway. What made it a little shorter was the delays because of the weather and that the ATC service closed at 19:00. I can barely wait for my next flight, the 27th of June! Here are some pictures: Me in front of the plane before departure (windy!)  Me flying!  Thumbs up!  The instrument panel, after landing  Stay tuned!
Helge Hi again! Tomorrow, the 19th of June, will be my first flight lesson with an instructor. I will meet up at Helsinki Malmi Airport at 16:00 and fly from around 17-18. I have been looking very much forward to this! Tomorrow I will give a full report of the flight! Stay tuned! Below is a picture of my flight bag and the three (or four) mandatory things to carry on the flight; an ID, my Medical Certificate and Student Pilot License (SP-A) and of course, the Ray-Bans. Helge  After starting in January, my first groundschool (when we sit in a class from about 9 to 16 and have the "final exams" on those subjects) was on the 11th of February 2012. The subjects was Principles of Flight and Air Law. I had a test earlier that week that required a lot time to practice for, so I made priority for that. I got a 10 in the test on my normal school, but I didn't pass the final exams unfortunately on the groundschool on Saturday, even though I learned many new things on the groundschool. In March I tried to do the exams again but failed them again. I then took a break with my PPL until the school was over since I needed to focus a lot on the end of 9th grade.
School is out! The 9th of June I was going to Helsinki Malmi airport to sit the groundschool again and make the tests (I so much wanted to make them and had read the whole last week before that). I was alone most of that weekend since my parents were in Norway, so I took a taxi to the airport. Principles of Flight and Air Law are both pretty hard subjects. After getting a little help and sorting out some problems I made them with only one miss in both. The minimum pass-grade is 85% so it's pretty high. One of the instructors had earlier said that this was for sure the hardest part so it feels great to be done with that! Home from the airport I took a bus as I found out there was a good connection (so now I can transport myself to the airport in the future). My first flight will be the 19th of June, in the afternoon. Stay tuned! Helge | Helge Sakkestad
Welcome to my road-to-PPL blog! First of all, PPL means Private Pilot License for all of you who didn't knew. Second, the language of the blog will be English because of the various nationalities of my friends and readers. ArchivesJune 2013 Categories |
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