Finland’s Midnight Sun
(EFTU-EFIV)
For Saturday, June 18, 2022
Michael MacKuen

We shall enjoy an evening flight north through Finland to the summer’s midnight sun. Finland is a sparsely populated (5 million) land that has been an economic success story over the post war years. For five hundred years it was Sweden’s eastern province. But Russia won the Finnish War of 1808 and made Finland part of the Russian empire. For the last hundred years, it has been independent somewhere in between Russia and Europe. We shall visit a number of regions to get a sense of the country’s overall layout. We include the southern coast, the eastern Lakeland, and then the more remote Lapland to the north. This is a flight for jets, set up ideally for military trainers but certainly suitable for other faster aircraft.



We begin at Turku [EFTU]. Turku is “Finland Proper” in the sense that for many centuries this was the only settlement of note in what was otherwise a backwater agricultural area of Sweden. It lost its primacy under Russian rule when the capital was moved to Helsinki. Nowadays, the prosperous Turku urban area (307,000) rivals Tampere as Finland’s “second city”.

We fly to Helsinki-Vantaa [EFHK], Finland’s main international airport (20 times busier than the next). Helsinki is by far the nation’s largest city (1.5 million in the metro area) and is Finland’s economic, cultural, and political capital. Its quality of life is high. After swinging south over the city center of Helsinki [HELSK], we continue along the Gulf of Finland coastal region to Lappeenranta [EFLP], Finland’s oldest airport still in operation. (We are now 11 miles from the Russian border.) Then northwest over Finland’s Lakeland whose glacier-produced irregularly shaped lakes cover about 25 percent of the surface. (There are 55,000 lakes at least 200m wide.) We land at Jyväskylä [EFJY], the largest city in central Finland (at 144,000). It is best know as a university city with a traditional second industry in lumber-pulp-paper. As with much of Finland, it is a developing IT city as well. Jyväskylä hosts the headquarters of the Finnish Air Force as well as the Air Force Academy – whose jet pilot training features BAe Hawks operating out of EFJY.

Then further west to Vaasa [EFVA] on the Gulf of Bothnia. The coastal city is bilingual with both Finnish and Swedish commonly spoken – Vaasa is a cultural center for Finland’s Swedish heritage. It is now mainly an industrial city, historically linked to the operations of the electronics manufacturer Strömberg. We depart north along the coastline to Oulu [EFOU], the largest city and informal “capital” of Northern Finland (208,000). Once known for wood and salmon, it has evolved into a high-tech center. The airport is Finland’s second busiest by passenger volume. It is also used extensively by the Finnish Air Force for training purposes.

We turn north into Lapland. Our first destination is Rovaniemi [EFRO], Lapland’s regional capital. After government services and a university center, Rovaniemi is a tourist town with numbers of hotels and restaurants. It hosts Santa Claus Village and a ski resort, and it promotes views of the Aurora Borealis. Rovaniemi is Finland’s third busiest airport. (The Arctic Circle crosses the runway, close to its northern end.) This is mainly a seasonal airport (with plenty of British and European charters during the Christmas season from November through January, followed by Russians during their January Christmas celebrations). The Finnish Air Force bases a squadron of F/A-18 fighters here.

Two more stops in Lapland. First is Kittilä [EFKT] which serves the popular Levi Fell ski resort (an annual site for a slalom event on the Alpine World Cup circuit). It also is the location of a new billion-dollar gold mine, the largest in Europe. The airport is the fourth busiest in Finland. Our final destination is Ivalo [EFIV], the country’s (and the EU’s) northernmost airfield. The town is small (4,000) but the popular resort attracts tourists interested in winter sports. This area is also the center of Finland’s Sámi population. The main cultural and historical museums and the Sámi parliament are located along the lakes in Inari about 20 miles northward. This serene environment is a fitting location at which we may enjoy the golden light of the midnight sun.

Documentation
The flightplan can be found here.

Aircraft
This is a jet flight of 820nm designed for subsonic military trainers that can “fast cruise” at 400ktas. Other aircraft will fit comfortably into the mission. Popular choices might include the military trainers Aermacchi MB-339 and Boeing T-45. You might like the more modern F/A-18E or the current state-of-the-art F-35. Or the classic TF-104G would be fine. An excellent freeware option is the just-released Hawker Hunter by Dave Garwood. I shall choose the BAe Hawk T1 by Just flight. As ever, fly what you like.

Additional Scenery
All the airports are in the default simulator. I recommend some attractive airport packages but they are not necessary.

Recommended:
Turku [EFTU]. WildLynxPilot. [25MB]
Helsinki [EFHK]. Expixeri. [310MB]
Oulu [EFOU]. Jaf. [56MB]
Rovaniemi [EFRO]. Tatu. [25MB]
Kittila [EFKT]. Hergi1234. [18MB]
Ivalo [EFIV]. Tatu. [1.0GB]
Finland EcoRegions. Tatu. [27MB] (Very good feel for boreal forest/taiga characteristics. Temporarily disable Bijan’s Vegetation & other Trees files.)
Finnish Airport Heightmaps + DEM. Morko. [153MB] (Works well with current MFS SU9. No stutters.)
FISD Library for MSFS. Finnish Scenery Designers. [16MB]

Temporarily, you can download a partial package here. This includes five airports and the smaller bits. [648mb]
In addition, you might download Ivalo [EFIV] separately. (I do enthusiastically recommend this scenery but it bulks up the package size and some pilots may prefer to download in smaller chunks.) Another option would be the payware packages available for each Helsinki-Vantaa and Ivalo.

Time and Weather
For takeoff on Saturday, set the simulator at 9:00 pm local for June 18, 2022.
We typically prefer real weather. A few clouds are to be expected but we need mostly VFR conditions for our multi-stop operations in aircraft featuring only rudimentary IFR capabilities. Rainy overcast skies are in the forecast, but things may change over the week.

Multiplayer Particulars
Date and time: Saturday, June 18, 2022. 1800 UTC
Where: AVSIM RTWR Teamspeak - Casual Flights Channel
Teamspeak Server Address: ts.teamavsim.com
Microsoft Flight Simulator Multiplayer: United States East server.

If you want to help others enjoy the multiplayer experience, don't forget to enter your aircraft details on the multiplayer spreadsheet (linked here). Your courtesy will save others a lot of time and effort. Thanks!

Great, a jet flight. I would love to join you on this one!

Have fun, regards from Sweden!

On 6/16/2022 at 7:36 PM, Viking01 said:

Great, a jet flight. I would love to join you on this one!

Have fun, regards from Sweden!

You're only next door. Take the evening off. I'm sure the missus wouldn't mind. 😏

NOTAM. It looks like heavy overcast much of the way. More IFR than VFR. We shall see what happens. But suggest we be prepared to consider "Few Clouds" or "Scattered Clouds" as a preset.