ISLANDS OF THE NORTH SEA
departed for the second part of the "European Islands from the Skies" expedition on 16 June 2014. The trip took 11 days, about 45 flight hours and some 9000 km.
I started with the Channel Islands (Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney) and continued north to the Isles of Scilly, Isle of Man, the Outer and Inner Hebrides and over Loch Ness to the Orkneys and Shetlands. Then I went on to the Faroe Islands and back to Norway filming its glaciers and fjords.
As always on this expedition, my track was transmitted via satellite phone to the news portal iDNES.cz which showed live updates every minute of the flight. Also, I had been sending on line sms messages from the cockpit with any notable news from the flight. Following the flight another e-book was published containing not only text but many photos and videos covering each day of the flight.
The objective of this part of the "European islands from the Skies" expedition had the objective of reaching Faroe Islands. There are two principle itineraries one can take to get there - via Scoltand or via Norway. I chose to fly via Scotland on the way to the North and via Norway on the return. Therefore on my way to North I flew via Germany, France, England and Scotland a on the way back via Norway, Denmark and Germany. more
June 16, 2014
After my departure for the second part of the expedition “European
Islands from the Skies” I flew via Germany to France where I landed
at Auxerre airport, refuelled installed my cameras and flew over
the chateaux of the river Loire. I continued westward to the port
of St Nazaire where the airport is also used by the Airbus
production line. That day I spent over seven hours flying more
June 17, 2014
From St Nazaire I flew to the airport of Dinard, close to St Malo.
There I went through a very detailed customs and passport check
which took about an hour and then I continued over several smaller
islands to Jersey. Before landing I flew around the island
filming. more
June 18, 2014
I left Jersey at noon and made a sightseeing trip around the
remaining Channel Islands - Guernsey, Sark, Alderney. Then I
continued to Exeter where I landed and officially entered the
United Kingdom. After an hour I flew over the southern coast of
Britain to Land´s End and on to the Isles of Scilly -
probably the most beautiful archipelago in the entire
expedition. more
June 19, 2014
I started the day with a sightseeing flight over the Isles of
Scilly on a beautiful, sunny morning. I continued towards Land´s
End and then along the northern coast of Cornwall and across the
Bristol Channel via Lundi island to Swansea. After a bit of rest I
departed directly to Glenforsa airport near Oban in Scotland. On
the way I flew over the Isle of Man. The total flight that day took
me 5.5 hours. more
June 20, 2014
The weather was unreliable but I hoped for the best and set off for
the only beach airport in the world - Barra. I flew over the island
of Mull and the Iona monastery. After a low level flight to avoid
the heavy clouds I flew into great weather over Barra and after a
lot of hesitation did my first beach landing. Then I continued via
Stornoway, Plockton, Eilean Donan Castle and back to
Glenforsa. more
June 21, 2014
On the first day of Summer I left Glenforsa and headed for Lamb
Holm in the Orkneysflying over Fort William, the Caledonian
Canal and Inverness. The weather was quite fine so that same
afternoon I made a sightseeing trip around the Orkneys. more
June 22, 2014
Instead of continuing to the Shetland Islands I decided to stay at
the same excellent accommodation on the Orkneysbefore continuing on
to the Faroe Islands. So I made the one hour trip to the
airport of Lerwick. From there I flew around the beautiful
Shetlands, landed, changed the batteries in my cameras and returned
to the Orkneys. Altogether 3.5 hours of flight. more
I have been flying gliders since my age of 15 and in 2006 I completed my PPL in Texas, USA. More
