The Air Force fears that the loose stones will cause damage to the Hawkeye engines.
Air force has to temporarily move the flight training activities of Hawk jet trainers away from Tikkakoski. The reason is frost damage on the Tikkakoski runway.
Air force announced about it on Thursday. According to the Air Force, variable weather and severe frosts have caused more cracks than usual on the Tikkakoski runway this winter.
“The runway just crumbles because of the frost. The existing cracks have widened due to the frost, and quite a bit of bitumen and with it stone has come off. It hinders our flight operations”, says the director of the Air Warfare School, colonel Vesa Mäntylä.
“If one of the engines goes through the cracks, it's a bit expensive. We absolutely do not want that.”
According to Mäntylä, it's about managing peacetime risks. No damage has occurred yet.
Lentoposti.fi website said on Tuesday that loose stones have been found on the Tikkakoski runway, due to which air traffic with jets was temporarily banned.
Hawkeye according to current information, training activities will be moved to Pirkkala for three weeks until Finnavia has completed the repairs, which are scheduled for week six.
Mäntylä says that the Air War School cannot depend on the weather for the operation of the Hawks. In training, it cannot be expected that the gaps in the coating will close once the weather cools down and the problem will go away for a while.
“We have to continue flight operations. That's why we're moving to Pirkkala for three weeks,” Mäntylä says.
“From the point of view of securing our operation, it's about the fact that we have to be able to fly these three weeks. However, we have a training debt due to the Hawk accident. We can't be guessing, so to speak. We cannot tolerate uncertainty at this point at all.”
Hawk jet trainer crashed into the ground last springafter which the Hawks were grounded for a while.
The Air Force Academy's Grob training machines can continue their training in Jyväskylä as normal. Mäntylä describes Tikkakoski's problem as “the problem of jets.”
“The cam wheel throws rocks into the engine a little easier.”
Miss you Tikkakoski runway bigger renovation?
“No. The runway is paved in 2020. It's just that years are not brothers. There will always be cracks. The problem is just pretty bad during these frosts.”
Mäntylä says that similar frost problems last occurred in 2021. He has not heard of similar problems at other base fields used by the Air Force, i.e. Pirkkala, Rissala or Rovaniemi.
According to Mäntylä, Air Force jets do not have frost limits. He himself remembers that he took off on the Hornet in 38 degrees below zero.
“I assume that we can operate normally already in week seven. Once before, this field has been patched specifically in winter conditions, and then the patching was successful,” says Mäntylä.
“I am confident that it will be done in week six.”
Hawkeye the move to Pirkkala also means that next week's DACT exercise (Dissimilar Air Combat Training) will move to Pirkkala. However, the content of the exercise does not change.
DACT stands for air combat training between different types of aircraft.
The Fighter Squadron 41 of the Air War School was supposed to organize in Tikkakoski on the 22nd-26th. day DACT exercise, where the squadron's Hawk planes train together with Hornet fighters.
During the exercise, six Hawks and two Hornets will be flown.
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