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Finnishing school

In a 3-part article we look at the capability that the Adour-powered Hawk trainer delivers to the Finnish Air Force and how the aircraft is supported.

Part One - Training the air force's new pilots

The BAE Systems Hawk is the world’s most popular trainer aircraft, in service across the globe helping young pilots get to grips with taking controls of a fast jet.

A Hawk being prepped for a training flight

Part One - Training the air force's new pilots

The BAE Systems Hawk is the world’s most popular trainer aircraft, in service across the globe helping young pilots get to grips with taking controls of a fast jet.

It’s a proven system that has been used to produce fighter pilots in the UK, the US, Australia, India and many points in between. In Finland, however, they do things differently.

The Finnish Air Force

The Finnish Air Force became the first export customer for the Hawk when it placed an order for fifty Mk51 aircraft in 1977, and the type entered service in 1980.

Since that introduction the fleet has been supplemented by an additional batch of seven aircraft in 1993, and the acquisition of 18 low-hour Mk66 aircraft from Switzerland in 2007. All of which seems to fit the profile of a standard Hawk operator.

However, the Finns fly their aircraft hard. They have taken a proven trainer and, through a series of upgrades undertaken through their local industry partner Patria, significantly increased both its capability and their own military independence. They have also given the Hawk some claws, with the aircraft capable of being armed with Sidewinder missiles to counter insurgent threat.

Finland shares much of its border with Russia and subsequently operates a military that is on a constant state of high alert. And, as it is not a member of NATO, it has developed its military capability on a tenet of self-sufficiency. Nowhere exemplifies that policy more than the Air Force Academy base at Jyväskylä-Tikkakoski.

Fighter Squadron 41

Tikkakoski is home to Fighter Squadron 41 under the command of Major Teemu Pöysti, now in his 20^th year in the Air Force, who cut his fast jet teeth in the Hawk before going on to fly the FA-18.

Major Pöysti’s job is to create a training syllabus that prepares his students in the full spectrum of counter air operations – both within and beyond visual range of their adversary.

Squadron 41 trains it pilots in four phases, the first two comprising 80 flying hours conducted in Grob 115 piston aircraft before pilots experience the Adour-powered Hawk for the first time in Phase Three. “We need to recreate the challenge of flying a fast jet fighter in the minds of a trainee pilot so they quickly learn to respect all the elements that can make it difficult, such as high G-forces and high Mach where the situation can develop and change rapidly. By achieving our goals in the early phases of training we enable our fully qualified pilots to achieve a higher standard of excellence.”

“We need to produce high quality fighter pilots in the Nordic environment. For us this means dispersed operations, hence the need for us to be self-sufficient and to have an aircraft and engine that is robust, easy to fly and able to be maintained without the need for support from outside Finland. We also have to identify the training requirements and skills that will be required by our frontline pilots 10 years from now. The pilots we are training today will be flying the HX replacement for the FA-18 in the future.”

Major Teemu Pöysti

Squadron 41

Tactical training

After 50 hours in the pilot seat and a further 50 in the flight simulator, students are ready for Phase Four which concentrates on tactical training.

“We get them to lead two-ship flights and they become fully capable of operating both within and beyond the visual range of the target,” Major Pöysti explained. “We train them to a level of dogfighting capability higher than that of any other European air force – a silver medal in this game is not acceptable.”

“We aim to do as much of the air combat flight training in the Hawks as possible as it is more cost-effective, which is why we have upgraded our aircraft to such a high standard. Most of our instructor pilots are FA-18 trained and keep their qualification up, which is unique."

"It enables currency for the trainer and provides a strong link to operational stories and tactics to bring to the early phases of training. We don’t have Operational Conversation Units like some other air forces to ease pilots into the front line fighter aircraft – we have created the right training course that enables them to put their tactical training skills into practice.”

As well as highly qualified instructors and a bespoke syllabus, the programme is highly reliant on the combination of a reliable aircraft and engine, and the unique training environment that Finland can provide. “With the huge focus on air-to-air combat skills there is a much higher stress on the aircraft per hour” said Major Pöysti. “The Adour engine is very low maintenance from a pilot’s perspective, which is ideal because I don’t want pilots monitoring the RPM when there are more important tasks for them to perform. We also need plenty of free airspace so we are lucky to live in an isolated country. After taking off from Tikkakoski our pilots are able to operate in a space the size of Belgium and the Netherlands combined for their day-to-day training.”