Jouni Laulajainen's Ford Mustang from Kirkkonummi had to give way to a Boeing 737 airplane simulator years ago.
to Helsinki-Vantaa there is anticipation in the air at the airport.
Aviation enthusiast Jouni Laulajainen, 80, presses buttons and twists levers. The Boeing 737-NG will soon be ready for travel.
The runway opens up ahead impatiently. The weather is favorable, summer sunny and cloudless. No need to de-ice the wings today.
The flight captain turns on the seat belt indicator: let's go! The houses in Vantaa turn into miniatures when the plane takes off into the blue sky. The beak heads towards the north.
For a moment, you can forget that in reality we are firmly in the garage on the church moor and it is freezing cold outside.
Jouni Laulajainen's garage cannot fit a car, because the Boeing 737 airplane simulator takes up most of the space.
The singer has spent thousands of hours flying in his garage.
Singer has been building airplane simulators in his garage in Veikkola for over 13 years. Where did it all come from?
“It started from the glove,” Laulajainen says.
He fell in love with flying as a child, when small planes flew over his house. However, the singer was told that she would not be a pilot. As a result, the faith of the little boy who lived in the country in his own abilities crumbled.
The singer eventually made his career in the automotive industry. At some point, however, he completed his private pilot's and commercial pilot's licenses. The singer had time to fly for two years, until turbulence shook his life, and he had to give up his professional dreams again.
However, my simulator made one dream come true.
At first Laulajainen flew planes on a computer screen, but soon his Ford Mustang had to give way in the garage to the Boeing 737 cockpit. According to him, it is built to the right size.
The curved screen offers a 180-degree view of a very authentic-looking virtual landscape.
In flying The singer is fascinated by the fact that, in his opinion, humans are not meant to fly. It's as if man has succeeded in reaching a new dimension.
It is difficult for a layman to stay on the wing when Laulajainen explains in detail and expertly the technology of the cockpit.
However, a few points remain in mind: firstly, if the automatic pressurization switch is not on, there is no oxygen inside the airplane, unless the pilot himself remembers to open and close the pressurization valves.
It sounds incredible that people on the plane can be knocked over by a single button. However, according to Laulajainen, this is the case.
In 2005, there was a serious plane crash in Greece, when the automatic pressurization system of the Boeing 737 had apparently remained in manual mode during maintenance. 121 people died in the accident.
In the airplane simulator, you can choose what kind of weather to fly in. Usually Laulajainen chooses the weather that is actually outside at the time of the flight.
Secondly, there are dozens if not hundreds of buttons and levers in the cockpit.
The singer says that the pilot must trust the gauges and not what he feels in his head. Losing sense of position can lead to hallucinations and falling into a spiral.
It is a common cause of plane accidents. Loss of position sense is thought to have been the cause, for example of John F. Kennedy Junior in a fatal accident in Turma in 1999.
If this information makes you worry, you should take a look at the statistics.
According to Trafi, flying is safer than driving or cycling. In Europe, there are an average of 1.8 fatal accidents per million flights.
Besides, here in Veikkola, the airplane simulator is safely on the ground.
Singer has made trips around the world in his garage. All in all, he has flown his simulator for thousands of hours.
Laulajainen thinks that it can take hundreds of hours for a layman to get to know the machine inside out. Future professional pilots also visit the garage. For example, some have gone to train for the tests of the airline Ryanair.
“They have said that when you learn to fly with this, the Ryanair test is much easier. This requires a more precise hand,” says Laulajainen.
The singer is not very comfortable in airplane cabins these days. “It's painful to sit there in the guinea pig cage.”
The simulator must be constantly updated. Nowadays, Laulajainen is not satisfied with the steering wheel he made himself, so it is the subject of the next renovation.
Looking at the cockpi
t, you can't help but ask: How much did all this cost?
“Yes, I could have Mersu with that money. All the parts cost so much.”
Laulajainen's rough estimate is that 30,000–35,000 euros have sunk into the simulator.
Small the tour over the capital region is behind us, and now the plane is again approaching the snow-free runway of Helsinki-Vantaa.
Next, according to Laulajainen, is the most difficult part of flying, i.e. landing. It goes well from an experienced captain.
The singer turns off the machine. The seat belts can now be unfastened.
We step out of the garage into snowy Veikkola.
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