Our 3rd day in Poland began from refuelling our aircrafts at Szymanów airfield (EPWS).

How does it work?

Marek Jóźwicki, managing director of the Aeroklub Wroclawski http://www.aeroklub.wroc.pl/pol/, arranged UL91 for us delivered to the airfield. The barrels were quite heavy – even Jens couldn’t move one!

Come on!

It took some time to refuel, but it was fun.

The weather was fine, and a long travel day was ahead of us. First to Kielce-Maslow airfield (ERKA), then 4-5 hours in a bus to Zakopane. We couldn’t fly directly, as the Krakow airspace and the area of 100 km in radius around the city was closed by NOTAM due to the Youth Days in Krakow, which is also why we couldn’t land in Nowy Targ (EPNT) as was planned.

You talkin’ to me? (Guess who is PIC?)

It is always a pity with these short visits – it would be nice to have the time to socialize with the Polish pilots, to see their aircrafts, hangars, club houses, etc. We hope to come back to Szymanów, and to stay in touch.

Goodbye aeroklub Wroclawski! Thank you for your hospitality!

On our way to EPKA we enjoyed nice weather and beautiful views. Below is a picture of typical Polish landscapes we loved so much.

Striped fields of Poland

We flew by Belchatów Power Station which is the largest thermal power station in Europe and second largest fossil-power station in the world. It is also the biggest carbon polluter in European Union, and was ranked as the most climate-damaging power plant in EU in 2014. Carbon cupture and storage technology is being introduced in order to minimize the pollution.

Belchatów power station

Aeroklub Kielecki met us with police, sniffer dogs, officers from the Intelligence Service, and explosives experts. These were also the days when Pope Francis visited Krakow, and it is understandable that all security services were alert and followed their normal procedures.

Following procedures…

Our aircrafts were searched while we relaxed on the grass, had an ice cream, and took pictures.

Waiting time…

Aeroklub Kielecki (EPKA) might don’t have the world’s nicest building (yet), but they have very nice club facilities, good runways, and very helpful staff. As in most if not all Polish flying clubs, it’s a place for air sports where gliders, ultralights, helicopters, paraglides, etc. can happily coexist and enjoy their activities under one and the same roof. It would be unthinkable to have such a club in Denmark…

Every flying club with respect for themselves in Poland has at least a couple of Antonov on display:

Antonov

But the one aeroplane Polish pilots are very proud of is of course PZL-104 Wilga. It is Polish designed and built aircraft suitable for robust use in sports and civil aviation. It is a short-takeoff-and-landing aircraft that was in production during 1962-2006. It is often used for parachute training and glider-towing which is also the case in aeroklub Kielecki.

Wilga PLZ-104

And finally – bus tour to Zakopane where we looked so much forward to a hiking tour in the High Tatras the day after.

Krakow