2014 - summary.

I interrupt the series of entries from DPRK to summarize shortly the year 2014.
As the year nears its end it is time to sum up what happened during it. Flights, memories, pictures, experiences. Everything connected with my activity in the air.

Let me start from my Personal TOP 5 photos of the year. In no special order. I tried to  show a diversified range of shots. Not necessarily top quality, but all of them represent something.

1. A pair of MiG-29 departing for one more training before the parade in Warsaw. I chose that shot because of the equipment I used, because I like the frame, because I love fire, because that was a superb day. Entry source and the direct photo source.

2.The 787 performed a stunning low pass during the Red Bull Air Race in Gdynia. Something I will never forget. A fantastic plane performing a fantastic stunt.

3. Kalitta coming to Warsaw was a big thing. Two Jumbos, a -400 and a -200. Fantastic planes, one of my personal favorite shots due to the background.

4. This shot is the one I chose from the DPRK. I didn't manage to play with all my shots yet, but that one is surely one of my favorites from the trip. For the awesome trip, awesome people I met, and awesome metal flying there. direct photo source and the entry source

5. Last but not least. A shot made during landing in Istanbul, flying from Warsaw. I love the background, I love the angle, I love the plane. For all the classics still flying out there - may they fly as long as possible. Entry source

And now back to the beginning.

Air Koryo Antonov 148

We made it safely back to Pyongyang from Samjiyon on the Il-18. We got on the bus, the bus took us to our next plane. The newest addition to Air Koryo's fleet. The Antonov 148.

We were scheduled for a 30-45 minute pleasure flight around Pyongyang. Free seating, the entire plane just for us. Lots of space for everyone. Each person could practically choose the seat they wanted to sit at. Lets not forget about the freedom of moving around during the flight, taking pictures of both the inside and the outside of the plane from basically any window you want to. One thing, I don't like in the plane is the engine position, there is basically no way to look at the fans :( they are simply to much at the front. But from the back seats you get a very nice view of the ground and the wing over your.
After we boarded, and all the checks have been performed we slowly taxied to the runway and smoothly departed.

Air Koryo Ilyushin 18

My last entry left us in China. Now lets jump a bit to the east to the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, or as some prefer simply North Korea. As some of you might know, Air Koryo (the national airline of the DPRK) owns some pretty old metal. Planes like the Ilyushin 18, the Il-62, the Tupolev 154 or the 134. All of them combined are a dream for many aviation enthusiasts.  About the process of entering and exiting NK I shall write a different entry in some time, when we get to the end of the trip.
Back to the point though. The first flying part of the visit was a return flight from Pyongyang to Samjiyon. The goal in the itinerary was a visit at Mt. Paektu. Both of the flights were operated on the Ilyushin 18. The plane registered P-835 has been build in 1966 and since then is flying for Air Koryo. Currently only domestic routes. A film review of the inside is available at the end of the entry.

First flight: JS3501 FNJ-YJS.
I woke up early, or should I say we, as it was a group. At the airport we've arrived around 7:30am, 1,5h before the flight. We had to wait a bit for boarding but that is not a problem if you are surrounded by a group of people with very similar interests. Time flew by very quickly and soon we were already on the bus to the plane. Boarded quickly and soon the engines have been turned on and taxiing commenced.

China Aviation Museum - Datangshan

During my short stay in Beijing the China Aviation Museum in Datangshan was a must see. After leaving the airport and arriving at my hotel where I left my luggage I headed north. Getting to the museum is quiet easy although time consuming. By public transport take the subway line 5 all the way to Tiantongyuan North station then change to bus nr 643 where people will surely help you get out at the right stop (easier to achieve if you have a paper with the museums name written down in Chinese) . From my hotel it took me around 1,5 hour and cost 3 yuan one way. Additionally you have to walk around 10 minutes from the bus stop to the museum itself.

The first thing that grasp your sight is a collection of planes flown by Mao Zedong. Four of them. You can even enter the Ilyushin 18 for 10 yuans. From that spot you can see numerous fighters both soviet and Chinese ones. Basically wherever you look you'll see a plane and it won't be all. There is a cave part to which the entrance fee is around 20 yuans. Unluckily I was out of funds so I didn't enter. From video and photo footage I saw, it is worth going in.

The display has been renewed recently, planes repainted and cleaned and a couple new additions added. Plane description under each photo and you can find a full list of planes being displayed at the end of the entry together with full museum details.

Mao's fleet

BAW232 medical emergency.

Emergencies happen everyday everywhere. Either it is something technical or a human factor is involved and someone gets sick forcing the plane to divert and land. One of the latter happened a couple days ago when Speedbird 232 from Moscow to London had to land in Warsaw due to medical reasons. I don't want to go into what exactly happened, let him rest in peace. Every cloud has a silver lining. The Boeing 777-236/ER G-VIIH which was operating on the rotation landed in Warsaw at around 6:10pm LT and departed again to London after 2 hours. Luckily for us, spotters from Warsaw, the plane parked on one of the new stands, PPS12 (which itself is a great topic for a different entry). We were able to stand a couple of meters in front of the plane and take photos from basically any frontal angle. Here are some pictures I took and want to share with all of you.

closeup on the nose

Medical assistance

Swiss A330 experience

LX196 (1320LT-0515LT)
I have previously flew into Zürich from Warsaw on a Helvetic Airways Fokker 100 but ZRH was just a stopover in my trip. After exiting the plane I headed for the train that would take me to gates E section from where my next flight would depart. I must say that this section is very elegant. The mix of gray, black and brown composes very well. Because my previous flight was delayed 10 minutes the moment I got to my gate and changed some money at a shop the pre-boarding documents check has already begun. I'm not a fan of queuing so I relaxed a couple of minutes and made order in bag as after the flight the mess was unbelievable. Ready to go I stepped up and had my documents checked. Quick, easy, without a single problem. I returned to my seat when boarding begun. Ehh a queue again... After a unsuccessful attempt of logging into the wifi I got my ass up and moved up to to, now short, queue. The plane, HB-JHA (named Schwyz, first flight 23/03/2009, serial number: 1000, powered by two RR Trent 772B-60 engines) made a good first impression on me. Although signs of usage could be seen here and there overall I though it's going to be a good flight. I got to my seat, prepared for the flight and push-back started. We taxied to runway 16, and departed after just a couple of minutes.

Gates E section of Zürich Airport

Taxiing onto the runway

Flying the Helvetic Airways Fokker 100

LX1343 (0935LT-1140LT)
Helvetic Airways operates on behalf of Swiss International Airlines on some routes. One of them is Zürich - Warsaw. Helvetic (2L OAW) has 6 Fokker 100 planes and 1 Airbus A319. Warsaw gets the F100, sometimes Swiss sends its own metal, an Avro or an Airbus. Luckily the plane on my flight did not change and I got to fly on HB-JVG (serial number 11478; first flight 29/09/1993; powered by two RR Tay 650-15 engines). Unfortunately the 'best' seats have been reserved by PZPN (Polish female U17 team going for a couple of friendlies in Switzerland) thus having a view into the engine was impossible and seat 10A had to do. Just in front of the leading edge of the wing. Some might say it's only 8 rows away and the sound will be similar but the truth is that it is very different, much quieter. The more up front you're seated the quieter it gets.
A short session before the flight:

SE-LRA, Saab 2000 on Apron 10 - taken before arriving at the terminal

SP-LND arriving at its gate

Flying the LOT 737-400

After my flights to/from Istanbul on the 734 I wasn't fully satisfied, I didn't get a cockpit shot and the ones I had from before weren't decent. So, knowing that LOT flies them to Brussels and I'd have to get to Belgium I looked for a deal on flights operated by the 734. Luckily There was a Crazy Wednesday to BRU with the dates I needed, great! I booked a return flight on the classic 737. Flights LO233 and 234 direct WAW-BRU-WAW.

LO233
1625-1830 SP-LLF, seat 19A. Delay 35 minutes on departure and 25 on arrival.
A short session before boarding.

SP-LRD

2014.08.20/21/22 Kalitta Air Boeing 747

Wednesday, 20th August 2014
744 ARR 1225LT
742 ARR 1252LT
744 DEP 2158LT

Thursday, 21st August 2014
744 ARR 1703LT
742 DEP 2345LT
lack of photos due to being busy and unknown delay time during the night.

Friday, 22nd August 2014
744 DEP 1035LT

N741CK

N741CK

2014.08.16 777 JAL, A340 Iberia

Saturday after a holiday and a great day at an Air Force base with awesome equipment. Who would have thought that at a such short period of time, so much could happen around Warsaw. The Japan Airlines Boeing 777 arrival has been announced a couple of weeks ago, the Spanish A340 brought Real Madrid players for their friendly with Fiorentina (which came the day before to Modlin with LOT Polish Airlines) has been announced around a week ago.
Iberia ARR 1210LT DEP 0025LT
JAL ARR 1358LT DEP 1814LT
in addition a couple of photos made during the occasion

EC-LEU

EC-LEU

Preparing for a parade

15th August is a national holiday in Poland. For religious reasons and because it is the Army holiday. This year a parade takes place in Warsaw. Infantry, tanks, helicopters, fighters and more will ride through the city. The public will have a fantastic opportunity to see how our Army looks, and what they use.
Air trainings took place already for a couple of days prior to the parade, however, the final training took place one day before, on the 14th of August 2014 in Mińsk Mazowiecki. The air display flew over the airport just the way it will the next day over Warsaw. I was in a group of 30 people that got permission to enter the airport and photograph all the action. The event was organised by Foto Poork and proclub. Thanks to the latter we had a opportunity to lend some equipment for free for the day. So, instead of using my traditional set, i got a grip on the Canon 1Dx with the 100-400L lens from Canon. Well, it wasn't the only equipment I've been using. Apart from it I also used the 600mm Canon lens and the 6D body. I think I fell in love :)
To the point though, the photos (for full resolution open them in a new tab [ctrl+left click])

108

A double departure of 108 and 28

Red Bull Air Race 2014 - Gdynia! pt.2

This is the continuation of this post, in which you can find all the details about the race itself. Here you'll see photos from the second day of the event (27/07/2014), in a different post you can see the first day (26/07/2014).

Red Bull Air Race 2014 - Gdynia! pt.1

The story of me and the Red Bull Air Race goes back a couple of years. I had tickets to the race in Budapest in 2010, but unfortunately the series came to an premature end and the race was canceled. Seeing the pilots race above the Danube river with a great panorama of the city in the background, I believe would be something amazing! For the next years the championship didn't take place. Until now. In 2014 Red Bull announced that the series would be restarted. Whats more, one of the stops was planned in Poland, at the seaside, in Gdynia. Wonderful! Not only the championships are back but I don't need to go far to see it!

The pilots had their first official training on Friday evening. The next day after a training, it was time for the Challenger Cup, and Masters qualifications. Between all, different displays from Breitling. Sunday (photos here) begun with a flyby of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner followed by the Breitiling Jet Team. After that the Masters begun racing with the Top 12, Super 8 and Final 4. All the details can be found here.

I've also decided to group the photos by day, in this post you'll see photos from the first racing day (26/07/2014), in a different post you'll be able to see the second day (27/07/2014).

FR5033 WMI-GDN 2014.07.22

Needing to get to the polish Tricity for the RBAR in Gdynia I had a couple of possibilities.
1. Taking the car with friends - the road is fast and comfortable you're on a highway all the way;
2. Taking the train - with many trains to choose from, regarding the price, comfort and duration everyone will find something for themselves;
3. Flying to Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport - either with LOT Polish from WAW or Ryanair from WMI.

Luckily, a friend of mine was at the time at his summer house at the seaside, he agreed for me to stay with him for some time. Superb. So, what was left? Finding the best option for flights :)
After browsing the reservation system of both LO and FR I decided to buy a ticket with the Irish airline for 25pln (~€6) one-way from Modlin to Gdańsk. Flight departing at 1920LT and arriving at 2005LT.

The journey begun at 1715 at the Central Railway station in Warsaw where I departed on a train bound for Modlin where a shuttle bus was waiting to take the passengers from the train station to the airport. After almost an hour I've arrived at the terminal and with more than an hour to spare before the departure, I decided not to rush and have a look at the terminals' overview. Because this wasn't my first time at the airport, I knew there wasn't much to do on the air-side. That sure is a downside of that airport. Boarding was announced before the plane has arrived, and people queued up (even though everyone had assigned seats...). When everyone was let out from the terminal and was standing in a line in front of the airplane, and cabin crew was ready to take us on board, we where allowed to board the plane. Seat assigned: 18F, but because there was no one seating in the emergency exit rows, and CC needs someone to be seated aside the emergency exits so even before I occupied my seat, I've been assigned to move up to 17F. Yay! One good thing in the trip (well, two including the price). Departure from runway 08 on time, a quick turn left and a climb to 8km, after a while the captain started to descend. On our way we met a huge Cb cloud, which gave a fantastic background to the wing. Landing in Gdańsk before time, and 5 minutes after scheduled landing time I met up with my friend and was under his control from this time.

LTBA spotting 24.02.2014

During my trip to Turkey, I also gave myself one day for a spotting trip at Istanbul Ataturk Airport. Maybe the weather wasn't the greatest but my entire stay in Istanbul was similar, so I simply tried to get the most I could from the conditions available.
I woke up early in the morning and was first at breakfast in the hotel. I took already my camera with me so after breakfast, with a couple of sandwiches I headed for subway line 1 which goes directly to the airport terminal. It's a 40 minutes ride. After leaving the subway you need to go via the terminal (which means need to pass a security control to enter it) to get a taxi. The driver didn't know at first where I wanted to go but after showing him on a map he had no problem. The famous shopping center opens at 10 and as I was early I wandered by the fence a little. Minutes after 10 o'clock I entered the center and took a seat at the terrace. A fantastic place. The overview is great and if you are hungry there is plenty to chose from. That's where I spent the next seven (if I remember correctly) hours straight. 737s, A320s family, A330/340s, 777s, and more! Some quiet exotic airlines as well for someone living in Warsaw.
The set of over 100photos:

TC-JDR

TC-JNJ

Turkey

A couple of months ago (February 2014 to be exact) I've been in Turkey for a week. During the 7 days I took 5 flights on 3 different types with 3 different airlines to 4 different airports. It was more of a sightseeing trip than a aviation one. I simply wasn't too keen on spending an entire week in one city. This time I shall post about all the flights in this one post, but in the future I'll try and make a post for each flight with a review of the flight, my feelings, photos and so on... Lets begin! For polish speaking readers a trip report is available here.

Itinerary: WAW-IST-ADB-ESB-IST-WAW

Warsaw - Istanbul - Warsaw with LOT Polish Airlines on board a Boeing 737-400

Istanbul - Izmir and Ankara - Istanbul with
Turkish Airlines both flight on a Airbus A321

Izmir - Ankara with Anadolujet on board a Boeing 737-800

Belavia T154

Some still talk about the recent Air Force One visit in Warsaw, when today a next great reason to visit the airport has arise! Not only the weather is great (sun, 25 degrees Celsius, scattered clouds) but also Belavia operated its flight to/from Warsaw on a Tupolev 154M and not as usual on the Boeing 737-500. Why? The answer is simple. Merlintour organized a tour for aviation enthusiast wishing to fly some soviet metal in Belarus. For 1390 euro you could fly the T154, An-12 (for extra money the IL76, An-26, An-2, Mi-2), included in the price is also accommodation, a visit in the aviation museum in Borovaya. Not cheap. We, spotters in Warsaw are very happy that the tour happens as thanks to it the T154 visited Warsaw and it really is a extraordinary plane now. Two friends of mine decided to take the flight WAW-MSQ, just the flight, not the entire tour.
Thank you Belavia!

On arrival runway 33

25 years of freedom

June 4th, 1989. First partially free elections in Poland. The transformation begins. From communism to democracy. Solidarność pushed Poland to freedom, later other countries followed, Germany, USSR.
This year we have been celebrating 25 years of freedom. On the 3rd of June delegations from around the world arrived in Warsaw to fest the jubilee. Lithuania, Germany, Hungary, USA and more. Heads of state from around 50 countries from around the world visited Warsaw and attended the ceremony.
That'd be about the things in the city, the official side. Now to the aviation part. What could we, spotters, see? VC-25, C-32s, C-17s, Dassault Falcons, Private Cessnas and Bombardiers, CC-130 Polaris, A310 and a United 764. Most of it arrived on Tuesday and later departed the next day. Some delagations had their planes return home and later fly back for them. Some arrived in the morning some in the afternoon. Fog came in for most of the morning arrivals, the entire day was also accompanied by low visibility. The next day was way better, at times :) half past eleven the first C-32 departed, two hours later traffic has been held up and the VC-25 made its way to Brussels, followed by the second C-32 and 3 C-17 later during the day (photos underneath will be in a chronological order beginning with the first). Between VIP and military departures civilian planes did operate normally.
All that traffic was a great reason to go for a longer spotting at EPWA than usually (as for a long time now I usually made short and rare visits just to see one particular plane, but that's a story for a different post). I wasn't able to go for spotting on Tuesday and I can't say I'm disappointed or sad about it. As the weather got better the next day I arrived around eleven o'clock at the airport and the process begun. Plane by plane departed, time passed by, in a team like the one there time makes no difference :) Unfortunately I had a meeting during the day and thus wasn't able to catch the departure of the 764 and the Slovakian Yak40. Rain thundered down exactly for those departures, me being in a building in the meantime I can't say I'm mad. The rain though was a great thing for later photos. All things ended around 1900 after the departure of Czech Yak40. In the conditions that arised it was hard not to photograph standard Warsaw traffic :)
Photos in chronological order without grouping. 

99-0003 departing WAW

2014.05.24 EY Cargo

The last two weeks were hard for me. After my return from Krosno I had some hard work to do in school, but now, when I have more time I could get back to my favorite activities. Yesterday we had an official welcome party for our new winch. Well, it was supposed to happen a week earlier, but due to the weather (and a couple of different things) we postponed it.
This weekend, in Berlin, ILA was opened to the general public, unfortunately I wasn't able to attend, maybe in two years. Also, we had an unusual visitor at EPWA. Etihad Cargo came by for some cigarettes (gossip is that for 100 tonnes). Flight ETD9931 was delayed by over 2 hours and arrived minutes after 7pm (scheduled time of departure form WAW :P ) How did it end? Check for yourself, additionally, a couple of photos of aircraft landing around that time.

Approaching somewhere between trees :)

Krosno

My gliding division of Warsaw's aeroclub is buying a new winch. The old, Czechoslovakian made Herkules H4 will be replaced by a Moto-Hurt Ropczyce WS02 winch. This is the reason of my trip to Krosno. Because it is very much expected at EPBC we want it to be flawless when it arrives. If it would arrive and there would be any problems with how it works.. I don't even want to think of what they would do to and with us...
I picked up a friend after noon and we headed for our ride to Krosno via Ropczyce where we joined the rest of our "team" and had a look at the winch, got to test the systems and the way it drives. We then parked it on a gun carriage which took it to the airport in Krosno with us. We parked it at the airport and headed to the place that we where going to spend the night. That's how Thursday ended.

Friday morning, first thing after breakfast we directed ourself to the airport. The day surely started slowly. We took one Puchacz out and prepared it for flights. Meanwhile the winch guy got a basic tutorial of what and how. The plan was ambitious, very ambitious. We wanted to do 100 test runs. All in all we finished at 41 and ~2,5h of flight time. I did 8 flights during which I spent in the air 30 minutes. As there wasn't any other goal than to test the winch, we practiced a bit short and steep approaches and the accuracy of our landings.

I should also add a 20 minute flight on-board An-2 because of a problem with the winch that needed to be fixed. That'd be my first An-2 experience. FAN-TAS-TIC!
Summing it all up, we came up with a list of things that needs to be repaired or adjusted before we'll take the winch to Warsaw and present it officially to the rest. I would love to thank all the people that helped. Thanks!

Inside the winch

 One of the first departures

2014.04.30/05.01 ELY744/LOT788

Recently there has been a couple of nice movements at EPWA. El Al arrived with a total of 4 Jumbo Jets in a time window of a week. The first 2 came from JFK and YYZ on the 24th of April in the morning and the second 2 came from TLV on the 30th of April, in the evening. Unfortunately I did not have the possibility to go and see the first 2. I only caught one of the evening ones, and not exactly as I wished to.

On the first day of May the 6th Dreamliner arrived for LOT from Everett. SP-LRF made a low pass before touching down on runway 33. I wanted to have different photos than I would usually make at that time of the day. Well, plans are always great, until you get to confront them with reality. Too much experimenting isn't always the best option. The final effect is satisfactory, but not the thing I wanted to achieve.

In the mean time two CanJet 737s' arrived from Canada to fly on charter routes for LOT. Both ex. RYR planes with Y189 config. I did not meet them yet, but as soon as I do, I'll post a couple of photos.

I couldn't forget about a couple of military planes that visited us. Including a HUAF Antonov and Finish guests. None of them seen by me this time. Unfortunately I don't have the ability to visit the airport every time something cool swings by.

 4X-ELC approaching rwy 33 over Piaseczno

2014.04.11-12 Junior!

Mission codename: "Junior"
Not very inventive but, well... The goal was easy. Firstly I must say I don't know the English word for "laszować" - in short it is when you "get" a new type. Firstly you pass it at the mechanics, he asks you for its details like, speeds, weights, lengths, (dis)assembly and more. Later you have to do around 5 flights (1-2 with an instructor on a plane you already "have" to check your skills, and later 3 on the glider you're trying to "get") to finish the process.
I passed the theory test on Friday and hoped to finish everything that day, well yeah, that was the plan. Around one hour before sunset when I was already in the glider ready for my first check ride a problem arise at the winch making impossible to depart behind it. How great is that?!?
The next day we started late (due to "intellectual" reasons), 12:45 first departure. The winch arrived 2 hours later and that is when I could start flying. Two flights quickly done, a short pause, short intro to how to fly the SZD-51-1, how it behaves etc. and I can get in the air. Three flights, each around 4 minutes. The first one, hmm, it kinda was bad. The steering requires less force, gentle moves are more than enough. Especially when using the elevator. A lesson learned: the steering is very fragile. The next two flights have been smooth and without problems, found the correct amount of force needed and all when almost perfectly. This is how the mission was accomplished. SZD-51-1 Junior is the fourth glider I can fly on. Next on: Grob 102 Astir CS, mission "Astir".
Photos from Friday:

Puchacz (SP-3782) going to the moon

2014.04.05 LOT Retro

Yesterday (04 April) LOT revealed its new paint scheme. SP-LIE was painted in a livery from the '50 of the previous century for LOTs 85th anniversary. The first things that came to mind when I saw photos of it where the KLM and Malev retro liveries. I liked it. Classy, very classy! The plane was shown in the early afternoon. First flight, 1900LT to MUC as LO375/376. The next day (that'd be today) it also started of with MUC as LO351/352 than OTP as LO641/642 and in the evening BRU as LO231. This was already know yesterday.
First, I headed for EPBC, to have one or two flights. Cool, but first the winch has to be in working order... Fixing it took us around one hour, great now we can get on with flying (in the meantime fuel had to be bought as well). Let me skip further. My first and only flight of the day departed at 1:20pm and took 4 minutes. It was a strange flight, mostly because of a chain of mistakes I made. I was not prepared for what happened during the flight, never mind, I got what I wanted, took off.
An hour later I had to get going as I planned to catch SP-LIE returning from Romania. It really is photogenic. Let me just show you the plane so you can decide yourself. Simply look at the crane in the front!

2014.03.30 A nice weekend... with gliders

Last weekend I began to fly again. 4 flights on Saturday, all four with an instructor. Sunday was spent at home and the second airport on other stuff.
This week it all was supposed to start on Friday afternoon when flights were supposed to be done. And so it happened, although only behind the plane as there was no one to sit behind the winch. No flying for me that day :( Saturday came with fantastic weather, but, I volunteered earlier during the week to spend it at an open day of one of Warsaw academies. We took the PW-5 after 7am and arrived at the place we where going to have our stand after 8am. All was set till 9. The thing kept on going for the entire day with children going in and out of the glider, a couple of people asked question about availability and prices of passenger flights (yes, we do offer ones like that also) and other things more sophisticated than "what does this do?". The event finished after 5pm and I was home after 6. Not bad.
That night we changed time to daylight saving time what meant an hour of sleep less. After all - it helped the next day.
Sunday morning - at the airport from 9am. All good except the number of two-seater gliders - just one, and plenty of people wanting to fly on it. It was flying time for 1 Jantar std3, 1 Astir, 2 Juniors and 1 Puchacz. The last one made over 40 flights that day, 5 of them with me, 3 solo ones. This resulted in the end of my period proceeding next steps to the license. Last flight landing at 7:03pm with the sun behind the clouds, almost over the horizon (sunset: 7:06pm). Even though I had to wait 6,5h for my first flight of the day it sure was worth it! Hope to get on with new things soon. And maybe some "older" spotting action will follow.

SP-3782 Puchacz, view on Bielany district.

Sorry for poor quality, phone made, lack of light.

2014.03.22 Back in the air

After over 8 months without a single glider flight, the past weekend finally gave me the combination I've been waiting for. Good weather and free time. Although my friends have been flying already since at least the beginning of the the month, I haven't had the opportunity yet, or the weather was crap or I had a shitload to do... Well the rules say I have to complete 6 flights with ans instructor and 3 solos before I can continue training that is what I started with. A standard 9am briefing and on we go. Unfortunately there currently is only one available double seater for flights, and as there has been around 8 persons wanting to fly on it, the queue wasn't small. Over all I managed to spend 17 minutes in air during 4 flights. Had some problems at the start, but as time passed got back to the routine. 10 hours at the airport spent and just 17 minutes in the air... Hope to get back in the air soon.

SP-3459 "SJ" SZD-51 Junior

2014.03.14-15 Fortune Air Boeing 727

During the past weekend a nice guest visited Warsaw. On board Fortune Air's B727 was the vice president of South Africa (that is what they said :P ) It surely was great to see an old plane like that one in Warsaw, not talking about the sound. When it turned reverse thrust on, even a couple of car alarms went off. Fortunately the weather for its morning arrival was great, CAVOC says it all. The next day came rain, resulting in typical Warsaw weather for anything interesting that comes. It rained all day. The morning departure to Cracow were the last photos I could make of this beautiful aircraft. I wasn't able to see the afternoon arrival and the next day afternoon departure back home.

ZS-PVX Fortune Air B727 final approach runway 33

2014.03.11 B717 Blue1 during a sunset

A couple days ago, taking advantage in the beautiful weather outside I decided to go and catch the Blue 1 Boeing 717 operating till the end of March for SAS enroute CPH-WAW. Its scheduled time of arrival is minutes before 5pm and departure after 30 minutes. This results in stunning sunset light which gives opportunities for photos like no other.

Approaching runway 33

To see more photos click "Read more" down here

What is this?

Hi all,
I created this blog to share my passion with everyone interested. Right now I am a simple gliding student on my way to the PL(G). Someday I plan to be an airliner pilot. What I also love is planespotting. This will be a part of the blog. Both photos and videos of planes from inside and outside shall be posted here. For a retrospect on those you can visit my youtube channel at www.youtube.com/tinek6 or a have look at my photos at http://skrzydla.org/photodb.php?user_id=1118 I do also have a couple on airliners and different galleries. Now, here there will be a coupe of photos that won't get to the galleries. When I will start flying again any progress in my training shall be noted here. As I am a rookie right now it might be nice for other people in the future that will want to fly as well. The entire way from zero to commercial flying.
Any suggestions on what to and how to post will be kindly appreciated.
Cheers,
KD