Day 7 Slovakia, Czech and Poland

What a difference a day makes. I woke at 6 to find the sun just peeking over the trees, the clouds were thin and high as was the wind. Well you can’t have everything. True to his word the airport car arrived to collect me from the hotel and drove me back to the airport. The flight plan was processed and all I had to do was await the arrival of the daily Audi flight. Only a 15 seater today. A local television crew turned up to film activity at the airport and captured GTREX taxing and taking off. I have to say that everywhere I have been, people have been incredibly helpful.
The first flight was to Pierstany in Slovakia. A local hop compare to some, but once again helpful staff on the radio suggested that I ignore my planned route and just fly a straight line. Helpful this time but more later.


There were many areas with fascinating patterns on the ground such as this.

Within 45 minutes I arrived at the airport. It was of course deserted. A magnificent terminal building paid for by the EU, but as yet no flights using it, but as it was only finished at the end of 2008, perhaps that is not a surprise. Alongside the terminal I saw on the approach line after line of Mig 21 and Mig27 fighters. As I got closer I saw they had all seen better days and had simply been abandoned by the Soviets. They are opening an air museum there this summer. Unfortunately I did not have the time to spend as my next flight plan had already been submitted. The woman in the office offered to arrange for the caretaker to come along and open it up for me to have a look round. I was tempted, but realised I would want to spend far more time there than I could afford. Once again, I was the only aircraft operating below FL100 in the whole of the country. I asked why they didn’t have Avgas and she explained that it only lasts three months and the last lot they had almost none of it was used. Because it contains lead, it is even hazardous to destroy. The net result is that there is only 1 airfield in the whole country with fuel! Worth knowing about in advance. The next flight was into the Czech republic. Due to Operation Flying Rhino (which sounds more like something Top Gear would do) most of the airspace was closed off. My original plan to go to the Sportcruiser factory was made pointless by this so I gave it a miss and went instead to the delightful Ostrava airport. The flight was quite bumpy as the mountains are still 4000ft high, and the turbulence was not always pleasant The villages around looked fascinating and the area was generally very pretty, helped of course by the sunshine. As everywhere I was martialled into a parking area and this time the refuelling tanker came to me.




Then along came a bus to take me to the terminal building. Impressive service I thought until I got the bill. A hurried change into GBP showed a total of 84 pounds 54 for fuel the vat on the fuel, the tax on the fuel the vat on the tax on the fuel and of course a handling charge as the fuel was brought to me. The remainder was made up of the landing fee (£10) which I thought was reasonable when I enquired in advance. On top of that there was VAT, The charge for the bus, the charge for the marsheller and a charge for 24 hour (or part thereof) parking. Never mind at least they had a proper café as this was an airport that had about 15 scheduled flights a day. I had to enter my own flight plan and was presented with a Czech keyboard. The Z key actually had both Z and Y on it. I didn’t notice at first and so in went LYMT as my departure point. I realised when I tried to enter my alternate. I tried all key combinations but could not get the Z. The solution was to choose another airport! Quite pleased with myself I submitted the plan. After about 5 minutes the message came up on the screen “Call Bratislava Control” I did nd a very nice lady changed my Y to a Z. She had obviously done it before.
The next flight was into Poland. The change at the border was dramatic suddenly the mountains were gone and it was just a flat plain (nearly). A very nice controller told me that he would save me some time If I descended to 2000 and steered a course 355. I complied, knowing that put me under the Katowice ontrol zone. What became a bit more obvious was that there was a single hill ahead over 2700 ft high.

The hill the controller wanted me to fly through!


What was he trying to do. I routed round it but being quite close to the ground got loads of rotor from the hill. He then told me again to go direct (he had obviously noted my deviation) I complied only later to see the edge of Lubin control zone appear ahead. I asked him whether I should climb or go around it. Both he suggested so I did. This time there was another aircraft flying so I was given traffic information keep a good look out you have traffic at your ten o’clock at a range of 20 miles. 20 miles he must assume my eyesight is spectacular. The flat fields of Poland are covered with vast fields of Oil seed rape. This makes it rather like Britain as does the chaotic field structure. Finally I arrived at Zelena Gora., a new airport advertising itself as the gateway to Western Europe. What that means is that it isn’t close to anywhere and I suspect it will continue to search for customers. It reminds me of Knock airport built in the middle of a bog in Ireland. They appeared to build their success on a miracle, I suggest that Zelena Gora ought to make some special approaches to the Vatican.The staff of course were wonderful as always. I was met by two, as soon as the plane had stopped then a third came with the refuelling truck and in minutes I was whisked away to the only hotel in driving distance. It only has about 10 rooms, but one of them was free. So here I am writing up today’s events.
Today then a total of three countries visited and 385 miles covered making 2058 in total