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Team MembersEvery New Year the team leader for the season and the Commander of Fighter Squadron 41 select together next team members. The Commander-in-Chief Finnish Air Force will then make the final approval, which after the names of the team members for the season will be revealed. The selection is always very hard because many of the instructors in the Finnish Training Air Wing is very capable to fly in the team. The main purpose of Training Air Wing is naturally to train very capable fighter pilots so operational commitments and transfers come always first and after this the display teams requirements. All pilots selected to the team will continue to fly as full-time flight instructors, which is still their main job. The display flying comes after it. The same selection procedures apply also to the technical team. Midnight Hawks mechanics and technicians keep the planes flying and are very important part if the team Because flight instructing is the main job for all the pilots they select the manoeuvres based on the amount of practise they have time to fly. Due to the amount of formation flying received in the normal flight training Midnight Hawks practise surprisingly little compared to their excellent and tight display flying. When the airshow season starts the pilots have only some 15 display training flights each. This is only possible with the very demanding and versatile training all Finnish Air Force pilots receive. All Midnight Hawks are winter swimmers and they swim in the hole of the ice regularly. During the years Midnight Hawks Team Leaders have welcomed other display teams to visit their training camp in March when there is still snow on the ground and all lakes are frozen with temperatures below freezing. Quite different atmosphere than having training camp in e.g Cyprus. Midnight Hawks promises to teach the art of swimming in the hole of ice to anyone visiting Midnight Hawks training camp! So far none has come.....! 2010 Midnight Hawks crew: 1 Team Leader, Captain Joni "Morty" Kankaanpää
2 Left Wing, Captain Olli "Creature" Väätäinen
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   Kuvat © Perttu Karivalo |
