The past two weeks have been pretty hectic for me - Midgard Gathering in Poland, some meetings in Berlin, and the Linux Collaboration Summit in San Francisco. And then, thanks to the Eyjafjallajökull eruption in Iceland and the resulting flight cancellations, the trip back became a little bit more complicated. My original KLM flight on April 17th was cancelled, and...

As a frequent traveler, I've been long thinking about getting proper noise-cancelling headphones. Now, en-route to a Haedong Kumdo seminar in Ireland I managed to forget my usual headphones home, and so it was time to take the plunge. Here is a quick review: First impression: wow, quite a lot of cable to carry around. I got used to too...

It seems that with the rising oil prices the Age of Sail is returning, even if in a modified format. SkySails is a system that enables freighters to tap into high-altitude winds with a power kite to reduce fuel consumption.

This is probably old news to most, but since I usually fly SAS my flight yesterday to Manchester for the State of the Map and GUADEC conferences was the first time I ran into Finnair’s check-in SMS service.

This is probably old news to many, but Google Earth is a very nice tool for visualizing flight track logs. I went yesterday to the Helsinki-Malmi airport, intending to go to the traffic circuit for some landing practice with the club’s “moped Cessna”. Instead, through the magic of the old airport, my plan was changed into flying another plane for...

Because of time constraints I have not been flying as much as I should. However, if I want to keep my license current that has to change.

The Supreme Administrative Court has ruled that Lord Mayor Jussi Pajunen was disqualified to decide the fate of the historic Helsinki-Malmi airport. Helsingin Sanomat reports:

Suomenlinna island fortress Kerttu had her entry exams to the Biological faculty of University of Helsinki yesterday, and therefore she is now free to enjoy the summer. To mark that, we decided to go flying a bit around Espoo and Porvoo. The runway 27 was in use so we took the plane out through Nokka and returned later through Deger....

One Six Right, the documentary about the Van Nuys General Aviation airport in Los Angeles is available on Google Video (Updated: not available)

Helsingin Sanomat, which originally had a very aggressive stance against the airport, has now published its gallup results saying majority of Greater Helsinki inhabitants want to keep Malmi Airport as-is:

Here are some updates while reading the news in the SOLISC speakers’ room: Yesterday’s session on DBE went well, with Anahuac doing the translation. The session was held in a slot shared with Izabel’s GNOME talk. After the days’ programs we returned to the Dolphin House for dinner.

The budgetary question for Air New Zealand’s Intranet seems to be:

After returning from the wedding at 5am this morning and a brief nap I went to the Helsinki-Malmi airport to do the check flight for my Private Pilot’s License. After waiting the morning for VFR conditions we were finally able to depart at 11:30am amid rather low and rainy clouds.

I had another solo travel flight last weekend, this time with Cessna 152 OH-CWM on route Helsinki - Hanko - Turku - Helsinki. Especially the flight over the Turku archipelago was really nice.

I flew my first solo flight today as part of PPL(A) pilot training. The morning was sunny with calm wind.

After the starter engine of my Triumph Legend signed off the contract last week, I’ve been stranded without a working motorcycle. As most of the days it has been snowing heavily, this hasn’t been much of a problem. However, I thought it would be time to do something. As the bike dealership didn’t seem much concerned about the problem, I...

We visited the city of Turku in west Finland yesterday with the OH-PRT Piper Lance aircraft flown by Ilkka Koho from MIK. The weather was perfect for aviation, and the snowy Finnish countryside looked beautiful. Here’s our home from the air: Tigert has more good pictures. Thanks to Ilkka and Tuomas for inviting us! Nummijärvi Fly-in On saturday we flew...

I had my first flying lesson yesterday. We went to the Helsinki-Malmi airport with Kerttu in the morning to fly with the simulator, and to listen for the MIK flight training briefing. I had booked the first flight for tuesday, but surprisingly there was a cancellation and my instructor agreed to take me for a spin.

The secondary airport of Helsinki and an important historical monument, Helsinki-Malmi (EFHF) is now under threat of demolition from the City planning council. This would rid Helsinki of its only airport accessible to smaller planes and effectively kill a whole branch of Finnish aviation industry. Threat to aviation and security Closing Helsinki-Malmi would remove Finland of its second-busiest airport. In...