I think there should be a community supported campaign or something to get Jyrki to fly the Sabre. Would love to see a document about him getting to fulfill his long-time dream of flying one. Such a great guy and a true legend in the Finnish aviation history. :)
Yes please! I hadn't seen this post before I suggested the same just now. This is not as massive request as with other aircraft. It could absolutely happen
@@bojankotur4613 Hi! I did not set up anything yet, since I only watched this about 12 hours ago for the first time. All I wanted to point out that 'we' - especially people who know this guy or have something to do with Finnish aviation - could just set up a fundraiser site for this. Of course only after discussing and agreeing upon with all parties. I mean the site itself could be set up in no time by ourselves. We don't need to wait for nobody.
What a truly wonderful person. A typical Finn, down to earth, humble, modest and kind . „I love Sauna“, „I was forced to retire at 60“, „call me when I am retired in 2002“, „living in Finland, real Finn“. Thanks for producing that piece of history!
I was lucky to meet the man in my early years of service. Such a nice guy. He isn't just a jet pilot but he also flies the only flying Gloster Gauntlet II biplane in the world that just happens to reside in Finland.
I’m originally from Serbia/former Yugoslavia and in the 1970s and early 1980s Yugoslav Airforce MiG-21 BIS models were always in the skies over my hometown just miles from Belgrade and the large Batajnica airforce base. One summer in maybe 1983 or 1984 one of these MIG-21s circled the town and started vertically climbing above dead center of my hometown, me and the boys stopped playing soccer in front of our building and watched it, while tremendous indescribable noise was permeating the air for maybe 50km all around us, reverberating off all surfaces and in our very guts, like Doppler-affected tremendous departing rolling thunder, as this beautiful silver rocket was climbing above us at 90 degrees, getting smaller and smaller as it climbed straight into the clear blue skies, spewing visible fire at its tail exhaust... never forgot that.
Nice story, I can relate to that awe when you see them flying. Every summer in 80' as a kid I was spending time in Mostar just across airfield. I was lucky because one of mine family members was in air force ( jrv). Every day I was looking 21's taking of and landing,also Galeb and Orao,all day long. And just on other side of Neretva they were producing Gazelles,oh man the sound of the brand new helicopters was like drug to us kids. When you see 21's in pair taking of in direction of Cvrsnica mountain in sunset....great memories. Also almost every week I was sitting down in cocpits of those planes, hanging around with pilots or sitting up in control tower,was in Solo factory where jet engines were produced for our planes and also production of Rolls Royce's jet engines for GB. Man,those times I will never forget,sadly today there is nothing in Mostar that can even gets close to the former glory. In today's standards Mostar city would be called "Fighter town". All those top engineers,masters of trade,workers,pilots,ground crews,people in Solo factory...great people. Today we're Soko factory was proudly standing is a huge shopping center where people dwell like zombies. Makes me sad.. Svako dobro ✌️
@@megamillionfreak u sta nas budaletine dovedose al' jebaji ga sta cemo . Bar imamo sjecanje na neko lijepo vrijeme. Kad smo imali sve. Svako dobro u zivotu I zivio brate 👊
Green Lightning Hvala, takodje. Ako ste iz Mostara, znajte da sam i sam delom Hercegovac; moja se baba od Brkica iz Konjica udala za dedu, Srbijanca, davne 1938.
Thank you very, very much for this. I've had the priviledge of interviewing Laukkanen myself, and he is quite simply an incredible guy. My favourite story concerns the time when he flew the MiG-21 as a second lt in 1970. He was entitled to a 2-week summer holiday but he just asked the squadron leader if he could skip it. The reasoning was simple: "Every day I got to fly two MiG -missions during the day, and evenings I went to the sauna. It was better than any holiday!"
The Finns (and other Scandinavian folk) speak so highly of sauna that I am considering building one myself. I have visited sauna on a few occasions in my life but perhaps I didn't experience it fully enough. It sounds as though I am missing out on an important factor life almost!
@@MicrophonicFool yeah it's the best! make sure you have got a high enough temperature, preferably over 70°c.. then just get in and enjoy and remember to throw a nice amount of water on the stove. If you want the best of the best build one with a wood-fed stove, meaning you use wood to power the stove. That way you get the smoothest and best "löyly".
A sauna is not terribly difficult to build and likely there is no permit necessary if you keep it small enough. Build a stove underneath a metallic bin that holds all your rocks. Pour the water on the rocks to generate steam and cool it down slightly if it starts to get too hot as there is no temp control
really one of those rare lovely channels on youtube mate. are you interested in interviewing my cousin, a transall pilot in the german army? we live close to munic and there is the flugwwerft oberschleissheim. lots of rare planes to touch.
It was actually pretty amazing hearing him say "this was an old friend, my friends in the air force let me fly the plane from the back seat" LOL some classic Finnish komrades!
Thank you Suomi for your sisu mentality. We swedes are happy to have you as our neighbor. This is a unique pilot and hes experience is really special to hear.
This was such a delight to watch. What a wonderful, unique and exceptional gentleman. Still riding his old bicycle after all these years, now that is style.
Funny how the MiG-21F-13 looks so clean and sleek, even elegant in a way, a "silver arrow" as he calls it, while the 21bis looks all clunky and "brutal" in a sense. Great interview, very fascinating. Thanks Aircrew and thanks Mr. Laukkanen!
This is awesome, as a Finn to watch, even after listening to him in Finnish on various interviews, good stuff Thanks a lot! A true Finnish aviation legend.
Made my first comment before finishing watching the interview, Kymi Field is just 1h drive from my home, Ive flown above it with a glider but never visited. Ill have to make the trip and hopefully meet the guy. On top of being a airforce testpilot hes a long Line glider pilot and a true aviation legend.
He also has the world's only remaining Gloster Gauntlet WW2 biplane right there. Just yesterday I noticed a newsflash from Siivet-lehti's Facebook page that Jyrki and his regular ground crew chief have both trained a successor team to take over the Gauntlet's flight operations after Jyrki decides to quit flying the aircraft himself. The article said that the upcoming pilot is Petteri Tarma, a Finnish civilian aerobatic pilot.
Truly amazing. Probably the greatest flyer flying for a very special air force at the time. Such a great great humble guy. About the series: I just discovered it recently and I must say the work you do is invaluable.
What a friendly nice personality this guy has , now I understand why Finland is the best place to live in , great people friendly people understand that live is more than business and making money .
Yep, the J-35 Draken was a beast of a plane back in its heyday. Did you know that in 1963 Finland was the first country outside the Soviet Union to receive the MiG-21? The Soviets didn't even sell them to the Warsaw Pact nations back then - it was too top-notch. The reasoning behind this was that they wanted to prevent us from getting the Draken. Well, we bought the Draken in 1972 (including the licence to manufacuture it), so hahaa, the commies' plot didn't quite work out.
With some fanangling, I am positive someone could allow this guy to fly an F-86. I know these ideas are always easier said than done, but with his hours and experience it could happen. There are (relatively) many F-86 still in condition compared to other types.
They'll probably still be flying F-86s in some capacity long after the F-15C is a memory. They built close to 10,000 F-86s and they're an order of magnitude much easier to service and maintain than any supersonic plane that followed them! There are several types of planes still flying in private and contractor hands and what a few of them have in common is they've OUTLASTED the planes that were meant to succeed them! I'd say at least half those plane are subsonic types and they do very well as tackle dummies in DACT training, too. It hasn't proven very useful to use supersonic-capable planes in most training exercises. Supersonic planes use fuel quicker and don't have great endurance with afterburner, either. An A-4 has greater endurance than an F-16 or F-5, especially if either of the latter two uses its afterburners. The A-4 Skyhawk outlasted the A-7 and is STILL flying. There are no flying A-7s anywhere in the world now; the survivors are all grounded. The F-86 has outlasted virtually every major supersonic plane that followed it. It's not in frontline, military service anywhere but at least it's flying. There are more operational F-86s than there are F-100s and F-104s put together in all likelihood. All the other Century Fighters are grounded completely, the F-14 is virtually gone (very few operational Iranian F-14s) and the F-4 is likely on its way out, too, within the next 6 years unless Iran manages to hold its surviving F-4s together with another load of baling wire.
We went to museum a couple of years ago and the man was there taxiing the Magister on the runway and after that he was keen to tell all these stories about the planes to me and my children. What a guy to meet. Just the legend.
Reminds me when I was at a place where a DDR MiG-21 pilot started discussing flying with Walther Schuck (Luftwaffe ace with 200+ victories). It was time to just shut up and listen to both
I have had the privilege to visit this airplane museum Mr. Laukkanen keeps up and listened to his stories. Yeah, the stories he had and the unbelievable amount of technical detail he has stored between his ears... it's been 10 years since I visited it and not a year has gone past that I don't think of that time and the stories he had. He is one of a kind.
How could they restrict Finns? Also Warszaw Pact Airforces especially Czechoslovaks, East Germans had very thorough theoretical and practical training, with high demands put on them. Mind you that many of them when entering airforce had hundreds of hours on gliders, or single engine propellers since 15 years of age for FREE, under the umbrella of youth organizations which were partial breeds for military. The medicals for airforce were harder than NATO standard also. Now since the nature of west/east boarder - Czechoslovakian and East German forces were in the frontlines of the potential conflict, there was high demand on the operational abilities 24/7 all weather with highest navigational precision. Same goes to ground crews. There were times of shortages, when fuel prices limited pilots flight hours, but in general they were on very high proffessional level, being a serious and formidable adversary to the other side.
@@indyawichofficial1346 How could "they"(Soviets) restrict the Finns? Of course they could not. They could only threaten, which they did. And that was quite severe, as were their attacks during the second world war. That's why Finns bought any Soviet warplanes during the cold was era in the first place. The Soviet influence first limited the Finns' options to buy Western and way after that forced them to buy Soviet. Even now after more than two decades after going all F/A-18 Finland is still to join NATO, while remaining their close partner. This is what happens after a nation is all but annexed. Politics and stuff, mostly left wing cells still have by chance prevented Finland(EU member for quarter of a century now) from going all west. Part of the west they always were, especially after the attempted final extermination more than 80 years ago. They don't hail Putin.
Indian air force might have many pilots with long hours in the MiG-21 from the F-13 to the Bison, they still have them in some frontline squadrons and unfortunately heavy use and age has caused hundreds of crashes and hundreds of pilot deaths
The Bis model has a bigger cone in front of the engine than the F model because the radar, which is about the size of a CRT television set, is actually inside the cone. There is one such radar at the Finnish Aviation Museum at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport.
A blessed life indeed! It shows on his face and is pronounced in his speech! Life has rolled along perfectly by making the correct choice! Very entertaining and interesting to listen to his life pan out! No doubt a photographic memory as evidenced by the recall of every date that he has either purchased something or did something .
He has a master's degree in aerospace engineering. His MSc thesis was 226 pages long and focuses on flight testing sailplanes. He's definitely both a flight test engineer and a test pilot.
He's flown 23 different types of aircraft including the MiG-21, but prefers the Hawk. A true testament to British engineering and aviation. Great interview! Edit: 150 total aircraft, not 23.
Thank you Jyrki for these valuable memoirs of your life as a jet pilot. Myös UA-cam-videot Jyrki Laukkanen ja Kymin koneet ovat hienoja. Niissä on paljon arvokasta lentoteknistä tietoa yliäänilentämisestä.
I must say, I really, really like your content. I remember devouring the few books available on fighter pilots at the time, most notably I remember the biographies of Rudel, Galland, Sakai and of course Yeager. I found it a pity that everyone concentrated on top aces and it was more difficult to learn anything from other, also very notable pilots. Now I just have to flip up my laptop and I get your content. In moving images and colour! Sometimes even live! It is great to see what you are doing! thank you for your work!
According to Jyrki's biography / memoir in the late 60's and early 70's his squadron mates used to call him by his nickname "Crazy Laukkanen." That's because he used to skip his annual holidays just to get the opportunity to fly some more and log more hours on the MiG-21. And just as he says here, even the fighter controllers knew this and they just thought that what the heck, let me man fly since he seems to love it.
For the Cold War, they were sitting on a very sharp fence, required by the Soviets to be 'neutral' and to be able to aid the Soviets if they were 'attacked', and subject to Soviet rules along their border, not at all comfortable.
Riveting and fascinating as always, thank you. I'm hoping you can get some interviews from Korean and Vietnamese veterans who flew the earlier MIGs some day.
I'm glad this video was recommended by youtube, Jyrki is a nice guy and this is a very interesting interview. His English skills are really good too. :)
A civilian owned Czech MiG-21 ran off the runway not far from where I live (US) a few year back. It traveled some distance on the grass, plowed through a chain link fence, and stopped on a road. The pilot suffered minor injuries, but the plane sustained considerable damage. I'm not sure if the plane was ever made airworthy again. Interesting local news day!
I'm new here and I really enjoyed that interview with Jyrki. He reminds me of other fellow pilots that I've spoken to over the years. Humble and grateful for what they have been allowed to do.
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The man is an absolute delight to listen to...
He
B. I he ni on b no no p j b ph in no ho b know v if p no
@@TheRickRouss Take it as a compliment.
He is a very cool guy, I've met him personally.
Be ware..after bornin..oh god
Good show, thanks for making this and to Jyrki for taking his time to share his experience
would you sing the songbof the skywalking elephant? 🤗😇
From Sweden; A humble, cool, capable Finnish "neighbour". The kind you want flying a plane. Great clip!
Menkää pojat ilmasota kouluun. Ei mitään glooriaa, vaan raakaa duunia.
Hope you BOTH join NATO . best wishes from WAles UK.
I think there should be a community supported campaign or something to get Jyrki to fly the Sabre. Would love to see a document about him getting to fulfill his long-time dream of flying one. Such a great guy and a true legend in the Finnish aviation history. :)
That's a good idea!
Yes please! I hadn't seen this post before I suggested the same just now. This is not as massive request as with other aircraft. It could absolutely happen
Hey just set up a site for that. Boom! I am positive it will gain momentum.
@@robadzso link?
@@bojankotur4613 Hi! I did not set up anything yet, since I only watched this about 12 hours ago for the first time. All I wanted to point out that 'we' - especially people who know this guy or have something to do with Finnish aviation - could just set up a fundraiser site for this. Of course only after discussing and agreeing upon with all parties. I mean the site itself could be set up in no time by ourselves. We don't need to wait for nobody.
What a truly wonderful person. A typical Finn, down to earth, humble, modest and kind . „I love Sauna“, „I was forced to retire at 60“, „call me when I am retired in 2002“, „living in Finland, real Finn“. Thanks for producing that piece of history!
I was lucky to meet the man in my early years of service. Such a nice guy. He isn't just a jet pilot but he also flies the only flying Gloster Gauntlet II biplane in the world that just happens to reside in Finland.
Thanks for this film. My father was flying on Mig 21 only during 21 years. Than was Mig23.But 21 was favorite of him. 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
I’m originally from Serbia/former Yugoslavia and in the 1970s and early 1980s Yugoslav Airforce MiG-21 BIS models were always in the skies over my hometown just miles from Belgrade and the large Batajnica airforce base. One summer in maybe 1983 or 1984 one of these MIG-21s circled the town and started vertically climbing above dead center of my hometown, me and the boys stopped playing soccer in front of our building and watched it, while tremendous indescribable noise was permeating the air for maybe 50km all around us, reverberating off all surfaces and in our very guts, like Doppler-affected tremendous departing rolling thunder, as this beautiful silver rocket was climbing above us at 90 degrees, getting smaller and smaller as it climbed straight into the clear blue skies, spewing visible fire at its tail exhaust... never forgot that.
Nice story, I can relate to that awe when you see them flying. Every summer in 80' as a kid I was spending time in Mostar just across airfield. I was lucky because one of mine family members was in air force ( jrv). Every day I was looking 21's taking of and landing,also Galeb and Orao,all day long. And just on other side of Neretva they were producing Gazelles,oh man the sound of the brand new helicopters was like drug to us kids. When you see 21's in pair taking of in direction of Cvrsnica mountain in sunset....great memories.
Also almost every week I was sitting down in cocpits of those planes, hanging around with pilots or sitting up in control tower,was in Solo factory where jet engines were produced for our planes and also production of Rolls Royce's jet engines for GB.
Man,those times I will never forget,sadly today there is nothing in Mostar that can even gets close to the former glory. In today's standards Mostar city would be called "Fighter town". All those top engineers,masters of trade,workers,pilots,ground crews,people in Solo factory...great people. Today we're Soko factory was proudly standing is a huge shopping center where people dwell like zombies. Makes me sad..
Svako dobro ✌️
Green Lightning “Utva Pancevo” isti slucaj.
@@megamillionfreak u sta nas budaletine dovedose al' jebaji ga sta cemo . Bar imamo sjecanje na neko lijepo vrijeme. Kad smo imali sve. Svako dobro u zivotu I zivio brate 👊
Green Lightning Hvala, takodje. Ako ste iz Mostara, znajte da sam i sam delom Hercegovac; moja se baba od Brkica iz Konjica udala za dedu, Srbijanca, davne 1938.
Oyes, estupenda historia. Gracias por compartirla.
Thank you very, very much for this. I've had the priviledge of interviewing Laukkanen myself, and he is quite simply an incredible guy. My favourite story concerns the time when he flew the MiG-21 as a second lt in 1970. He was entitled to a 2-week summer holiday but he just asked the squadron leader if he could skip it. The reasoning was simple: "Every day I got to fly two MiG -missions during the day, and evenings I went to the sauna. It was better than any holiday!"
The Finns (and other Scandinavian folk) speak so highly of sauna that I am considering building one myself. I have visited sauna on a few occasions in my life but perhaps I didn't experience it fully enough. It sounds as though I am missing out on an important factor life almost!
Sauna, Beer, silence/peace, the view on the saunas porch. Sausages and mates optional. Simple things are the best!
Mikko Pulliainen ; YOU THINK??! I envy him, man...studying these planes a lot I have not flown one. I can imagine you'll hardly top that feeling.
@@MicrophonicFool yeah it's the best! make sure you have got a high enough temperature, preferably over 70°c.. then just get in and enjoy and remember to throw a nice amount of water on the stove. If you want the best of the best build one with a wood-fed stove, meaning you use wood to power the stove. That way you get the smoothest and best "löyly".
A sauna is not terribly difficult to build and likely there is no permit necessary if you keep it small enough. Build a stove underneath a metallic bin that holds all your rocks. Pour the water on the rocks to generate steam and cool it down slightly if it starts to get too hot as there is no temp control
Thank you all for your kind words and it’s great to hear you’re all enjoying it!
really one of those rare lovely channels on youtube mate. are you interested in interviewing my cousin, a transall pilot in the german army? we live close to munic and there is the flugwwerft oberschleissheim. lots of rare planes to touch.
It was actually pretty amazing hearing him say "this was an old friend, my friends in the air force let me fly the plane from the back seat" LOL some classic Finnish komrades!
Constantly outstanding !
A typical Fin, nice guys these Fins. Thoroughly professional and love their jobs.
Amazing he lived his childhood dream and became a mig-21 pilot
Thank you Suomi for your sisu mentality. We swedes are happy to have you as our neighbor.
This is a unique pilot and hes experience is really special to hear.
Who ever made this , THANK YOU :-)
Glad you enjoyed it :)
What an amazing life and role model. I really enjoyed listening to his story!
Cheers
This was such a delight to watch. What a wonderful, unique and exceptional gentleman. Still riding his old bicycle after all these years, now that is style.
Think about it in terms of "planned obsolescence", the exact opposite here.
Funny how the MiG-21F-13 looks so clean and sleek, even elegant in a way, a "silver arrow" as he calls it, while the 21bis looks all clunky and "brutal" in a sense. Great interview, very fascinating. Thanks Aircrew and thanks Mr. Laukkanen!
BIS is the best jet interceptor in the world!
In Poland we called them ołówek (pencil)
Archi Dembol It’s “olovka” (pencil) and “olovke” (pencils) in Serbian (Serbo-Croatian).
@@megamillionfreak in Pakistan we call mig 21s a cup of tea
Asif Talpur Why?
Kiitos,jyrki laukkanen.nostan hattua.kaksin käsin.
So cool that someone is taking care of interviewing all these special flying people. I could spend all day listening to them
I love the Finns, many say they are strange/cold/whatever, but when u get to know them they are lovely guys!
Its been my life .... that sums up how he feels and his attitude to flying. My salute Sir!
Someone, give him opportunity to fly F-86 Sabre. This guy deserves it.
Javapa why? The MiG-21 was better.
If you watched the video, that was the plane he wanted to fly but never got to.
@@epatto no chance, Finland never had F-86s and theres no reason to waste money on stuff that belongs to the museum
@@ancientwarrior3482 there are many privately owned F86 in USA .)
No, a CAC sabre, much better than F86
This is awesome, as a Finn to watch, even after listening to him in Finnish on various interviews, good stuff Thanks a lot! A true Finnish aviation legend.
Cheers mate!
Made my first comment before finishing watching the interview, Kymi Field is just 1h drive from my home, Ive flown above it with a glider but never visited. Ill have to make the trip and hopefully meet the guy. On top of being a airforce testpilot hes a long Line glider pilot and a true aviation legend.
He also has the world's only remaining Gloster Gauntlet WW2 biplane right there. Just yesterday I noticed a newsflash from Siivet-lehti's Facebook page that Jyrki and his regular ground crew chief have both trained a successor team to take over the Gauntlet's flight operations after Jyrki decides to quit flying the aircraft himself. The article said that the upcoming pilot is Petteri Tarma, a Finnish civilian aerobatic pilot.
Wow, that is great news! It would be a shame to put only flying plane into museum.
Jyrki, what a legend!!!!
Thanks for this interview.
A most amazing person. So talented and focused with a beautiful presence.
Great interview. He gives off the same aura as all those famous Finnish racing drivers! :)
Truly amazing. Probably the greatest flyer flying for a very special air force at the time. Such a great great humble guy. About the series: I just discovered it recently and I must say the work you do is invaluable.
Thanks Robert.
What a friendly nice personality this guy has , now I understand why Finland is the best place to live in , great people friendly people understand that live is more than business and making money .
All the best for you all and specially for this kind man, Jyrki Laukkanen. God bless you!
Thanks for sharing your experience in the Finnish Air Force, it was great ¡¡¡¡ Greetings from Mexico City.
you will not see these words from me very often but I am impressed that's a great story and a beautiful life
Very well said
Awesome! Experience beyond any politic agenda is really cool! Love the Draken in the end as a swede!
Yep, the J-35 Draken was a beast of a plane back in its heyday. Did you know that in 1963 Finland was the first country outside the Soviet Union to receive the MiG-21? The Soviets didn't even sell them to the Warsaw Pact nations back then - it was too top-notch. The reasoning behind this was that they wanted to prevent us from getting the Draken. Well, we bought the Draken in 1972 (including the licence to manufacuture it), so hahaa, the commies' plot didn't quite work out.
Interesting watching unusual stories instead of the eternal US or Russian or French Air Forces.
With some fanangling, I am positive someone could allow this guy to fly an F-86. I know these ideas are always easier said than done, but with his hours and experience it could happen. There are (relatively) many F-86 still in condition compared to other types.
They'll probably still be flying F-86s in some capacity long after the F-15C is a memory.
They built close to 10,000 F-86s and they're an order of magnitude much easier to service and maintain than any supersonic plane that followed them!
There are several types of planes still flying in private and contractor hands and what a few of them have in common is they've OUTLASTED the planes that were meant to succeed them! I'd say at least half those plane are subsonic types and they do very well as tackle dummies in DACT training, too. It hasn't proven very useful to use supersonic-capable planes in most training exercises. Supersonic planes use fuel quicker and don't have great endurance with afterburner, either. An A-4 has greater endurance than an F-16 or F-5, especially if either of the latter two uses its afterburners.
The A-4 Skyhawk outlasted the A-7 and is STILL flying. There are no flying A-7s anywhere in the world now; the survivors are all grounded.
The F-86 has outlasted virtually every major supersonic plane that followed it. It's not in frontline, military service anywhere but at least it's flying. There are more operational F-86s than there are F-100s and F-104s put together in all likelihood. All the other Century Fighters are grounded completely, the F-14 is virtually gone (very few operational Iranian F-14s) and the F-4 is likely on its way out, too, within the next 6 years unless Iran manages to hold its surviving F-4s together with another load of baling wire.
This man is a legend, awesome interview! Lets get him in that Sabre!
Top test flying/ engineer pilot,evry plane,he is still alive
Very nice Interview. Thank you both.
"Hey boys that's mach 2.0 fighter" :D Legend
What a sympathetic guy!
What a great interview Jyrki is fantastic 😎👍🇫🇮🇫🇮🇫🇮🇫🇮🇫🇮
He is national treasure.
We went to museum a couple of years ago and the man was there taxiing the Magister on the runway and after that he was keen to tell all these stories about the planes to me and my children. What a guy to meet. Just the legend.
Kiitos Jyrkki for your testimony. Hello from an ex-French Air Force radar specialist living in Finland. :)
Reminds me when I was at a place where a DDR MiG-21 pilot started discussing flying with Walther Schuck (Luftwaffe ace with 200+ victories). It was time to just shut up and listen to both
I have had the privilege to visit this airplane museum Mr. Laukkanen keeps up and listened to his stories. Yeah, the stories he had and the unbelievable amount of technical detail he has stored between his ears... it's been 10 years since I visited it and not a year has gone past that I don't think of that time and the stories he had. He is one of a kind.
His flying hour ends up to like two years in the skies!!!!!!! WOW!!! It feels good to be a Finn! best regards.
I love this.. When I'm at his age I hope I'm has happy and have a lot of stories to tell like him
Unbelievable man !! Great interview!!
Nice interview. It`s rare to find a pilot with so many hours in the MiG-21.
@CockOfJustice The eastern block military never was very eager to let them get very many hours, they did not believe in that.
How could they restrict Finns? Also Warszaw Pact Airforces especially Czechoslovaks, East Germans had very thorough theoretical and practical training, with high demands put on them. Mind you that many of them when entering airforce had hundreds of hours on gliders, or single engine propellers since 15 years of age for FREE, under the umbrella of youth organizations which were partial breeds for military. The medicals for airforce were harder than NATO standard also. Now since the nature of west/east boarder - Czechoslovakian and East German forces were in the frontlines of the potential conflict, there was high demand on the operational abilities 24/7 all weather with highest navigational precision. Same goes to ground crews. There were times of shortages, when fuel prices limited pilots flight hours, but in general they were on very high proffessional level, being a serious and formidable adversary to the other side.
@@indyawichofficial1346 How could "they"(Soviets) restrict the Finns? Of course they could not. They could only threaten, which they did. And that was quite severe, as were their attacks during the second world war. That's why Finns bought any Soviet warplanes during the cold was era in the first place.
The Soviet influence first limited the Finns' options to buy Western and way after that forced them to buy Soviet. Even now after more than two decades after going all F/A-18 Finland is still to join NATO, while remaining their close partner. This is what happens after a nation is all but annexed. Politics and stuff, mostly left wing cells still have by chance prevented Finland(EU member for quarter of a century now) from going all west. Part of the west they always were, especially after the attempted final extermination more than 80 years ago. They don't hail Putin.
Indian air force might have many pilots with long hours in the MiG-21 from the F-13 to the Bison, they still have them in some frontline squadrons and unfortunately heavy use and age has caused hundreds of crashes and hundreds of pilot deaths
Thank you for this, I have subscribed now. I had never heard of Jyrki before, but now he has my deepest respect.
What a wonderful man this Finn is! Greetings from a Яussian in China ;)
Great love from your brothers and sisters in Sweden. This was an awesome interview.
The Bis model has a bigger cone in front of the engine than the F model because the radar, which is about the size of a CRT television set, is actually inside the cone. There is one such radar at the Finnish Aviation Museum at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport.
Another terrific interview what a gentleman 👍
Great Pilot !! Great human being !!!
Wow what an awesome person! Could listen to him for days.
Bis was my aircraft back in the days, too.
A blessed life indeed! It shows on his face and is pronounced in his speech! Life has rolled along perfectly by making the correct choice! Very entertaining and interesting to listen to his life pan out! No doubt a photographic memory as evidenced by the recall of every date that he has either purchased something or did something .
He's not only a pilot, but also an engineer at heart, and it shows. He could teach a 7 year old to fly a MiG, know it's physics AND service it.
He has a master's degree in aerospace engineering. His MSc thesis was 226 pages long and focuses on flight testing sailplanes. He's definitely both a flight test engineer and a test pilot.
What a great guy! Kiitos.
He's flown 23 different types of aircraft including the MiG-21, but prefers the Hawk. A true testament to British engineering and aviation. Great interview!
Edit: 150 total aircraft, not 23.
Cheers Ben.
He has flown 23 different types in the Air Force, but I believe he has mentioned of flying over 150 types in total!
My mistake. That makes it even better!
Not surprising. It seems that every Finnish pilot who's ever flown the Hawk adores it. Such a perfect design.
And there's a reason it's used by so many air forces and adapted for the US Navy.
I was glued to the guy the whole time....
Fascinating
Very interesting, somehow this was in my home feed so I started watching and ended up watchig it all.
Glad to hear you enjoyed it.
Great job as always! Really interesting to hear about the Airforce of our neighbour across the Baltic Sea! Kiitos Jyrki!
Thank you Jyrki for these valuable memoirs of your life as a jet pilot. Myös UA-cam-videot Jyrki Laukkanen ja Kymin koneet ovat hienoja. Niissä on paljon arvokasta lentoteknistä tietoa yliäänilentämisestä.
Kymin koneet katsottu monta kertaa! Meidän ilmapartiolippukuntamme kävi myös vierailulla. Video löytyy kanavaltamme!
1:06 SQUIRREL!
there was one in an british hangar too right.
I thought it was a rat.
Just was about to ask same question. :))) Anybody saw that squirrel? :)))
Had to look twice before seeing it 😂 was so concentrated on listening Jyrki the first times I never saw the squirrel
So did I
Very good interview. Jyrki is a real gentleman. Nice job!
What a fantastic gentleman and career! Thanks for another gerat interview!
Thank you.
thats my favorite gentlemen you have interviewed so far. vast experience, very interesting.
Cheers!
Finally! My favorite Soviet era fighter! I've been waiting for this video for a while
Enjoy :)
Big fan by the way. This is the perfect channel for the aviation nerd!
Thanks. Nothing wrong with being a big avgeek!
I must say, I really, really like your content. I remember devouring the few books available on fighter pilots at the time, most notably I remember the biographies of Rudel, Galland, Sakai and of course Yeager. I found it a pity that everyone concentrated on top aces and it was more difficult to learn anything from other, also very notable pilots.
Now I just have to flip up my laptop and I get your content. In moving images and colour! Sometimes even live!
It is great to see what you are doing! thank you for your work!
I was hearing him at air museum.What a knowledge what a gentleman.👍
Finland sounds like a pretty comfy place. Everybody just sort of getting along. "Hey, you're on QRA? Go have some fun bro"
According to Jyrki's biography / memoir in the late 60's and early 70's his squadron mates used to call him by his nickname "Crazy Laukkanen." That's because he used to skip his annual holidays just to get the opportunity to fly some more and log more hours on the MiG-21. And just as he says here, even the fighter controllers knew this and they just thought that what the heck, let me man fly since he seems to love it.
For the Cold War, they were sitting on a very sharp fence, required by the Soviets to be 'neutral' and to be able to aid the Soviets if they were 'attacked', and subject to Soviet rules along their border, not at all comfortable.
I went to Farnborough airshow in 1986 with Jyrki...and other AF dudes. Cool pilot !
what a legend!
Extremely interesting. Another superb, and fascinating interview, as always. My thanks to you.
The best interview I have heard so far
Riveting and fascinating as always, thank you.
I'm hoping you can get some interviews from Korean and Vietnamese veterans who flew the earlier MIGs some day.
That would be amazing huh?
What a cool guy - great to hear him speak.
I'm glad this video was recommended by youtube, Jyrki is a nice guy and this is a very interesting interview. His English skills are really good too. :)
That was one interesting interview! One of those once in a lifetime experience. Lucky man and he did what he enjoyed. Couldn't ask for more!
Absolute aviation legend!
That man is one hell of a pilot. His accomplishments are spectacular.
Excellent as always. I love hearing about these great aircraft from all over the world.
Is rare joy hear the fighter technical view from actual experienced pilot, who was duty in cold war era air force.
A civilian owned Czech MiG-21 ran off the runway not far from where I live (US) a few year back. It traveled some distance on the grass, plowed through a chain link fence, and stopped on a road. The pilot suffered minor injuries, but the plane sustained considerable damage. I'm not sure if the plane was ever made airworthy again. Interesting local news day!
Informative interview with this great aviator who flew in the most hazardous weather conditions in this classic aircraft
Awesome loved the interview
Amazing man and video. Thank you.
Love this interview! You can tell he loves what he does...
I'm new here and I really enjoyed that interview with Jyrki. He reminds me of other fellow pilots that I've spoken to over the years. Humble and grateful for what they have been allowed to do.
What a treat to listen! Great interview!
Great interviewing, letting him talk his stories. very fun to watch.
Dreams come true, i did not dream when i was small to fly a MiG , i like space and planets !
I thoroughly enjoyed this video and Jyrki seemed like a humble man with loads of talent. Thank you.
Jyrki is a legend, I have read many of his books.
Awesome history, what an interesting life!!! Congrats from Brazil!
Thank You for making these fine documentary videos for us !
That was lovely as always, what a great man.
Really nice one, Mike. Thanks. And thumbs up to the idea of getting Jyrki into a Sabre.
Cheers mate.
17900 flying hours - 11000 in military aircraft.....that is a LOT of experience on the stick!
Jyrki was known among the fellow pilots a s a guy who was always willing to fly any craft any time ...