Repost from 22 Feb, 2005

EFPO 212150Z 06006KT 020V090 8000 -SN FEW021 BKN027 BKN075 M07/M09 Q1028

We drove to Pori today. That’s the hometown of my wife Brita, a three-and-a-half hour drive northwest. It was a nice, sunny and crisp day and the shortest route crisscrosses between northbound roads and westbound ones. So you pass tiny places like Mäntsälä, Kormu, Loppi and Tammela before the final leg from Forssa to Pori.Finland is probably not known for its beaches, but the longest one is about 4 kms. and located in Yyteri. Have a look. It’s a summer shot, though.Pori (coming from Swedish borg, German Burg for castle) is a boring place, alive only with the annual Jazz Festival, which nowadays features soul, rock and pop just as well, middle-July. There are a lot of one-way streets, though, which gives you the opportunity of not going back along the same boring street as you left.

Finnish pilots are trained here, even though the national carrier Finnair have stopped flying the short 220 kms leg here from Helsinki. I saw the Aviation Academy’s King Air do VOR DME approaches to rwy 12, with some holding training at the final NDB Papa Oscar 341. In low clouds, blueish-yellow mix of sun and sea smoke a February afternoon.