Cross-countries!!

First of all, sorry for no update on this blog for a while. It's been so much to do at my real school, but finally it's basically all done on that front.

Cross-country status:

Completed! I have flown all dual and cross-country flights already! Some with DA-40, but the triangles with DA-20. Here are my routes just for pure interest:

DA-40 Malmi-Turku-Malmi (dual)
DA-40 Malmi-Tampere-Malmi (dual)
DA-20 Malmi-Turku-Tampere-Malmi (dual)
DA-20 Malmi-Turku-Malmi (solo)
DA-20 Malmi-Turku-Tampere-Malmi (solo)

This post will focus on the most important one, the solo cross-country flight which is a part of the PPL-course, and must be at least 150NM and contain stops at two different aerodromes than the starting aerodrome. It can be longer than 150, and indeed, mine was! I flew 256NM (474km)! It was great fun, but it also felt nice to shut down the engine after the flight when I finally arrived at Malmi; it was quite exhausting!

The solo cross-country triangle:

I woke up around the normal time (for most people that means early). I had to finish some of my planning before going to Malmi, because when you fly cross-country, you really need to save a bit of the work for the morning, like the forecasted winds. My parents were away, so I had to go to Malmi by public transport. The journey to Malmi is pretty smooth, first tram and then bus 75 from the central railway station in Helsinki. It just takes a bit longer than by car. At Malmi, I had to prepare everything that was left as fast as possible, because even if my flight wasn't before something like 2h, the time before that tends to fly... Luckily I was finished quite a bit before and had the time to mentally relax a little before the flight. Meanwhile, the forecast had change to the better! The weather in Turku had been forecasted a bit sceptical, but then it was changed to perfect. We were quite sure the forecast would change, but now I was really good to go.

Time was in and I jumped into my plane. I said goodbye to my instructor and closed the canopy. Of course I mounted the GoPro in the side for the ultimate selfie-view ;) After getting the engine started I listened to the ATIS and performed the checks as usual. I got my clearance to taxi and I went to holding Bravo for runway 18 after crossing RWY 09. I performed the checks and run-ups and everything was fine. "Oscar Alpha Tango, holding Bravo, ready for departure" I transmitted and got cleared for take-off shortly after. When I accelerated on the runway, I checked the engine instruments, but somewhere, I think just after lift-off, I noticed the oil temperature was something like 2/3 into the yellow arc (it can still be in the yellow arc but it should be treated with caution). When I could, I tried throttling down. Nothing really happened, but after maybe a minute I could see it started to drop a little bit. I was unsure what to do, but as it was in the yellow part, I kept going and monitored it all the time. When I was NOKKA outbound (like 2-3 min after departure), it was just dropping back to the green arc, and a minute after that it was stable in the middle of the green arc, just like normal. Phew! If it hadn't gone back within a few more minutes, I would have had to go back. Now the view of Helsinki city was just to enjoy as I passed outside the town at 1200ft, heading for the tall mast in Espoo.

I generally felt navigating was getting easier and easier in most parts of the flights! Luckily the plane has a GPS, but it's sort of unofficial for the PPL-course as we have to be able to navigate visually. Nevertheless, the GPS could confirm that my heading to Kiikala airport was correct with the wind correction angle I had calculated. I passed Kiikala airport, and then to Salo, and just before Salo I descended below the Turku TMA. To make things easier for myself, I didn't go in there, and instead contacted the control zone itself when I was closer to the entry-point SALPA. At Turku I had been last week (solo), so I knew the place pretty well now! From SALPA it's easy to find the airport, because you will mostly follow roads. The landing was quite good and I was cleared to stand 2A again. In Turku I walked to the terminal to use the toilet. There is sometimes a bit mess in Turku to do it, especially as nobody was answearing the service-phone today. I had to call the TWR this time as well, so they called the mainteinance for me and after a few minutes a yellow car appeared. They are always so friendly in Turku TWR :) I got to use the toilet and went back to the plane. In the plane I performed all checks as normal, but ouch, the engine didn't start after three attempts. I was a bit worried. I had lost a lot of the battery on those attempts already, and I had to turn everything off to let the starter cool down. This plane can be very tricky to start.... yes, even one flight got cancelled because of that! I called my instructor and he gave me as much help as he could. We suspected that it just wasn't primed enough. It's always tricky when the engine is semi-hot. Luckily I got it on the first attempt after the cooldown, with some more priming. It wouldn't be fun to drain the battery, and whops, you are so far away from home. I did the normal procedure and took off, whichafter I did a right turn towards the point HALLA (as I was going to Tampere). HALLA is also relatively easy to find, but not as easy as SALPA I think.

On that leg I found navigating a bit harder. There was either flatland or forest, with not much population. Some odd lake here and there of course, it's Finland ;) Thankfully I found landmarks like towns and a swamp on the way, so I stayed on map. Meanwhile maintaining 1000ft, I realised there was a lot more elevation than I'm used to! I was actually flying some 6-700ft AGL! No doubt navigating was tricky. Closing LEMPO, the entry point I used to the Pirkkala control-zone, I got a little help from the GPS. Even if I had been to LEMPO before, the area around it was a little hard to navigate in (not much landmarks that was clearly distinguishable). Even close to Tampere-Pirkkala airport, navigating can be a bit tricky. I landed there and the landing wasn't perfect, but ok. In Tampere I had to refuel, and quickly. Well, the time was already used, so I had to delay my flightplan by calling ACC. I got the plane refueled and also some help from two guys with a C172, thanks guys! In Tampere I was forced to eat my bar, just to get some energy (I was hungry!).

The start went fine in Tampere, I got my clearance and took off from RWY 24. I went outbound from LEMPO and found my way through forests and lakes. I quickly realised that the weather (the winds) had changed from the GAFOR I had used (the morning version), so I had to adjust my wind correction after best ability, keeping on map and trying to follow the line I had drawn on my map. This went really fine, and the GPS could confirm I was heading nicely towards Hyvinkää airfield. On the way I passed Hämeenlinna (on my left side) and Riihimäki, before passing Hyvinkää airfield on the north-eastern side and continuing towards Järvenpää. Over Järvenpää, I could nicely follow my heading towards Nikkilä and then continue to DEGER (the entry point of the Malmi CTR), by following my heading, or even easier, a powerline. Before DEGER I realised I was a bit high, and hadn't done any radio transmission (it's not mandatory to do any before the inbound call when the TWR is closed, but it makes sense). I did a little turn over my friend's house, descended to 700ft and entered the Malmi CTR. I joined base-leg RWY 18 and had a nice landing. It was all silent on the radio until I had nearly parked the plane. Parking it was a perfect feeling! A loong day, and finally back! Now I was really exhausted! A coke was really tasty from Aeropole's complimentary "minibar" after the solo cross-country triangle. So many hours on the go (more than 3h flying time+stops+preparations before the flight)! Now there is only one thing left, the SKILL TEST! I will have a brush-up first though.

Flight planning Like a Helge!

Passing Kaivopuisto! I can see my house! :)

Turku.

Happy pilot!

Balloons over Sipoo.

After the long journey!

I also made a YouTube video, featuring many clips from my solo cross-country triangle, but it contains many other clips as well, because it's a progress video.

Stay tuned for the skilltest!! :)

Helge