Cyprus

For a little sport aircraft, Cyprus is quite far away from the Czech Republic – some 10-12 hours one way. When you reach Cyprus, you are confronted with unreasonably high airport charges, the most expensive aviation fuel in Europe and a number of beaurocratic hurdles which make sport flying in Cyprus next to impossible. I made two trips to Cyprus and each of them ended with my decision not to repeat the experience. I am convinced the second trip was indeed the final one.

From the flying point of view the most difficult part is the relatively long flight over the open sea between the island of Rhodes and Cyprus. If you fly in one go for example from Corfu or from the South of Italy, then you get to Paphos airport with the fuel tanks almost empty. If your are confronted with stronger headwinds, you might find it difficult to reach Paphos.

During my first trip the landing was made somewhat exciting by the fact that a storm developed over the airport just around the time I wanted to land. During the second trip the headwind was much stronger than forecasted and therefore I landed with a negligible fuel reserve of around 15 minutes.