Awesome weather
The last 7 days or so have been pretty incredible weather-wise - as if someone had stolen all the weather from scandinavia… No need to use my N800 to check weather this time 
I went flying on wednesday evening at dusk, incredibly smooth air and very beautiful up there in a weather like this..
March 30th, 2007 at 20:00
Is that the plane you flew? What’s it like flying the diesel 172?
March 31st, 2007 at 00:13
Yeah, that’s the one.
The diesel is sure a new thing in aviation world. It’s pretty high tech - but easy for the pilot. Press a button to do a run-up test of the engine, the throttle is just a potentiometer that asks the FADEC -computer for certain percentage of power, and it delivers it.
Another difference is, it’s liquid cooled - so while it adds a bit of weight, you don’t need to worry about cooling it too fast when coming in for landing - the water cooling smooths temperature changes nicely. And of course there is no mixture control to fiddle etc.. I like it a lot.
Performance-wise it’s no rocket if you compare it to the new 180hp skyhawks, but the other C172 we have is a 150hp model, and the performance is quite identical to that. Even though the diesel is rated at 135hp, the automatic constant speed propeller and the turbocharger fill in and the actual performance (and handbook runway requirements etc) are pretty much the same. Plus it climbs nicely thanks to the turbo.
April 1st, 2007 at 18:17
I live 25km from Helsinki, quite near Malmi airport, and on beautiful days I usually have to listen to a ridiculous amount of you sky-joyriders polluting the environment with noise, sometimes, on pretty, otherwise quiet weekends, it can be a very crowded sky with nearly nonstop activity.
I understand it’s probably very beautiful and peaceful up there, but please; next time before you get up there think about how many people’s otherwise pristine quiet days you can ruin with the noise.
April 3rd, 2007 at 10:57
Tristan: Most of the traffic actually is training flights for the flight schools. We are also very much aware of the noise problem and try to avoid flying low over housing areas. Where exactly do you live, to get a better idea? There are some routes that need to be followed due to air traffic control.
Fortunately the diesel is a lot less noisy than the gasoline engines. It’s also that the amount of noise coming from airplanes is actually a lot less than what for example the Lahti motorway generates, but as it comes from an unconventional direction (and it is infrequent, compared to the constant hum of the car traffic) it can sound more distracting.
April 5th, 2007 at 13:07
I live in Sipoo, maybe 25km from Helsinki, only 1km north of the Porvoo motorway which does have a nasty multilayered hum that goes on almost 24/7 nowadays.
There clearly are some routes that go right over here.
April 12th, 2007 at 11:21
Yes, pretty much. Check this: http://www.finavia.fi/ais/aipcharts/ad/efhf/hfvac.pdf - the black triangles marked “DEGER” and “NOKKA” are the two points planes have to use to enter and exit the Malmi airport area (dashed line) - and due to the restrictions of Helsinki-Vantaa airport airspace above, one generally needs to fly at 700-1000 feet (250-350m) when flying through those points. The motorway naturally is a good landmark to aim for “DEGER”.
In general it is good to fly over the motorway, as it already generates noise, and thus avoiding adding more noise to less noisy areas, it feels like the smart way to do in general - as the plane noise is less audible over trucks humming in the background than it is against birds singing over a meadow..
Of course this sucks for people living near the motorway, who are quite likely annoyed by the road noise already. But as this area is so close to DEGER, it is hard to use much different routes to avoid overflying the same spot. We try to do that a bit farther, over Sipoo and Porvoo and the coastline, so that the training flights etc do not always fly over the same places. However, as it is in a city on other things too, things tend to concentrate and it’s pretty hard to find that quiet moment in an urban area.
I personally live under the Vantaa airport approach path, and that makes quite a bit of noise too. I am interested in flying, of course, thus the sound itself does not irritate me, but sometimes it can be a bit too much when trying to do some nice grilling outside with friends.
I’d be happy to show you the situation from the air if you are interested, drop me a line here or mail tigert at gmail if you want.
October 16th, 2007 at 17:10
So, someone performed a skillfull emergency landing on the motorhighway quite near to here with the very same plane pictured above.
Impressive.
Last weekend airplanes were flying over here non stop. Really sucked bigtime.
Noise polluters.
November 22nd, 2007 at 10:40
@jkvffrhjuii: yes, city life creates noise. The planes are just a very small part of it though.