Ilmavoimat Hughes 369HS HH-2 seen on show at an open day at the Finnish Defence Force base at Utti

My grand Scandinavian Aviation Tour 1982
A beautiful sight - the first time on my tour of Finnish airfields where I managed to get up close and personal to some Soviet hardware :)

On the fourth day of our 'grand tour' we started the day in Savonlinna, with a drive to the border with the U.S.S.R. near Parikkala - my personal highlight! We then travelled south-west along the border via Lappeenranta airfield to Utti, where we were amazed to come across an open day at the local air base!! And there were Russians and vintage Propliners on show - lucky me :)

Here we see American built Hughes 369 HH-2 - one of only two that the Ilmavoimat operated. The aircraft was sadly written off just a month after my visit. Extreme left is the nose of Mil-Mi8T HS-1, and extreme right is the tail of Douglas DC-3 (C-47A-75-DL) DO-8. Quite the variety :)

Utti air base unofficial air show :) - so we rolled up in our Swedish Saab at the local air base hoping to be able to peer through the fence, and discovered that they were holding an annual open day for the local townsfolk! We parked up and tried to blend in with the locals, which wasn't so easy arriving in a British registered car, and me wielding my Zenith camera. Anyway, after pushing up to some flimsy ropes which had been put up, and getting the courage up to start snapping some photos, I couldn't wait to try and get close to the two Mil Mi-8s that were parked up on display, HS-2 and HS-6. I managed to grab some nice photos without incident, but we hadn't gone un-noticed! As we returned to the car, we heard a shout behind us, and as we looked round, a couple of guys were following us, and took our photos for the files! And photos of our car. But they didn't start interrogating us, so I reckon they were Finnish police rather than visiting Russians. We never heard any more about it, and I have some rare photos to cherish :)

Utti In 1918 General Carl Gustaf Mannerheim set up the first Finnish Air Force base in the village. Today, Utti is best known for the Utti Jaeger Regiment, a helicopter base and a training ground for special forces and military police, and civilian skydiving recreational activities.

HH-2 c/n 64-0611S - Hughes 369HS was one of only two of the type to be operated by the Ilmavoimat (Finnish Air Force). According to the following website, the helicopter was written off on 22nd July 1982 - just a month after I saw it! and stored at Utti.
www.helis.com/database/cn/34156/
The aircraft was eventually repaired, and transferred back to the civil register as OH- HIU. Very sadly, the aircraft crashed again some years later, on 24th Aug 1995 on a night ferry flight, when it hit trees in low visibility, killing the pilot.

My grand Scandinavian Aviation Tour 1982
After making four successful tours of Northern Europe, in 1978, 1979, 1980 and 1981, made primarily to visit some of the major airports to feed my need to see 'exotic' aircraft, but also to take in the experience of travel abroad, I was lucky to take part in my most interesting and adventurous tour in 1982 - to Scandinavia! Inspired by my long-term affinity with the region (being 6' 2" and blonde I am obviously descended from the Vikings :) I planned the trip to take in the following countries: Norway, Sweden and Finland. For some reason, I couldn't engineer Denmark into my two-week itinerary! The main goal for me was to explore some of Finland, and in particular, to at least see the border with Russia a.k.a. the U.S.S.R. :)

As Finland was the most interesting country of the three for me, I engineered quite a long visit to the country [six days] and managed to visit six of the nine military airfields located in the southern part of the country:

1) Helsinki-Malmi
2) Utti
3) Turku-Abo (shared civil airport)
4) Tampere-Pirkkala
5) Jyväskylä-Luonetjarvi (shared civil airport)
6) Kuopio-Rissala
as well as
7) Helsinki-Vantaa (shared civil airport)

Taken with a Soviet made Zenith TTL camera and standard lens.

You can see a random selection of my aviation memories here: www.flickriver.com/photos/heathrowjunkie/random/

Taken in: Finland / Kymenlaakso / Kouvola / Utti (show map)

Taken on: June 6, 1982

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Finnish Air Force

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