Geographical photos

I made two trips to southern Africa – the first in February 2009 when I rented and old Cessna 172 and flew from Wonderboom airport at Pretoria to the south-west alongside the sea shore all the way to Cape Town.The return journey took us inland through Beaufort West and Kimberley back to Pretoria. more

Any journey from the Czech Republic to the south of Europe leads over the Alps. Weather permitting I usually fly directly to Linz, Trieste and from there then either to the south-east to Croatia, Albania, Greece etc. or to the south-west to northern Italy, southern France a possibly further to Spain. more

The flight from Pribram in the Czech Republic  to Split in Croatia takes about three hours, Dubrovnik takes half an hour more and Zadar about 20 minutes less. It is important, however, to plan the flight in such a way as not to arrive just before sunset when gusty strong wind starts blowing down the mountains. The runway of Split airport is perpendicular to it and that makes a landing sometime impossible. more

For a little sport aircraft, Cyprus is quite far away from the Czech Republic – some 10-12 hours one way. When you reach Cyprus, you are confronted with unreasonably high airport charges, the most expensive aviation fuel in Europe and a number of beaurocratic hurdles which make sport flying in Cyprus next to impossible. I made two trips to Cyprus and each of them ended with my decision not to repeat the experience. I am convinced the second trip was indeed the final one. more

The Czech Republic is very photogenic from the air – Karlstein, Cesky Krumlov, Ceske Budejovice, Palava, Jested and many other places which I am still just planning to discover and photograph. more

Private pilots sometime fear flying in France. My experience is, however, excellent – the dispatchers are usually very co-operative and helpful, they speak good English and provide any assistance a pilot of a sport aircraft may need. more

Flying between the Czech Republic and Germany is, these days, the simplest procedure that a pilot may wish for – there is no need even to file a flight plan. It is sufficient to take off in one of the countries and land in the other. Of course, it is good to maintain communication with the Air Traffic Control (I actually do that all the time) and thus be certain that one will not enter any prohibited airspace or area or that his/her course of journey does not conflict with anyone else´s. more

For aerial photography Italy seems to be one of the most interesting places in Europe. The arrival to Venice Lido airport is an unforgettable experience, the flights over Naples, Genova, Pisa, Verona, Firenze or San Marino are a extremely interesting. For the more adventurous pilots I recommend flying over the volcanoes of Vesuvio, Etna, Stromboli as well as the Messina Strait. Flying to Rome, one can use the airport of Urbi which is very well developed, offers fuel and is the closest airport to the centre of Rome. more

New Zealand from the air as well as from the ground is a country of enormous beauty – volcanoes, fjords (called “sounds” here), hot water sources, mountains, a lot of greenery... I did not do all the piloting myself in NZ since I did not have all the paperwork ready. Therefore I took several times a Cessna with an instructor. So I did not get  a mature piloting experience but I had more time to enjoy the beauty of NZ and focus on filming and photographing. In addition I found the opportunity to fly a historical biplane Tiger Moth of which there are only a few air worthy pieces these days. more

The main problem in the preparation of my trip to Scandinavia was the difficulty in finding aviation maps of Norway and Sweden. As only a few people fly to the area, the main publisher of aviation maps – Jeppessen company – does not publish these. Finding them was therefore a difficult task which I only resolved thanks to a UK on line pilot shop. However, I was then very happy to have them as the electronic databases and maps do not contain information on the almost invisible power lines  stretching over the fjords. With the maps I knew where to expect and avoid them before it was too late. more

I have never landed in Switzerland because it is compulsory to go through a customs check before departing for and from Switzerland as it is not part of the EU/Schengen custom union. There is one solution to make the procedure easier – you can fly to Basel which is a French/Swiss airport. So one can land on the French side, walk through a gate to Switzerland and take a train to Zurich or Bern. more

I was a bit concerned about flying in the UK since there are some differences in the rules VFR air traffic is managed and controlled. more