Islands of the Adriatic and the Aegean Sea

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This part of the expedition "European Islands from the Skies" took place between 30 September 2014 and 10 October 2014. Altogether this meant about 40 flight hours, 10 days of flying and about 8000 kilometres flown. I covered the islands along the Croatian and Greek coasts and the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea. As I have done during all the other parts of the expedition, I was sending on line reports and videos/photos from each day of the flight. These were published by the news portal iDNES.cz together with an on line map showing my actual position. The journey reports attracted up to 30 000 readers daily.

 

The beauty of the Greek and Croatian islands is well known but seeing so many of them in a period of less than two weeks was overwhelming. I also managed to fly over and record cities like Split, Dubrovnik, Heraklion. On top of that my journey included the Corinth canal, Boka Kotorska in Montenegro and Mt Olympus in Greece.

 

 

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30.9.2014 Photos - Departure With the aircraft taken out from its hangar

The departure for the last part of the expedition "European Islands from the Skies" was quite routine - arrival at the airport two hours before the planned departure time (10.45 LT) and then: checking the weather, filing my flight plan, loading the  , getting the maps and everything else ready, entering my flight plan into the GPS, aircraft check, interview for iDNES.cz, couple of photos and departure (10.40). Here are some of the photos taken just minutes before take off. more

1.10.2014 Photos - Day 1 Town of Poreč - west coast of Istria, Slovenia

30 September 2014

I started the journey at 10.40 on 30 September, 2014 departing from Příbram - LKPM. I flew over the Alps to the small airport of Portorož in Slovenia to clear Schengen customs and continued the flight along the Istria peninsula to Mali Lošinj island in Croatia. more

2.10.2014 Photos - Day 2 OK LEX at Mali Lošinj airport

01 October 2014

I had trouble buying fuel in Mali Lošinj but managed to convince a taxi driver to help me buy it at a service station. My flight continued over the beautiful Adriatic islands belonging to Croatia and over the city of Split to Brač Island. From there I flew via Dubrovnik to Tivat in Montenegro where I stayed for the night. more

3.10.2014 Photos - Day 3 Boka Kotorska - view from Herzegnovi

02 October 2014

Tivat, Montenegro is close to a beautiful area called Boka Kotorska. I flew around the maze of sea bays hidden among high mountains which is, surprisingly, the wettest spot in Europe as it records about 4500 mm p.a. of rain. Then I continued my trip along the Montenegro and Albania Adriatic coast to Corfu. To enjoy and film Corfu and the adjoining islands I set off for an hour-long local trip. I stayed the night at Corfu. more

4.10.2014 Photos - Day 4 Port of Lakka, Paxos island, Ionian Islands

04 October 2014

From Corfu I flew to the island of Zakynthos passing over such famous islands as Ithaca, Cephalonia and Lefkada. After having landed at and flown around Zakynthos I continued to a small private airfield at Messalonghi in the Bay of Patras. Lord Byron lived and died here in 1824. more

5.10.2014 Photos - Day 5 Atoliko island, Messolonghi, the bay of Patras

04 October 2014

From Messalonghi I flew between the Peloponese peninsula and Greek mainland towards and across the Corinth Canal. Then I continued over the Argosaronic islands of Aegina, Poros and Hydra and landed at Kythira, the southernmost island of the Ionian island group. After a brief break I flew further south to largest Greek island - Crete. more

6.10.2014 Photos - Day 6 OK LEX at Heraklion airport, Crete

05 October 2014

Having flown along and filmed the northern shores of Crete the day before, I continued north-east to the island of Rhodes - the main island of the Dodecanese islands. more

7.10.2014 Photos - Day 7 Right downwind runway 25, Rhodos

06 October 2014

From Rhodes I flew along the Greek/Turkish border to the North passing over such beautiful islands as Tilos, volcanic Nisyros, Kos and Samos. The famous mathematician Pythagoras was born and lived on Samos. more

8.10.2014 Photos - Day 8 Statue of mathematician Pythagoras, the port of Pythagoreion

07 October 2014

From Samos I flew over the mythical island of Icaria where Icarus fell from the skies. Then I travelled further west to overfly Mykonos and south over Naxos and Ios to Santorini with its wide flooded volcano. When I finished filming there I continued to Milos and then landed at Syros. Here I managed to refuel and continued to Lesbos. more

9.10.2014 Photos - Day 9 Vey pleasant team of people looking after me at Lesvos Myitilini airport

08 October 2014

From Lesbos I crossed the Aegean Sea for the fifth time on this trip flying west again. I flew over the Sporades island group - Skentzura, Skopelos and Skiathos. Then along the western coast of Thessaloniki bay to the city of Thessaloniki where I stayed for the night. more

12.10.2014 Photos - Day 10 Athos moutain on Athos peninsula, the home of about 20 male monasteries

09 October 2014

This was perhaps the most dramatic day of this part of the European Islands expedition. I flew over the islands in the Northern Aegean Sea and crossed over to Turkey. However, for about an hour I was not able to establish radio communication with Turkish Air Traffic Control. As a result I was increasingly concerned about the possibility of being chased by the Turkish Air Force. Finally, over the Marmar Sea an airline pilot conveyed my message to the Istanbul Approach controller who gave me instructions to turn to the North. This meant that I could not fly my planned route via the Bosphorus but at least I managed to get through Turkish airspace without any real trouble. more

13.10.2014 Photos - Day 11 Gorna Oryahovitsa town after departure for the last leg of the Expedition

10 October 2014

This was the last day of the last part of the expedition "European Islands from the Skies". Because the weather forecast was not favourable for the following day I decided to fly directly to Příbram and thus leave out filming the Dracula castle in Romania. My trip that day took six hours and I landed at Příbram with fuel for another about 45 minutes. more

Jiří Pruša > Photos > Islands of the Adriatic and the Aegean Sea