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.

I've been attending a Private Pilot's License theory course arranged by MIK and Finnair Flying Club since November, and I was originally planning to fly the required 45 hours with them as well. But when it started to seem like the amount of students would make for some capacity issues with MIK I accepted an offer from BF-lento, a private flight school. This enabled me to start flying already now, instead of waiting until I finish the ground exam.

The first flight was quite simple. We took off from EFHF, and the instructor flew us out of the DEGER reporting point, and gave the control to me. I then flew around for 20 minutes off the shore of Porvoo before taking us back to DEGER. I was surprised how small movements were needed for controlling the plane, and of how easy it was to follow the airspace with the radio. The plane felt easier to keep going in right directions than the simulator.

The snow sparkled in the late February sunshine, and the world looked really nice. While the flight was short it made me very enthusiastic about the training, and about hopefully attaining the pilot's license in the future.