Hello fellow forumites,
Helsinki Fly-in has been announced and will take place in the historical Helsinki-Malmi airport in May 26-28.
The programme will be updated closer to the event and we will get a more proper English translation to the site as well. But you should be able to get the basics from the current pages. There is no ATC available, the airport is an uncontrolled airport since January 2017.
Helsinki-Malmi Airport is a truly historic place, it recently celebrated it’s 80th anniversary. The future of the airport is gloomy, as City of Helsinki has decided to shut down the airport in 2020 and build houses on it. Today, it is run by a nonprofit association on a 3 years contract with the city.
There is a citizen’s initiative trying to protect the airport and it has been handed to the Finnish parliament late 2016. In March 2016, Helsinki-Malmi Airport was selected as one of the 7 Most Endangered Cultural Heritage Sites in Europe, so it’s well worth getting to know. The airport has been operating well before the second world war and played a significant role in the Finland – Soviet Union wars in 40’s.
There is a lot more information about the historic site at http://www.malmiairport.fi/en/
Hope to see you all in Helsinki in May!
Pekka
Hello Pekka. As someone who has flown a number of times from (equally threatened) Wellesbourne to Malmi, I can commend this wonderful airport thoroughly!
The approach into Malmi from point Nokka runs right along the city waterfront not above 700’! and has to be one of the most spectacular anywhere. The most practical routing to Finland is from Stockholm (actually delightful Vasteras now that Bromma is virtually inaccessible to us) and out to Marihamn island, where a stop over is highly recommended. The route involves quite a lot of water, but there are many islands along the way. This is the only place I can recall where I have been greeted by opposite direction traffic “Welcome to (Finland)”!
Another slightly less watery route is from the south, via Tallinn, the Baltic states and Poland, a wonderful tour but slightly long winded from UK. And for the adventurous, there’s a non-water route from Rovaneimi in Lapland, again coming from Stockholm but via Kiruna and the Arctic circle, skirting the Baltic altogether.
It would be interesting to know if the non-towered status affects the joining proceedure? I’ve approached Malmi from every quadrant and always been glad of Malmi Tower to advise on circuit traffic. An advantage of the new situation is hopefully that you will be able to pay landing and parking on-site. Previously, Finnair insisted on invoicing and would not take credit cards, meaning an expensive bank transfer, a problem you can encounter elsewhere in Scandinavia.
Locally, there is a bus that stops outside the airport and goes to the train station at Tikkurila, where there are frequent trains to Helsinki. The Sokos hotel at Tikkurila is sometimes a convenient stopping point after a long flight, but it’s only 20 mins into the city by train and there’s an excellent tram service around the city itself. There’s also a high speed train direct to St. Petersburg (4 or 5 Hrs) but this needs a visa and as a Brit I’ve yet to try it.
Thanks for nice words Aveling :)
Non-towered status has affected the airport only a little. There are restrictions on max two planes on TC for T&Gs. But otherwise things work nicely. The amount of operations in the three first month of 2017 was more than in 2016 even. Malmi planes use Finnish usually, but usually switch to English when someone without Finnish command enters the airport frequency. Duty officers can also respond to basic queries, althou they are not controllers, they can provide simple guidance & advice on radio. The tower is not 100% sure manned thou. You can pay fees at the airport nowadays at BF-lento office with credit card (3rd floor, main building). Duty officers can get you more information.
So generally, it has worked nicely, we have had lot of planes coming from abroad and Helsinki Radar is helpfull getting IFR flights to Malmi vicinity where they continue VFR the last miles :)
PPR is required normally. Fly-in has its own registration.
The airport operator is EFHF association, pages are www.efhf.fi (not all the data is in English, they are working on getting it up to speed).
Pekka
Anyone going? I am contemplating it provided I manage to get my plane flyable in time.
My plane won’t be ready in time. There is a 10-day delay for shipping parts for repairing the starter adapter. Too bad.
After five and half hours flight time, with refueling stop in Olsztyn Mazury (EPSY), we are finally in Helsinki – Malmi. Apart from Oshkosh, this is so far my longest GA trip. The weather was fine but we had to stay at FL120 all the time to stay above clouds. Also, we had to circumnavigate some weather whilst crossing the Finnish bay.
