I set off for this first official part of the expedition "European Islands from the Skies" on 22 April 2014. The flight took me over the islands of Elba, Corsica, Sardinia, Menorca, Mallorca, Ibiza, Lanzarote, Gran Canaria, Palma, Tenerife, Madeira, Porto Santo and Ile During this trip I also landed in the Spanish enclave of Mellila in northern Africa and flew over the Strait of Gibraltar as well as the Landing Beaches of Normandy.
In addition to the many photos and video hours we had, we made a special video entitled "70th Anniversary of D-Day" which can be seen on this website in the History section.
April 22, 2014
The first flight on the first day of the first part of
the expedition "European Islands from the Skies" took me
over the Alps to Venice. The trips took about 2,5 hours. From
Venice I next flew to Pisa where I spent my first night of the
trip. more
April 23, 2014
The second day I departed from Pisa and flew to the scene of
Napoleon´s first exile, the island of Elba, where I refuelled. Then
I flew via the western coast of Corsica to the airport of Figari. I
soon left for Menorca flying over the beautiful town of Bonifacio
and then Sardinia. After some three hours of flight over the sea I
landed at the airport of Mahon on Menorca. more
April 24, 2014
From the airport of Mahon I continued via the northern coast of
Menorca and then Mallorca to the airport of St Bonet near Palma de
Mallorca. After some bureaucratic problems and refuelling I
departed for Melilla - a Spanish enclave in the north of Africa. I
had to struggle with headwinds of about 60 km/s. more
April 25, 2014
From Melilla I wanted to fly to Gibraltar. The problem was Melilla
had no fuel and neither did the airport of Gibraltar. As a result I
changed my flight plan to Jerez in Spain. I landed at Jerez
with barely the legal minimum of fuel since the headwinds were
again very strong. After about two hours of paperwork and
refuelling I set off for Lanzarote - about 5,5 hours of flight over
the sea. I landed there at about 8 p.m. into a very strong gusting
wind. more
April 26, 2014
I spent one night at Lanzarotte and continued on via the island of
Fuerteventura, passing by La Palma to the airport of Tenerife Norte
- where the worst aviation disaster in history happened in 1977.
The airport looks very peaceful and it is difficult to imagine what
happened here... more
April 27, 2014
I did a sight-seeing flight from Tenerife Norte - Teide Volcano,
Gomera island, La Palma and then on to Madeira. The flight from La
Palma to Madeira took some 2,5 hours. Landing at Madeira was quite
difficult because of the wild cross-wind. more
April 28, 2014
Day 7 of my trip was a resting day which I spent on the beautiful
island of Madeira. more
.jpg "Funchal Airport")
April 29, 2014
The morning after my rest I departed for a sightseeing trip around
Madeira. I flew with Dinarte, a young friendly man working at the
airport of Madeira. It was a good idea - he did the photography and
guiding and I flew and enjoyed the sight-seeing. Next, I departed
for another 5,5 hour flight over the sea to a little airport of
Benavente in mainland Portugal. more
April 30, 2014
From the airport of Benavente I flew to Maia at Oporto. Here, a
crowd of plane spotters was waiting for me. They asked to come over
when they found my flight on the internet. We spent a pleasant
afternoon and then I set off to continue to Santiago de
Compostella. Half way there I had to turn back because of bad
weather - storm, fog, wind, rain. more
May 1, 2014
After a night spent at Oporto I set off again from Maia airport.
This time the destination was Biarritz rather than Santiago de
Compostella which I had failed to reach the day before. From
Biarritz I continued north to the historical city of La
Rochelle. more
May 2, 2014
From La Rochelle I flew over St Nazaire - during WWII a German
submarine base - to the airport of Quiberon. From there, after a
thorough police check of all my on-board equipment I continued
north to the airport of Dinard - St Malo. more
May 3, 2014
From Dinard airport I continued via the famous monastery of Mont St
Michel to the Landing Beaches at Caen in Normandy and then
bypassing Paris to the north landed at Haugeanau after about five
hours of a very bumpy flight. A special video documenting the D-Day
beaches is available at the History section of prusa.org
website. more
May 4, 2014
The flight from Haugenau to Příbram took only about 2,5 hours.
There were several aircraft waiting for me over Pilsen and they
joined me on the last stretch of my flight to Příbram. About 20
friends awaited me at the airport. more
I have been flying gliders since my age of 15 and in 2006 I completed my PPL in Texas, USA. More
