Global Aviator December/January 2017/18 / Vol. 9 / No. 12 13
The cabin became quite and everyone
was realising this is a different world,
which gave way to silent thought.
Landing at Helsinki was without
excitement. This is a first world country
and all looked clean and tidy as if the
airport had recently been build. We
went to our hotel, had a nice dinner,
visited the sauna and became so
thirsty from this experience, that we
had to have a couple of beers. When
we visited bars, there were almost no
men, only women. First we thought we
had arrived at a place of low morality,
but found out later that most men
worked abroad in Sweden, Norway or
Denmark. This was a new experience,
because woman started to take interest
in us and wanted to talk. Being the
gentleman we were, we listened gladly.
A few days later we continued
northwards. The country looked
completely deserted, now and then you
saw a road, but no cars, then a small
village and that was it. We encountered
some snow and we kept a close eye
on the outside temperature which was
now around – 36 C at Fl190. Icing was
not a problem and our cabin heater
worked overtime. We realised that if
this heater would pack in, we would
have to descent quickly, trying to find
liveable conditions, temperature wise.
The landscape was endless forest,
all covered in snow, and it looked
spectacular. Kittla was now dead ahead
and we phoned the logging company
on our HF radio and advised them that
we would arrive in about 45 minutes
time. Nothing could have prepared
us for the outside temperature when
we opened the cabin door. It was like
stepping into a large freezer, bloody
hell. We all brought warm clothes,but fortunately the logging company
brought some extra jackets, fur hats and
gloves, all most welcome. Unfortunately
there was no hanger space available,
since nobody will leave his aircraft
outside. That was disappointing, but,
so they told us, if we could give the
airport ground staff 6 hours notice
before departure they would start
heating-up the engines and they offered
to take our battery and keep it in the
hangar, connected to a drip charge.
The logging operation was more
than interesting. The area being
harvested was like a third of The
Netherlands and the work outside
is not for the weak and vulnerable.
Temperatures were -30 C and most
work had also to be done in darkness.Refuelling at Helsinki airport.