CPL Skill Test

I did it, and now it's over!

Today I flew the CPL skill test. I managed to pass it successfully and I'm now off for a three-week vacation until the ATPL theory course begins.

Not a mere student pilot anymore :)

The Day began with normal preparations for a route around the Helsinki-Vantaa CTR area. We were told beforehand to expect diversions and such during the flight. After checking the plane and doing all the paperwork, we had a short theoretical interview with the flight examiner. Subjects consisted of general technical issues, radio failures, weather minimums and other basic stuff. I prepared for the interview by reading about working hour limits, CPL requirements and privileges, and everything from OPS M1-1.

After the interview it was time for the flight. It consisted of basically everything we have been taught. In addition to all the obvious flight tasks like take-off, radio communication and basic maneuvers there was some chart navigation, diversions, engine failures, spot landings, flapless landings and instrument flying. Everything went quite well, expect that I had some trouble finding a certain small village, but finally managed to locate it. When it was time to do steep turns the artificial horizon went inoperative, and it wasn't easy to look at the instructors instruments and I had to focus a lot not to let the plane gain or lose any altitude while turning.

When we had done most of the exercises, it was time to head back to Malmi. The examiner said that if I now just remember to take the landing gear down before landing, I'll pass the skill test! And so I passed it :)

Here is a little summary of my current flight hours:

Total time: 171h 17min
PIC: 79h 10min
Dual: 94h 57min

C152: 128h 11min
C172: 21h 33min
P28T: 21h 33min

Take-offs by day: 418
Take-offs by night: 17
Landings by day: 418
Landings by night: 17

Oktober 21, 2013

The final Piper-flights

There's only a handful of flight exercises left with the Piper until our CPL skill test. Today I got to fly for the first time with the Papa Bravo Alpha, our school's other Piper. Both of them are quite the same in terms of equipment but everyone seems to agree that the PBA is more unforgiving in landings and handling in general. I didn't notice that much difference.

The PBA. Weather has been very good lately. It's quite cold and the sky is clear and crisp.

After todays flights, I only have the school's review flight left. The review flight has the same tasks as the actual skill test and I will be flying it tomorrow. My CPL skill test is booked for Monday. If that goes well, I'll finally gain my license.. Looking forward to it!

Here we go again!

Oktober 18, 2013

A Flight to Estonia

Our Piper-phase includes two cross-country flights, which have traditionally been visits to nearby countries, mainly Sweden and Estonia. I got to fly to the latter and was really looking forward to it since I've been to Estonia many times but never flown there myself.

Our plan was to fly from Malmi over the ocean to the eastern side of Tallin, and continue from there towards Rapla aerodrome (EERA), which is a grass-field with two quite long runways. However, this was only a route fix and we didn't plan a touch-and-go landing there. From Rapla the flight would continue towards Hiiumaa island and Kärdla airport (EEKA), which after we would fly to Saaremaa and make a touch-and-go landing on Kuressaare airport (EEKU). After that the final leg would be to fly straight to Pärnu (EEPU) and land there. I was a passenger for the route there and flew the exact same route back to Finland.

Crossing the ocean

So, off we went and headed straight towards the sea. Flying over the sea lasts only about 15-20 minutes and we flew at an altitude of 3000 feet. Tallin ATC had all the information of our flight and service was excellent. "Oscar Golf Alfa, continue via flight plan route". In no time we were no longer in Finland, but in Estonia.

EERA Airfield

After arriving to Estonian airspace, our next waypoint was the Rapla airfield. In Estonia, most uncontrolled aerodromes are grass-fields and usually share a common VFR frequency. However, Rapla had its own radio frequency and we could even find aerodrome charts from the Estonian AIP. The grass-fields differ a lot from Finnish ones in such that they can be quite large and have long runways. Finnish grass-fields are usually meant only for ultralights but nothing would prevent a 1300kg Piper from taking off this one. The main runway was more than one kilometer long.

Colorful scenery

 The basic landscapes differ somehow from the Finnish ones too. There's lots of reddish-brown swamps and almost no lakes at all. The trees are often those with leaves and that makes the scenery more colorful especially in the autumn. Also, the countryside is quite different since there's almost no buildings anywhere to be seen. Estonia seems to have lots of totally empty, uninhabitated areas.

Kärdla Airport EEKA

 After another small ocean-crossing we arrived to Hiiumaa and made a touch-and-go on its only airport, Kärdla, an AFIS aerodrome that was now closed. Power set, speed alive, rotate, left turn and heading towards the south and Saaremaa island.

Kuressaare

Soon after taking off from Kärdla we contacted Kuressaare, which is also an AFIS aerodrome. A very kind female voice answered and yet again the quality of ATC service was something we've not always been used to in Finland.

Kuressaare Airport EEKU

 Kuressaare Airport is located near the Roomassaare dock and has two runways. We did a touch-and-go to the longer one. It was very fun to see this town from the air since I've visited it in my youth about 20 times. My parents even have a small apartment there. I think I will be flying here with friends for a few times after I get my licence.

On final to Pärnu

 The last leg went by quickly and in no time we were in Pärnu and making a landing there. The runway was interesting since it's made of concrete blocks and feels very different to the usual ones.

Pärnu Airport EEPU, and it's main building and ATC tower.

 Pärnu is an old Soviet military base, which can easily be recognized from the buildings and other architecture. The whole airport was filled with old MIG-fighter hangars, which were basically little hills with tunnels in them.

A view from the briefing room.

Upon arrival we called us a taxi and went to the town to eat at a very nice pizza/pasta restaurant with low prices. We also went to a market to buy some essential supplies, which-after it was time to head back to the airfield and fly home. Now it was my turn and I enjoyed every minute of it!

Pärnu even had a dedicated pilot's supply store filled with necessary equipment :)

Oktober 10, 2013

The Piper-phase continues..

Another week has passed and I've been flying more flights with the Piper Turbo Arrow. I now have about five hours of experience with the plane and I've counted that our syllabus includes a total of about 20 hours of Piper-flying. That's more than it used to be a few years back, fortunately.

In addition I've now also flown my VFR Navigation Progress Check, which was the last flight (in the CPL syllabus) with the Cessna, 172 in this instance. The aim of the flight was to check that my cross-country flying, flight planning and airplane handling are in a level expected at this point from a commercial pilot student. We basically did everything one can do with a small plane, diversion exercises, simulated instrument flying, low-level navigation, sudden engine failures and forced landings, touch-and-go landings, spot landings to uncontrolled airfields and radio navigation. Needless to say, the flight was quite exhausting!

Taking off from Malmi runway 09 on a rainy morning.

It has been increasingly rainy for the past week, which has lead to unfortunate cancellations. On top of that there was a battery-problem that grounded our plane for a few days, so this week I've only gotten airborne on one day!

The view from the back seat at about 2500 feet.

The only flight I got to fly was a combined basic instrument & traffic circuit exercise, in which we flew to Lappeenranta, did the traffic circuits there and then flew back. We usually conduct these flights so that there are two students on board. The other one flies there and the other one flies back. In this case I was sitting as an observer on the first leg and then flew back to Malmi.

VFR on top, at 4000 feet.

The flight to Lappeenranta had some awesome scenery involved since we flew on top of an overcast layer of clouds for most of the time. At some point it seemed the random open spots started to disappear so it was necessary to dive below the layer.

A Ryanair B737 landed in Lappeenranta right after us.

On this flight it finally seemed that the radio navigation exercise with instrument goggles on didn't take that much capacity and I could actually enjoy the flight. I think the careful flight planning also did its part in reducing the workload. Or maybe it is the relative stability of the Piper compared to the Cessna.

September 21, 2013

First flights with the Piper Turbo Arrow IV

Finally the Piper flying has started and I now have about three hours of flight experience with this fine bird. In addition, I've been sitting a lot in the backseat as an observer. With this experience, I must say that I like the plane very much and would love to go somewhere far with it. For a basic half-hour scenery flight the C152 is maybe better with its simplicity but this one is aimed for cross-country flying and feels far better suited to it than the C172, for example. I think that after gaining my licence, I'd rather fly Pipers than Cessnas except for the 152 maybe.

My new favourite!

The Piper feel different to the Cessna, being a faster airplane with a low-wing configuration. When applying full throttle in takeoff, you actually feel a little force pushing you to your seat. Also, in the air, the plane handles very firmly and calmly and feels like a real airplane!

The passenger cabin. With its soft seats and window curtains it almost feels like being onboard a real regional airtaxi.

The first three flights have been training area exercises in which we have learned some basic maneuvres and procedures and gained a little touch on the plane itself. We've also been practising some emergencies like landing gear failures, engine failures and forced landings. Everything so far has been very interesting and I'm very much looking forward into flying more with the Piper Turbo Arrow!

Flying between cloud layers!

September 11, 2013

My last time flying the Cessna..

..Well not, actually. But today I've flown my last remaining solo cross-country flight in our CPL flight training syllabus, which is also my last solo flight in the school program. Actually we still have one Cessna flight left, which is the VFR navigation progress check we're supposed to fly after flying five hours in the Piper. For some reason our syllabus doesn't give us the required 50 hours of cross-country PIC needed for the instrument rating so in reality we'll be flying some cross-country with the Cessna's off-syllabus after receiving our licences until we get the total of 50 hours.

Heading to Kuopio at 3000 feet. Some stratocumulus is starting to build up from the morning fog.

So, since a few of our 152's were standing at Kuopio because of the night flying training, my objective was to fly there in the backseat of our C172 and then take a Cessna and fly it back to Malmi. So off we went with a plane fully loaded with three students (with the same objective) and a PPL-licence holding student in the captains seat. I was clearly in the role of cabin crew since I bought everyone some drinks and food for the flight from Malmi's restaurant.

The flight to Kuopio was totally epic since the whole middle-Finland was overcast with radiation fog that had convected to very low stratocumulus. Flying on top of such a layer gives you a strong illusion of being very high, the view is almost the same as one would see from an airliner. Very nice..!

"Oscar Oscar Kilo, Flight level 360 established.."

Landing to the destination was a little tough because of low clouds but luckily we found an opening from which we could dive into the airport. Flying at 5000 feet, we saw that the cloud layer was open from all sides except the south so we would definately get safely to the ground in VMC. It was only that we were lucky to be able to fly straight to the airport without flying further north in order to get down from the cloud top.

After having landed to Kuopio, it was quite clear that I could'nt get back into the air again due to the low cloud base and our extended student minimums (8km visibility, 1500ft cloud base). The visibility was great but clouds were at 800 feet so we headed to the canteen to plan things out... ...but after two hours all the clouds had gone and it was total CAVOK at Kuopio, so off we went!

All of our four planes lined up at the holding point, me being number two. A Finnair E170 landed before us.

I headed to Tampere in order to gain a little more flight time. It was fun to fly to the same place with three planes and discuss everything via radio. There's a frequency one can use for normal conversation where RTF phraseology is not required and ATC isn't present.

Jyväskylä Airport EFJY. I've never landed there and saw this one from the air for the first time.

Flying was very easy since I had plotted my route from VOR to VOR and just followed the radials checking the map every now and then. The weather was absolutely perfect and the plane required almost no control at all...

Tampere EFTP. A military C-17 Globemaster in the background.

After refueling at Tampere, it was time to head back to a very uneventful last leg back to Malmi. A nice cross-country experience, and a perfect closure to my Cessna-flying... ...at least for a while :)

September 06, 2013

Piper ground training & First simulator exercises

We've now been sitting in the classroom again studying the techical aspects and procedures of the Piper Turbo Arrow. The Piper's role in SL Flight Training is that it's a so-called "complex airplane" required to be used in CPL flight training. By complex the requlations refer to an aircraft with retractable landing gear and a constant speed propeller.

Our school has two Piper PA-28RT-201T Turbo Arrow IV airplanes, the light brown and blue OH-PGA and the red OH-PBA. They are equipped with quite the same amount of features. The PBA has an RMI instead of the PGA's RBI, but the PGA has a two-axis autopilot while the PBA has only a basic wing leveller.

There it is, waiting for me to fly it :)

The theoretical studies were quite straightforward. We went through the basic systems of the plane mainly focusing on the differences compared to the Cessna's. We also studied all the different airspeeds one must know in advance.

After the classroom studies we had some ground training in our hangar, where we went through the pre-flight inspection items and discussed the plane's cockpit, instrument panel and all the different levers and switches.

Some techical aspects we went through.

When the theoretical studies and ground training was complete, it was time to fly for the first time in our schools FNPT II simulator, which is configured to resemble a Piper Turbo Arrow. Our syllabus included three hours of simulator flying in three different sessions, which basically consisted of exercises closely related to the upcoming Piper flights.

SL Flight Training's FNPT II simulator.

Although the simulator isn't realistic enough to give a feel of flying the real Piper, it was useful as a means of learning the new checklists, by heart items and callouts. The more complex environment calls for more complex checklists and procedures so there was quite a few new things to learn. However, I felt I got quite a good grasp of the differences already. The hardest thing in my opinion was all the different power settings (manifold pressure / RPM) and remembering, which lever to move first.

The cockpit of the FNPT II. Much better lightning than in the real plane!

September 05, 2013

Night flying @ EFKU

One of probably the nicest experiences in my pilot training is now added to my collection of memorable flying moments!

In other words, I've now returned back to home from a five-day trip to Kuopio airport, where we had our night flying course. We were advised beforehands to shift our sleeping pattern because at Kuopio, the day would start at about nine o'clock in the evening and end at about four or five in the morning. We would be sleeping in a school apartment, which was located at the airport at less than a hundred meters from the apron.

Ready for taxi in to the darkness.

The first night's program was to fly the two training area exercises combined into one flight and we were briefed thoroughly about minimum safe altitudes, the locations of the different training areas (only one plane in each of them, to avoid collisions at night), and safety precautions as well as operational procedures and differences in everyday flying-related tasks at night. We were allowed to use the briefing and flight preparation lounge of a local parachuting club and it was very cozy indeed.

It was a really nice and special feeling to take off for the first time at night. I had somehow in my mind associated night flying with the relaxing post-sunset twilight summer flying I'd done before but somehow the amount of darkness only really occurred to me after we started taxiing to the runway. It really was pitch-black and you could see nothing but darkness and the aerodrome lights. Also the flying felt like a combination of VFR- and instrument operation. We did some instrument turns, 30- and 45-degree turns, spiral dive recovery procedures, slow flying and stalls and then returned for landing.

The C152 cockpit at night. Only the VOR and ADF are actually lighted. The lightning for the rest of the instruments comes from a red light in the roof.

Since there were a few signs of worse weather ahead, the second night was dedicated to cross-country flying, since it has the most restricting minimum weather. My cross-country flight was from Kuopio to Joensuu via a few enroute checkpoints and from there back to Kuopio. For the first time in a long time I actually took my time planning this short flight and calculated every useful VOR-radial and DME-distances for every checkpoint, thoroughly checked the MSA's and wrote notes to self about the different frequencies and tasks at every phase of the flight in order to ease my workload when actually airborne. The flight lasted a little less than two hours and had to be one of the most atmospheric flights I've ever flown. Night navigation was very interesting and challenging and somehow everything felt more epic than in daylight.

The route for my night navigation exercise.

Flight planning and efforts to improve night vision ;)

We only had traffic circuit exercises left for nights three and four, and since the weather stayed good we got to fly all of them in time. Normally, I've been getting a little bored of the traffic circuit flights at this point but these I looked very much forward into. We made some interesting landings with the Papi-lights off and simulating electrical failures by turning all the instrument and cockpit lights off.

After two flights with an instructor, it was my turn to go solo and fly five take off's and full stop landings at night in the traffic circuit. This solo flight was brief and ended before I got to think about what I was doing, so I didn't quite get into the "here I now am, flying at night" -feeling but all in all, it was memorable and fun.

On final runway 33.

So now its actually dark. An approach with a simulated electrical malfunction.

I'm very much looking forward to continuing night flying when I get my license!

PS. Starting monday next week, it's time to say farewell to active Cessna-flying and defect to the Piper-side of the single-engine piston fence :)

September 01, 2013

Second AFIS-flight & Flight levels

I've now flown my second solo cross-country flight to an AFIS aerodrome. We flew this one with a course mate using both our own planes. Having the exact same route planned and since I was always a few miles behind, navigation was easy for me. I basically just followed the other plane checking headings, courses and ATO's every now and then :)

This eased my workload a bit since my OH-CAP doesn't have a DME and also the ADF seems to wander around quite a lot.

Ready at holding point Kilo. First on the line is the Diamond DA40.

Our destination today was Seinäjoki airport (EFSI). I hadn't been there before so it was nice to visit and get to know the place. The ground crew were very nice and even opened the cafeteria for us.

Seinäjoki Airport EFSI

I flew the route at FL075 since I wanted to get on top of the growing cumulus clouds. I therefore also got the flight level exercise done and I now don't need to climb to the levels in my last remaining cross-country flight if, for example, the weather doesn't allow it. Now I'm off to packing some bags since I'll be driving to Kuopio airport tomorrow to do some night flying!

Agustus 23, 2013

Night Flying theories

We've now been sitting in the classroom for two days going through the little theory course included in the night flying training. There's actually no strict guidelines as to what should be included and covered in theory but here at SL Flight Training the course was split into four parts and lasted for about 7-8 hours.
The four parts were:

1. Aviation rules and regulations in night flying
2. Human performance and limitations at night
3. Operational procedures regarding night flying
4. Aerodrome lights and obstacles

A few pages of material to be browsed through.

It was very interesting to hear about the differences of night flying before actually doing it. Like engine failure for example, what if you can't see where to make a forced landing? Everything is dark and you wouldn't know if you'll crash into a lake, forest or field. What to do then? I also find the optical and sensorial illusions very interesting and we discussed things like the black hole approach and fake horizons.

In my opinion, this course covered really well all the basic aspects and I now feel quite prepared for next weeks flights. Will be writing about those next!

Agustus 22, 2013

Flying solo to an AFIS Aerodrome

Last week I flew solo to an AFIS aerodrome for the first time in my life. I've never managed to fly to an open AFIS with the ultralights, since they are very often closed and most of the time only open for a few hours when a regional airliner arrives. And they arrive at unconventional hours as we know.

The 172 at Savonlinna.

I had the C172 reserved for the day and decided to fly to Savonlinna Airport, since it was the closest AFIS that was open. Mikkeli is a little closer but its operating hours aren't as good now in the summer.

Savonlinna airport from above. At the apron there's a Flybe ATR-72 and a private Pilatus PC-12.

The flight was easy and relaxing to fly and navigation didn't pose a problem especially since the 172 has a GPS, which we are allowed to use as a backup reference. In practice you'll just end up keeping the GPS route line straight and eventually arriving to your destination.

Navigation = Follow the pink line.

Now I have one more AFIS flight to go. Maybe I'll go to Seinäjoki next.. :)

Agustus 02, 2013

Mariehamn Revisited

Don't feel like plotting a new route and calculating all the distances and true courses for every waypoint? No problem, just use an old route!

I had two excersies, which hadn't been flown yet and decided to combine them together and fly to Mariehamn again. The first leg from Malmi to Turku would be a 1.5 hour diversion excersise in which I would divert from Lohja to Tammisaari and then fly back to the original route to Salo and from there to the airport. Then I'd fly a 2.5 hour normal cross-country flight from Turku to Mariehamn and back to Malmi. All went quite well and I actually don't have that much more to comment about the flight, so I'll just give you some nice scenery to enjoy.. :)

Over the Sea

Thousands of islands..

Kumlinge

Finnlines

Juli 18, 2013

A Flight to Joensuu

I've now flown the longest flight I've ever flown with the Cessna's. Since I had the airplane for the whole day, I decided to integrate two different air excersises and fly all the way to Joensuu and back. The flight there would give me one cross-country excersise and the flight back would be the other one. I decided to fly via Mikkeli on my way back home to get a little extra fuel due to wind conditions.

Mikkeli airport from air.

Rantasalmi airfield EFRN. I first thought of making a touch and go here but ended up just flying over it.

The flight was nice and I was able to cruise at an altitude high enough to avoid all the exta turbulence and thermals. It was nice to fly this route since I've driven to Joensuu countless times with a car and could now see all the familiar places from air. I've actually never flown to this airport before so it was a fun new experience. At the end of the day I had clocked about five hours of flight time. Very nice! :)

OH-CAP @ EFJO

Juli 13, 2013

Flights to Mariehamn

"Route at least 540km (300NM) with two full-stop landings at two aerodromes different than departure aerodrome."

FL065

This is a requirement for a CPL licence. You must have flown at least one flight, that meets the mentioned requirements and so we have two of these flights in our CPL syllabus. I've now flown them both and planned both of them to Mariehamn. The first one was from Malmi straight to Turku, then to Mariehamn and back, but since the second flight in the syllabus also mentioned a flight to an uncontrolled aerodrome in its tasks, I flew a slightly longer flight, flying from Mariehamn to Hanko aerodrome and from there back to Malmi. So four legs in total and about 4h 30min block time.

Notice the life vest we use when crossing large bodies of sea. Try not to notice the reflection from my aviator's. ;)

Mariehamn is one of my favourite airports in Finland and flying there is always fun because of the great scenery and crossing the sea and its many islands. Today I decided to fly slightly higher than usual, at FL065 due to cumulus clouds that had bases at about 2500 feet and extended up to 4500 feet. I could now fly "VFR on Top" well above the clouds free from all bumpiness and turbulence.

Clouds & Islands

All in all, the flight went quite well without any complications. I was happy to get this one behind me since the autumn comes one day and weather starts getting worse and so I'm trying to fly as much of these "high requirement" flights now and leave the traffic circuit excersises to the fall.

Refueling at Mariehamn Airport.

Juli 02, 2013