Flying in 2025 started in French Polynesia where I was on holiday. I didn’t have my OY-9797 with me 🙂 so it was in a rented C-172. The flights over coral reefs, turquoise lagoons and volcanic mountains were breathtaking:
Back home in February, there was real winter (for a couple of days), with sparkling frost and crispy snow.
I love winter flying. It is biting cold, and doing pre-flight check on a frosted metal airplane makes you freeze even more. But then you are airborne, and you forget about the cold. The low sun glinting on white blankets of snow, the feeling of isolation, the smooth frozen lakes – for a while, the world is transformed into a magestic winter:
In the beginning of spring, it was time to do 500 hours service on my Aeroprakt:
And in April, OY-9797 celebrated its 5 years birthday. We had a party in my flying club in EKHK. With Danaero, who delivered the aircraft, has been supplying me with service packages, and helping with practicalitites through the years:
Flemming, my partner, volunteered to be our chief – he did a great job preparing the food and grilling the steaks:
Before the summer flying season began, I created a new canopy cover type – a lighter one, that would be easier to take with me on longer flying trips. You can see my products here.
In May, Flemming and I took 2 weeks off and headed for Salzburg in Austria:
We did several stops in Germany on our way, and on landing in EDPC (Bad Endorf) were met by Ingrid Hopman who had baked a cake for us! Ingrid invited us for a coffee in the garden, together with other pilots from the club, who told us many interesting stories from their flying in Africa. Though Ingrid didn’t talk much about herself, I felt a connection to that woman, and we exchanged our contact details. It was first later, when I came home, I found out what a remarkable person, pilot and adventurer she has been. At the time of writing this blogpost, I’m reading Ingrid’s book (highly recommended, link to buy):
The weather in Salzburg was excellent, and we also enjoyed exploring other places, like Hallstatt – a picturesque town with 16th century houses and magestic views:
Summer was spent in Denmark and Sweden, with flights to different islands, lakes and forests:
I was lucky to meet some of my then online friends. Flemming Pedersen came by, on one of his long journees. We only had 5 minutes to talk, but it was all worth it:
Jean-Marc Servat had a refuelling stop on his way home after visiting Scotland, Faroe islands, Iceland and much more:
In September, I went on a two-week solo trip to Germany, Poland and Czech Republic:
In Poland, I met another then online friend – Tomasz Lindner.
Tomasz kindly invited me to stay at his house, and spent lots of time with me flying, also over Tatry mountains:
I continued to Brno where I had some warm and sunny days. In September, it felt especially nice.
I love flying alone. There is this sense of freedom, connection to the sky, and an immense joy of solitude.
As I couldn’t get any fuel at the airport near Brno where I landed (due to lack of communication, not lack of fuel), I had to find an alternative airport. Havlíčkův Brod LKHB welcomed me, I got fuel, a lift to my hotel in the city, and sightseeing tips. The old town of Havlíčkův Brod was small, but very charming:
Later in the autumn, I did flights to Germany and Sweden, and of course in Denmark. In November, my OY-9797 rounded 600 hours and the ballistic parachute had to undergo 6 years service. Steen from Danaero helped with uninstalling the parachute (it wasn’t easy) and making sure it would be sent to the manufacturer.
In general, the 2025 was a nice flying year. I was very busy and very tired at work, and decided not to do long trips (like Swedish Lapland, Romania or Croatia the other years), but to use more time locally with shorter flights and longer relaxation time.
I logged around 100 airborne hours (my annual normal), landed on approx. 25 airfields, 800 total airborne hours were logged as well.
How is the flying 2026 going to unfold? It is difficult to predict. I haven’t planned any special trips, though I’d love to go on a longer journee, to a country I haven’t been to with my OY-9797 before. The most important is that the weather stays nice and stable, so that we all get safe flying.