Frans wrote:
Yes, that’s something we suspected as well. In the upcoming legs with flightplan, they cleared us automatically through CTRs and TMAs. Never thought a VFR-flightplan could be so useful, at least in the Czech and Slovak Republic.Its a nice example how flying habits are different across Europe.. Since there are no exemptions for filing flightplan between EE and neigbouring countries, I always submit a flightplan while crossing the border. And expect that if I don’t have any , I will be asked to submit a flightplan from air the moment I contact any kind of ATC (even in uncontrolled airspace). And yes, I would expect to be cleared through class C or D TMA in Estonia or Finland.
@AeroPlus: Ah, sorry, didn’t got that one. Our original plan was to fly to Croatia. On our way back, we would cross the Adriatic Sea and/or do some low flying around the Croatian coast. Since the weather wasn’t stable enough to fly to Croatia, Slovakia was our Plan B, with still having the opportunity to fly to Croatia from the Tatra mountains. Because of the unstable weather and our great time in Slovakia, we didn’t flew to Croatia after all, but we didn’t know that in advance.
@ivark: Yes, I’m still surprised how different flying habits could be across Europe. After getting my license, I assumed that all EASA-member states have almost the same habits, but that turned out quite wrong. This is something I wasn’t prepared for during my flight training. I just learned how stuff works in Germany (and learned from USA flying videos) and that’s it. Because of this, I felt quite uncomfortable during my first cross border flights. Thanks to this forum and some other great websites, I could prepare myself a lot better.
Finally, the video series can continue, after beeing quite a while on tour for work. I definitely need a Macbook Pro instead of iMac sometime, so I can work on my videos remotely.
After having a great evening in Prague, which is one of my favorite cities, we allowed us some time to wake up. We stayed at hotel Troja near subway station “Kobylisy”. Good hotel with comfortable beds and a great breakfast for only 24 euros per person.
We have to admit that the public transportation in Prague was great. On-time, clean, many connections, cheap (120 czk for 24hrs) and well organized. Much better than many German cities. You really don’t need any taxi to get around. The only downside is the fact that the ticket automats only accept coins in CZK, no debit or credit card, no paper cash, just coins. From Kobylisy, it took only 5-10 minutes with the subway to Letňany or 5-10 minutes to the city center. From the subway station Letňany, you walk in just 10 minutes to your airplane.
After arriving back at the airfield, we packed our stuff in the airplane and paid at the C-office. Here only NFC-cards where accepted besides cash, luckily I had one. Because I had some questions regarding local procedures, we could visit the little tower, which is normally closed to visitors. The AFIS guy was very friendly and showed us his instruments and we made some pictures on his balcony.
What happened with the flight itself? Well, you can see that in the video. 
Lessons learned from this flight:
Heavy thermals can distract you from proper flying. I didn’t hold 2.000 ft in the beginning as instructed, because I paid more attention to other traffic, engine instruments and flying the correct route. Thermals wanted to push us up by force. I just wanted to climb as quick as possible to get away from the crazy turbulences. After the clearance came to climb to FL75, a huge ‘yoke’ fell off my shoulders and everything went fine.
After our arrival in Jasna, someone was waiting for us and gave us the keys of the Mitzubizi and rooms. The good old guy couldn’t speak any word in English, but soon a young guy showed up on a bicycle, which was the son of the airfield’s owner. He showed us around and could speak quite good English.
Jasna is not only worth a detour, it’s worth a trip on its own. Oh dear, it’s a little paradise! So gorgeous build in the loving (mountainous) landscape, renovated with love and eye to detail. BBQ-place, little hut and a hangar with all facilities: Two sleeping rooms, briefing room with kitchen and bathroom with two toilets and two showers. What else do you need? There is also a little bar/kiosk build in an old bus, but we couldn’t find out its opening hours, we saw sometimes someone there, and a few moments later it was closed again. Although you can land on this private airfield without PPR, you cannot leave the place, except through the “backyard” fields, because the gates on the access road are continuously locked. The airfield is high-secured with double fences, alarms and cameras. I definitely would recommend to give the owner or “caretaker” a short notice prior arrival, so you can leave the place or even rent the old Mitzubizi to get around.
Having Jasna as a base for a few days, we took the old Mitzubizi and did some sightseeing in the area. Pizzeria Kubo in the neighbor village Dúbrava (with a beautiful wooden church) makes great pizzas for a ridiculously cheap price. They bring the pizza also to the aerodrome upon request or you can have a 30 min walk by foot over the fields. We stayed at Jasna for two nights. During these days it was more or less ‘our’ airfield. Every evening the airfield’s owner came with his WT-9 and departed the next morning again.
Liptovský Mikuláš is the biggest town in the area with a nice small old center and a big supermarket. Going 10 km further south, there is the ski area Jasna-Chopok with several modern chair- and gondola lifts, just like in Austria. The prices are Austrian as well: We paid 27 euros for the lifts including mountain chart rental for downhill. I’ve been here back in 2015 for skiing, which was great. They truly can match up with several Austrian ski resorts! Going downhill with mountain charts was not so easy as expected. They go quite fast and the vibration due to the stone/gravel roads are unexpectedly exhausting, however its GREAT fun! 
We continue our video series with some local flights and our next stop Poprad-Tatray (LZTT). For now, enjoy:
Great video. I like the communist era music (I originate from there) for the Kbely museum
Looks like there is some skiing there too.
Frans wrote:
The only downside is the fact that the ticket automats only accept coins in CZK, no debit or credit card, no paper cash, just coins.
Yes! I had some problems arriving in Letnany from Sweden in the evening and after going into the Metro station discovered that I could only pay in coins which of course I didn’t have. There is no ticket office, but a “supervisor” office with a young lady who dismissed our problem with a shrug that would make a soviet-era civil servant proud. Eventually we found a ticket inspector who agreed to change a bill for us.
We were in Letnany on this monday, as there were four of us we decided to take the Bolt ride into center, was around 10 euros. Unfortunately the museum is closed on mondays. Overall very nice airport. They also have “non-bio” (ethanol free) 95 mogas in addition to 100LL.
The Kbely museum in is great, in my visit a few years ago I particularly enjoyed seeing all the Czech light aircraft, and also for different reasons the Northrop F-5 fighter… they got it from the Vietnamese in the communist era, for the Czech industry to study.
Also agreed about the Prague subway, my German wife was shocked that it was cleaner and simpler to use than most she’s seen. With a ticket system you can actually understand without study.
It looked like a nice flight except for the turbulence. How well I remember flying a low wing loading plane from place to place, getting bounced around the whole way – in my case at 83 knots or so. Now flying something with a smaller wing it’s a little less an issue.
I’m speechless (pun intended ) at the radio work necessary to make a simple VFR flight. You spoke more before leaving downwind on departure than I would on a whole flight through some of the busiest airspace worldwide. By the end of the video I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at that particular aspect.
None the less very nice to see the whole flight and the very nicely done video.
@Peter @Silvaire @ivark: Glad you guys liked it! This keeps the motivation high to continue quickly with the next part of the trip. In between, I will even make some videos of more recent flights too.
Peter wrote:
Looks like there is some skiing there too.Definitely! I’ve tested Jasná as a ski resort back in 2015 and it was great, with very modern facilities, lifts, perfect groomers, great freeride areas and overall good value for money. Something different as the Alps, but still with height differences over 1000 meters.
I’m speechless (pun intended ) at the radio work necessary to make a simple VFR flight. You spoke more before leaving downwind on departure than I would on a whole flight through some of the busiest airspace worldwide. By the end of the video I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at that particular aspect.Haha – Yeah, it was quite a bit, since a lot of class D airspaces crossed our routing, but I won’t say it was too difficult due to all joined up clearances. Letňany is an uncontrolled AFIS-aerodrome in a CTR class D, so after takeoff, you need permission from the neighbor airport Tower to leave the traffic circuit. It is more or less an exceptional situation. Even departing out of a controlled airport is more straightforward with only one Tower to talk to.
Overall very nice airport. They also have “non-bio” (ethanol free) 95 mogas in addition to 100LL.Letňany is definitely a five-star destination, thanks to the great people working there and it’s first-class location next to the subway station in one of the most beautiful European cities. The only downside is the fact that it has only grass runways and taxiways.
There is no ticket office, but a “supervisor” office with a young lady who dismissed our problem with a shrug that would make a soviet-era civil servant proud.We experienced the procedure quite similar. In the end, we could change our paper money from the ATM for coins in a shop at the subway station and from a random stranger passing by.
