A pilot a year

The Finnish Air Force selects a serving F/A-18 Hornet pilot each year to fly its solo display, drawing in recent years on the fighter squadrons of the Karelia Air Wing at Rissala and the Lapland Air Wing at Rovaniemi, with a stand-in pilot from the other wing. Each pilot builds his own sequence around the Hornet’s high angle-of-attack handling; the 2022 routine ran eight to nine minutes at speeds from 200 to over 1,000 km/h. Recent pilots added their own signatures, such as the gear-down barrel roll flown by Captain Paulus Kärnä in 2025 and the high-alpha “Hat”, “Frisbee” and gun-defence manoeuvres of the 2026 display.

Back-to-back at Fairford

The display won the Sir Douglas Bader Trophy for the best individual flying display at the Royal International Air Tattoo in July 2018, flown by Captain Lauri Mäkinen of Fighter Squadron 31, and won it again in 2019 with Captain Arto Ukskoski of Fighter Squadron 11, who also took the As the Crow Flies Trophy. For 2026 the display pilot is Captain Ville Tuomainen of Fighter Squadron 31, Karelia Air Wing, with Captain Joni Kouva of the Lapland Air Wing as stand-in, on a season that included RIAT, the Swedish Air Force centenary and Athens Flying Week.