Europe Trip 2013: Finnish Aviation Museum and Helsinki-Vantaa Airport - Introduction

I have been in Vantaa [a city in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area] for a few days now, and although relaxing, I've managed a couple of aviation-related activities. This post is just an introduction to them - I'm not 100% sure how/ when I will go about putting up the remaining pictures - I have several 100's of them, and at the very least I have to sort out the best to publish :-)

I had been looking forward to visiting the Finnish Aviation Museum - in fact it was one of the reasons I came here. As it turns out, it was "ok' but not great. There are plenty of very interesting aircraft, but they are in incredibly cramped conditions - three large rooms in fact - which is a shame. I think that the first two pictures below should this quite well.

Two days ago I discovered that Helsinki-Vantaa Airport has a specially constructed viewing deck. The airport company appears to have gone out of their way to provide a place for people to stop by and get a great look at what is happening. It's on the public side of the airport, it is free and well signposted. Also, it has an outside portion so you don't need to photograph though glass :-) Fantastic! What follows are just a few of the aircraft and the part of the view at the airport. There will be more to come over the next week or two!

Top to bottom, the photographs are:

2 x photos from one room in the Finnish Aviation Museum

Embraer ERJ190-100LR, OH-LKP, of Finnair

Airbus A320-214, OH-LXC, of Finnair

Helsinki-Vantaa Airport terminal 2

Boeing 717-23S [aka McDonnell-Douglas MD95], OH-BLQ, of Blue1

Aerospatiale ATR72-500, OH-ATJ, of Finncomm Airlines

Europe Trip 2013: UK to Finland

Three days ago I flew from London Heathrow [ICAO code: EGLL] to Copenhagen-Kastrup [EKCH] and then on to Helsinki-Vantaa Airport [EFHK] in Finland.

The first flight was on an SAS Airbus A320 and from Copenhagen, I was on a Blue1 Boeing 717-2CM, OH-BLI. It is the first time I have been on a B717, which is basically a rebranded  McDonnell Douglas MD95. The B717 was quite comfortable to fly on - the only strange thing was that the cabin air blowers appeared to have a direct relationship engine speed... as the power came on, the air blowers worked harder and vice versa :-)

On to the photos. There are no photographs from Heathrow - it's just not a good place to get photos [once in the terminal at least]. The following photographs are all from Copenhagen. First is one of the signs on arrival. The aircraft photos are, in order:

2 x Canadair CL600-2D24, OY-KFE, of Sandinavian Airlines [SAS]
BAE Systems Avro 146-RJ100, OO-BWH, of Brussels Airlines
Fokker F28-0100, OE-LVB, of Austrian Airlines
Boeing 717-2CM, OH-BLI, of Blue1. These aircraft have a really nice livery!

Last photo is at the departure gates as we boarded.

Apologies for the photo quality - these were all taken through the terminal glass, and some are more or less into the sun...