The Training Air Wing ( fi, Lentosotakoulu, abbr. ''LentoSK'', sv, Flygkrigsskolan) was the

Finnish Air Force The Finnish Air Force (FAF or FiAF; fi, Ilmavoimat, , Air forces; sv, Flygvapnet, , Air weapon) is one of the branches of the Finnish Defence Forces. Its peacetime tasks are airspace surveillance, identification flights, and production of Finnis ...

pilot jet aircraft training school. It is located at Kauhava Airport in

Kauhava Kauhava is a town and municipality of Finland. It is part of the Southern Ostrobothnia region, northwest of Helsinki and by the main railway from Helsinki to Oulu. The town has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The pop ...

, in

Southern Ostrobothnia South Ostrobothnia ( fi, Etelä-Pohjanmaa; sv, Södra Österbotten) is one of the 19 regions of Finland. It borders the regions of Ostrobothnia, Central Ostrobothnia, Central Finland, Pirkanmaa, and Satakunta. Among the Finnish regions, South ...

. The unit trains pilots for the Finnish Defence Forces, as well as for the

Finnish Border Guard The Finnish Border Guard (; ) is the agency responsible for enforcing the security of Finland's borders. It is a military organisation, subordinate to the Ministry of the Interior in administrative issues and to the President of Finland in issue ...

History

In the beginning, pilots were trained in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

Santahamina Santahamina ( sv, Sandhamn) is an island and neighbourhood of Eastern Helsinki, Finland. At present it is a military base housing the Guard Jaeger Regiment, making access restricted. The Finnish National Defence University (NDU) is also located ...

, where there was a sandy airfield, called "Sahara". Until the end of the 1920s, the school mostly used aircraft equipped with floaters. In the 1930s, the pilot training was moved to Kauhava. At the same time, the Finnish Air Force also started to train pilots for the reserve. In 2005, it was decided that primary training would be branched off and a new unit was created in Tikkakoski. It was named into

Air Force Academy An air force academy or air academy is a national institution that provides initial officer training, possibly including undergraduate level education, to air force officer cadets who are preparing to be commissioned officers in a national air forc ...

. Because the name of Kauhava unit had been the same, it was renamed the Training Air Wing—the same name unit had already in 1941-1952. The pilot training started with a conscript course at the

Tikkakoski Tikkakoski is a northernmost residential area of Jyväskylä, Finland, about north of the city centre. It has a population of 6,000. The Jyväskylä Airport, Aviation Museum of Central Finland, and a Finnish Air Force base, with the FAF Headqua ...

, now a part of

Jyväskylä Jyväskylä () is a city and municipality in Finland in the western part of the Finnish Lakeland. It is located about 150 km north-east from Tampere, the third largest city in Finland; and about 270 km north from Helsinki, the capital of ...

, where initial training was given with the

Vinka The Valmet L-70 ''Vinka'' is a Finnish-designed piston-powered military basic trainer aircraft of the 1970s. A production run of 30 aircraft were built for the Finnish Air Force in the early 1980s, and although the type was not exported, it formed ...

aircraft. Training was handled by

Patria Aviation Patria Plc ( fi, Patria Oyj, sv, Patria Abp) is a Finnish provider of Defense (military), defence, security and aviation life-cycle support services. Patria is owned 50.1% by the Government of Finland, Finnish government and 49.9% by Norway, No ...

. Upon completing initial training, some pilots were transferred to the Training Air Wing at Kauhava, where they began jet training with

Hawk Hawks are bird of prey, birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. They are widely distributed and are found on all continents except Antarctica. * The subfamily Accipitrinae includes goshawks, sparrowhawks, sharp-shinned hawks and others. Th ...

aircraft. In 2014, as a part of a wider reform in the defence forces, the school at Kauhava was disbanded, and the functions were taken over by the

(''Ilmasotakoulu'') in Tikkakoski.

After the termination

The Training Air Wing had to hand over the real estate to the Ministry of Defence in 2015. Part of the staff could be employed in Tikkakoski. Other staff with more than 12 years of service were eligible for a year of pay as a termination bonus. In early summer 2014, the real estate was sold to a company called LSK Business Park, founded by entrepreneurs from the region. In fall 2015, an asylum seeker processing center with 350 beds, operated by the Finnish Red Cross, began operations in the former spaces of the Wing.

References

External links

Training Air Wing
{{Finnish Air Force structure Finnish Air Force squadrons Finnish Air Force Kauhava