After more than 40 years of service, the Ilmavoimat (Finnish Air Force) has retired its fleet of Valmet L-70 Vinka primary training aircraft.
The type's final flight took place on August 31 at Tikkakoski, when L-70 Vinka (serial VN-21) completed its last sortie with Engineer Lt Col Jyrki Laukkanen and Capt Juho Sirola at the controls. Laukkanen had also made the maiden flight of the first production Vinka (serial VN-1) on December 29, 1979. He had served as a test pilot in the Air Force and has more than 2,100 hours on the type.
The piston-engined Vinka was designed and built in Finland in the 1970s as a replacement for the Swedish-made Saab Safir in the elementary flying training role. The prototype, LEKO-70, made its maiden flight on July 1, 1975. It entered Ilmavoimat service in 1980 at Kauhava. After the Safirs retired from service in 1982, practically all aircraft and helicopter pilots of the Finnish Defense Forces and the Border Guard have taken their first steps in flying at the controls of the Vinka. For more than 40 years, student pilots have made their first solo flights as well as their type and orientation training flights on the Vinka. In addition, Vinkas have been used, for example, to practice night flying, instrument flight in low visibility conditions and aerobatics.
In 2005, all Vinkas were moved from Kauhava to Tikkakoski together with the training activities of the flight reserve officer course. The Ilmavoimat took delivery of a total of 30 Vinkas under the type designation VN. Latterly, they were operated by Hävittäjälentolaivue 41 (HävLLv 41; 41 Fighter (Training) Squadron) at Tikkakoski. Many types of structural strengthening work and other modifications have been made to them during their long service history. In 2002, they received the Garmin GNS 430 avionics system.
As the type has been progressively retired, decommissioned Vinkas have been handed over for public use, primarily to educational institutions and museums. The Finnish Defense Forces will sell the remaining Vinkas (approximately 15 aircraft previously operated by HävLLv 41) at an auction during autumn 2022. Those known to have been already retired and put into storage at Tikkakoski pending the auction include serials: VN-6, VN-7, VN-12, VN-15. VN-20, VN-26 and VN-28. Additionally, VN-3 has been an instructional airframe with the Lapland Vocational School at Rovaniemi Airport since at least February 2021 while VN-9 has been preserved in Kauhava town since at least November 2017. During its long service, there have only been two attrition losses: VN-8 on April 12, 1988 and VN-13 on May 11, 1988.
The Vinka is being replaced by the Grob G115E as the Ilmavoimat’s primary training aircraft. A total of 28 former Royal Air Force (RAF)-operated G115E Tutor T1s were purchased from Babcock International in the UK in 2016. These were modified to Finnish requirements after delivery, including new cockpit displays, radios and navigation systems. However, the conversion work took longer than anticipated and training with the G115Es did not begin until January 2020. This resulted in the Vinka being retained in service longer than planned until sufficient G115Es were converted to take over training.
