I departed for the second part of the "European Islands from the Skies" expedition on 16 June 2014. The trip took 11 days, about 45 flight hours and some 9000 km.
I started with the Channel Islands (Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney) and continued north to the Isles of Scilly, Isle of Man, the Outer and Inner Hebrides and over Loch Ness to the Orkneys and the Shetlands. Then I went on to the Faroe Islands and back to Norway filming its glaciers and fjords.
As always on this expedition, my track was transmitted via satellite phone to the news portal iDNES.cz which showed live updates every minute of the flight. Also, I had been sending on line sms messages from the cockpit with any notable news from the flight. Following the flight another e-book was published containing not only text but many photos and videos covering each day of the flight.
This part of the expedition probably surprised me more than any other - the beauty of the islands in the North Sea was amazing and (at least to me) unexpected. The only condition for being able to enjoy it is the weather. I was lucky, the weather was very friendly to me most of the trip.
.
.png)
Druhá část létání nad evropskými ostrovy možná vypadá trochu méně spektakulárně než předchozí cesta na Kanárské ostrovy, ale při její přípravě jsem se pro ní naprosto nadchnul. Množství zajímavých míst, ostrovů a ohromný rozsah historický zajímavostí je nepřeberné a tak bude limitujícím faktorem asi jen počasí…. more
Again, a couple of friends and enthusiasts came to the airport to see me off for the second part of the expedition "European islands from the Skies". Everything went fine and I left just a couple of minutes later than planned. more
June 16, 2014
The first day was quite busy. I was in the for about seven
hours and experienced a lot of turbulence. The journey took me over
the famous chateaux on the Loire and then down the river to the big
port of St Nazaire. more
June 16, 2014
After my departure for the second part of the expedition “European
Islands from the Skies” I flew via Germany to France where I landed
at Auxerre airport, refuelled installed my cameras and flew over
the chateaux of the river Loire. I continued westward to the port
of St Nazaire where the airport is also used by the Airbus
production line. That day I spent over seven hours flying more
August 17, 2014
The second day started with the arrival of Airbus´s Beluga aircraft
at the airport of St Nazaire. I departed for Dinard-St. Malo,
refuelled and flew via the islands of Chausey to Jersey, one of the
Channel Islands. more
June 17, 2014
From St Nazaire I flew to the airport of Dinard, close to St Malo.
There I went through a very detailed customs and passport check
which took about an hour and then I continued over several smaller
islands to Jersey. Before landing I flew around the island
filming. more
June 18, 2014
Even though the Channel Islands are part of Great Britain I had to
fly to Exeter international airport for customs/immigration. After
clearing customs, I continued along the coast of Cornwall to St
Mary´s airport on the beautiful Isles of Scilly. more
June 18, 2014
I left Jersey at noon and made a sightseeing trip around the
remaining Channel Islands - Guernsey, Sark, Alderney. Then I
continued to Exeter where I landed and officially entered the
United Kingdom. After an hour I flew over the southern coast of
Britain to Land´s End and on to the Isles of Scilly -
probably the most beautiful archipelago in the entire
expedition. more
June 18, 2014
From the Isles of Scilly my flight continued back to Land´s End and
then over the Bristol Channel and the interesting island of
Lundy. I landed at Swansea for lunch then continued via the Isle of
Man to the beautiful little airfield of Glenforsa, near Oban in
Scotland. more
June 19, 2014
I started the day with a sightseeing flight over the Isles of
Scilly on a beautiful, sunny morning. I continued towards Land´s
End and then along the northern coast of Cornwall and across the
Bristol Channel via Lundi island to Swansea. After a bit of rest I
departed directly to Glenforsa airport near Oban in Scotland. On
the way I flew over the Isle of Man. The total flight that day took
me 5.5 hours. more
June 20, 2014
I stayed two nights at Glenforsa. The longer stay gave me the
chance to fly around a little more to explore. The Outer and
Inner Hebrides, Plockton, the beach airport of Barra,
Stornoway, Isle of Skye, Eilean Donan Castle were the
highlights. Barra is actually the only licensed beach airport in
the world. Landing there is quite an experience.... more
June 21, 2014
I left Glenforsa in the morning and flew over Loch Ness, Inverness
and Wick to the Orkney Islands. There I landed at Lamb Holm
airfield. Lamb Holm is a privately owned island and has one of the
most interesting airports I have ever landed at. In the late
afternoon I made a sight-seeing trip around the Orkneys. It is a
beautiful archipelago with an enormous amount of history. For WWII
enthusiasts I can recommend Scapa Flow and the Churchill
Barriers... more
June 21, 2014
On the first day of Summer I left Glenforsa and headed for Lamb
Holm in the Orkneysflying over Fort William, the Caledonian
Canal and Inverness. The weather was quite fine so that same
afternoon I made a sightseeing trip around the Orkneys. more
June 22, 2014
Instead of continuing to the Shetland Islands I decided to stay at
the same excellent accommodation on the Orkneys. I made a day
trip to the Shetlands and flew around these great islands
before returning back to the Orkneys. more
June 22, 2014
Instead of continuing to the Shetland Islands I decided to stay at
the same excellent accommodation on the Orkneysbefore continuing on
to the Faroe Islands. So I made the one hour trip to the
airport of Lerwick. From there I flew around the beautiful
Shetlands, landed, changed the batteries in my cameras and returned
to the Orkneys. Altogether 3.5 hours of flight. more
June 23, 2014
Day 8 started with a lot of rain. Howevertrusting that the weather
would improve, at around 10 o´clock I departed for the Faroe
Islands. The flight took over three hours and took me to Vagar, the
only airport on the Faroe Islands. more
June 24, 2014
I was a bit upset that the weather was grey on the day I planned to
film the Faroe Islands. The ATC controller at Vagar airport had a
different view - he thought I was very lucky the weather was
great... The meteo statistics proved him right – for over 280 days
a year the FaroeIislands are blessed with rain. When I finished
filming the islands I refuelled and flew to Bergen in Norway. The
flight took about four hours. more
June 24, 2014
There was no filming on day 8 since the entire journey was over the
North Sea with no islands. I started day 9 with an impressive
sightseeing flight around the Faroe Islands. It took me about 1.5
hours but I discovered a whole new world of this fairy tale
archipelago. I landed back Vagar airport, refuelled and departed
for the next leg of the journey - a four hour flight to
Bergen. more
June 25, 2014
The area of Bergen is just beautiful and if you are as lucky as I
was with the weather, there can be nothing more stunning than the
nearby fjords and glaciers in the mountains. Having photographed
and filmed everything I could, I continued to the airport of Skien.
From there I flew over to the Danish town of Esbjerg where I stayed
for the night. more
June 26, 2014
This was the last day of this part of the expedition “European
Islands from the Skies”. I flew over the North Frisian
Islands, Helgoland, East Frisian Islands and then along the
river Elbe back to Příbram. The flight took me some five hours. more
June 26, 2014
I left Esbjerg at 8 a.m. and flew over the East Frisian Islands,
Helgoland and North Frisian Islands back to Příbram. The flight
took me . This was the last part of the second trip of the
expedition "European Islands from the Skies". more
I have been flying gliders since my age of 15 and in 2006 I completed my PPL in Texas, USA. More
