“Hey, you have a meeting”
“Where?”
“Kiev”
Hmm… Since last year my first thought in these cases has always been – can I fly myself? Often it does not work, time to time it does. This one looks doable. Now let’s work out the most important permit. I made a phone call: “Pavla, what if …”, and I could visualize her smile: “Of course we fly!”.
That was on Thursday. I checked with my insurance and got confirmation that it is valid in the whole Europe including Ukraine, except of the war zones. Weather forecast showed some fronts but they still have four days to pass. Evenings I skimmed the AIP of Ukraine at EAD. Search at Euroga gave me many things to read, too. The site is a great resource of wisdom about flying (and a bit about ourselves, too :-) ). I found there an idea to clear immigration at some Ukrainian international airport enroute and then fly to an airfield around Kiev. Chaika was the one of my choice, because of the name, the location and a very informative website. So, I wrote a mail to Chaika.
On Friday morning I sent a mail to the Flight Coordination of Ukraine with request for a permission to enter the Ukraine airspace, as per the AIP GEN 1.2.3. The authority requires three workdays to respond, we were too late. Yet, in the afternoon I got the response with the permit number. That was really fast.
On Sunday we went to the airport to prepare the aircraft. We fly our Europa XS Mono, an excellent small VFR tourer, fast, efficient and comfortable. For navigation we use FlyIsFun, an Android VFR navigation application with moving maps, terrain warnings, airspaces and navigation data updated by AIRAC cycle, automatic log book, and of course the ability to plan and fly VFR routes. GPS simulation of two NAV receivers with two DMEs, possibility to create own data, and many more. Does this sound like promotion? Could be. I am using it for two years and am still amazed. As a backup we use Garmin Aera 500 (and, before FlyIsFun I was amazed by Aera). For this flight we also decided not to print anything and try to use iPAD with all pdfs we needed, and Microsoft Surface as a backup. We had enough screens, enough power and enough batteries to feel safe.
Still no response from Chaika, so I called there. Negative – they operate only from Fridays to Sundays, no way we can arrive during the week. We felt we ran out of options as the big Kiev airports do not have Avgas. Yet, I sent a mail to Kiev Zhuliany, one of the international airports of the city.
Monday morning I tried to call the Kiev Antonov 2, UKKM, another international airport. Also negative, they are a cargo airport and are not ready for trips like ours. And clock is ticking, we cannot make it to Kiev on Monday anymore. We just did not want to give up, and tried to plan a flight to EPRZ, Rzeszow, stay overnight and next morning continue – this still gives the chance to be at the meeting in time. Another call was to UKKK. It was actually a series of calls, first to numbers found in AIP, and then I was passed from one phone number to another. Finally, we reached the proper person. He confirmed that he sees our flight in the system. He also mentioned that Avgas can be arranged. Then he noticed that in our permit the route is different (to Chaika), than our new one direct UKKK, and said that this change renders the permit invalid. I quickly called the Flight Coordination, then sent them mail with updated information and in half an hour we got the updated permit. Call to UKKK – “All is fine, please come, we look forward to meet you here”.
The final route is pretty straight:
The description is short, but all the calls, thinking, searching through AIPs, re-planning the route again and again, took me a lot of time, it was already a Monday afternoon. We just grabbed the luggage, took a car and went to the airport. We had one hour to get Europa ready and still reaching EPRZ in time, so I cooled down, filed a flight plan, focused on the preflight and then we took off for the three hour leg.
In a couple of minutes we started feeling comfortable after the rush, with aircraft smoothly sailing through the air. We are passing by Říp, an extinct volcano, where forefather Čech climbed up to claim the broad Czech basin for us:
Two hours later, over EPKK, Krakow:
Our schedule was now quite relaxed. Before takeoff I checked the sunset calculator, it showed 20:30 local time, the evening civil twilight is yet another 30 minutes later, and our ETA was 20:15. Then the things became more interesting. Due to headwind the ETA slowly extended. And, it was getting darker. Pavla looked at me, question marks in her eyes. Bad feeling spread throughout my mind. I checked the sunset at EPRZ and, sure enough, we fly 300nm east, and sunset there was 20:03. Yet, ETA looked within limits, if a bit tight. When we arrived to EPRZ, the tower was in touch with several aircraft and called us like chicken straight home, without any VRPs, circuits and downwinds, just direct final.
A nice VFR Day landing:
EPRZ Rzeszow raw data:
We took 55l, that makes it 17l/h for 110kt IAS.
Now let’s take the last look at the airport …
… and that’s enough aviation for tonight. Handler recommended a hotel just two kilometers away. We refused to take a taxi, after hours spent in the aircraft we looked forward to walk. Couple of steps at a roadside, then through a dark curly lane, climb over a fence (we misread our land navigation), and here we are. The hotel was good, and the canopy bed in our room so romantic…
Next day early morning we appeared at the airport. Everything went as planned, including the dense fog. We had enough time to have a breakfast, check weather and file a flight plan.
I realized that last evening UKKK sent me a mail with a questionnaire to fill. I did so and sent it back. EPRZ still was foggy and VMC at UKKK questionable. Enroute all is ok … except of the 20kt headwind. Well, we had enough gas for this leg, and could really press on. I called ARO and filed the flight plan. The route was almost straight, skyvector.com is a big help in finding the waypoints. The ARO mailed me an excellent briefing document with weather as well as list of active airspaces. A visit of met office showed weather improving.
Flight planning:
Then I got a call from ARO. The flight plan was rejected. I received the copy of the message to my mailbox, and the only sentence understandable to me was “due to a breach of AIP of Ukraine”. No! They cannot do such things to us! We must be in Kiev in a couple of hours, I have a meeting there. Brain activity doubled, heartbeat tripled. Which authority rejected it? I did not find any contact info in the message, so I started calling. First the UKKK handler, then various other numbers. Finally I called UKKK ARO and sure enough, that was it. The lady requested me to add to my flight plan the route inside UKKK controlled airspace (Whiskey, Papa, Metro), and to copy the E/, P/ and R/ info from the supplementary part of flight plan to the field 18.
I did immediately and, uff, the plan was accepted, weather became flyable and the world got again a nice place to be.
We took off and headed to the point GOTIX to enter the Ukraine airspace. Three minutes to GOTIX the Krakow Information called “Ukraine requests you to fly via ROLKA due to military activity”. Oh, my dreaded radio work. “Say again please, via what???”. “Point ROLKA” said Krakow info. “Fly via ROKLA” said I and tried to find it on GPS. “ROLKA!!!” yelled Krakow. “ROLKA!!!” yelled Pavla. “Thank you” to Pavla, “Thank you” to Krakow, I selected Direct on GPS and turned north. “Contact Lviv Information” said Krakow Info with a relief.
Close to ROLKA we reported ourselves to Lviv and got a new QNH. Shortly after, Lviv called with a request. His voice was hidden in a strange metal grinding noise. “Say again please, I hear you two” said I. He tried again, it got even worse. “Unreadable!” was my answer. Short silence, and then “What about now?”, loud and clear. “Military wants you to fly heading 070 for 20 minutes and then direct GIDNO”. This one was easy, GIDNO was on my flight planned route. In ten minutes Lviv asked about my heading and I confirmed zero-seven-zero. After twenty minutes I reported my turn, other than that there was a silence on radio. The weather was great, the flight was nice and easy over flat land with large fields, small forests and a village every now and then.
Over two hours in the air:
In each village there was a church, beautiful, newly built or newly renovated.
Suddenly I got a call, a question about EET to my pivot point. I quickly browsed through all the phraseology I remember, and did not find any appropriate answer, except of “What?!”. Then the FISO asked about my estimated time to reach Kiev FIR and I responded “15 minutes”. And, in fifteen minutes, you guessed it, we flew over the point PEVOT. How do you guys deal with those point names, do you memorize all of them before flight?
We reported ourselves to Kiev Information and continued flying, with almost no traffic on the info frequency. Slowly I was becoming curious. On our flight planned route there were two small military zones just before the Whiskey entry point to the UKKK CTR. I asked “please confirm that we are cleared to fly through T824 A and B”. “Standby” was the answer. When close to the zones, I started circling. “Report your heading” asked Kiev Info. I responded “orbiting, awaiting advice”. Kiev requested “Fly via Makarov”. That’s hard, I have no idea where it is. But I learned from the radio textbooks a helpful sentence, and used it now: “Unfamiliar. Request vectors”. The FISO: “I don’t have a radar”. That explains some enroute dialogues. But what to say now? I tried “position five miles west of Buzova”, that was what I saw on GPS screen. It worked, we got cleared via Buzova to Whiskey, thanked to FISO for help, switched to Zhuliany Tower, got cleared direct final …
… and then …
we landed in Kiev.
Marshall brought us to the apron and handler arrived. He was walking around our beautiful bird, back and forth, laughing and repeating “такой маленький самолет…”. I agree, among all those jetliners we just did not look appropriate. He welcomed us warmly and made the procedure rather fast. We secured the aircraft and moved to the office to verify my credit card. He also gave us two forms, a general declaration and customs document where I stated that my aircraft will be flown away from Ukraine within … I wrote one week. Then we went to terminal building. There were quite some queues at the passport check, just one counter was free, the one signed CREW. We went there. A security stopped us “What’s up?”. “Crew” said we. Sure, we just did not look like one, with our sporty trousers and t-shirts calling for wash machine. I shown him the gendec and customs form and he let us go to the counter. “Crew” said I again to the police person behind the unter. “Flight number?” asked he. I heard this question several times, and used our call sign as an answer. He checked it in his computer, stamped passports, and we moved on, to customs red zone. There I pointed at us by a theatrical gesture: “Crew!”. Customs officers smiled, stamped the customs form, and that was it.
Somebody shall be waiting for us in the arrival hall. I made a call, and noticed a man picking the phone. With phones at our ears we looked at each other, smiled, shook hands, got to the car, reached the office, I then took the jacket on to make myself look serious, and entered the room with “Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the meeting …”.
After the meeting the head of the company invited all of us for a shashlik to the garden. Food, wine, whiskeys as well as samohon, the home made alcohol, plus interesting discussions on top of it. BTW, cheers in Ukrainian is “Budmo”, something like “let’s be”. Then the company head brought in plates with an amazing fish meat from a 20kg catfish that he shot in Dnieper. He is a spearfisher! We got yet another topic to talk about. Well, next couple of days was full of meetings with various partners and various prospective customers. Let me just mention, that Kiev is a nice city. If Pavla says that, take it for granted. Nice buildings, beautiful parks, breathtaking Dnieper, food in restaurants that tastes real, busy life on streets. Go see yourself. As a proof, here are some photos from Pavla’s tour de Kiev.
St Volodymyr’s Cathedral, the heart of Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Named after Vladimir the Great who brought christianity to Kiev one thousand years ago:
Diamond Easter Egg in front of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, a monastery complex with a thousand years of history, registered by UNESCO.
Dnieper. Impressive river. In the background is the Podilsko-Voskresensky Bridge. It seems to be a place where people love to climb up the arch and enjoy the sunsets. Worth noting and taking a closer look next time.
One evening we planned the return flight. We wanted to fly through Slovakia to explore yet another part of the world. But, the Slovak AIP stated there is only JET-A1 at the international airports. I called LZKZ Kosice just to receive the assurance that the AIP is correct. We did not want to spend much time looking for options how to get MOGAS or AVGAS in Slovakia, decided to fly the same route that brought us here, and went out to the city.
Next day morning we appeared in the UKKK departure hall and called handling to pick us up. “Just ten minutes, please”. Ok, we waited, and waited, and waited, with occassional calls with the same answer. Then finally a handler came to pick us up. Sergii, young, very relaxed man with baseball-like peak cap and toothpick in the mouth. He turned to be very helpful, without him our path through all the procedures would be very difficult. He greeted us and then we followed him to the departure passport check, again to the crew counter. Immediately some small uniformed security officer appeared and started saying something in Ukrainian, with a very unpleasant, assertive tone. “Crew” tried I the trick that worked up to now. He immediately switched to a very good English, but without any change in tone, and requested papers. Sergii showed him the stamped gendec. Security yelled again that this is a gendec for entry and we need gendec for exit. Sergii made two steps to the counter, with the police officer did some miracle with the gendec and came back to show it to the security officer. He, with the same tone said that now everything is OK and left. Good, immigration done. We moved on to the security scanners. “Crew” tried I. The security staff looked into their schedules and said “You are not planned, you cannot go through”. Sergii smiled as always, said “Wait” and disappeared. Then he appeared again, with a new paper, and, bingo, scanning done. “Get out via gate four, I’ll be waiting outside” said Sergii and disappeared again. We came to the gate, with a loong queue of travelers. “Crew” tried I again and here it worked, the boarding pass checking lady looked at our t-shirts, smiled and let us go: “Of course, please”. Next trip was to the handler office to pay, and then to the ARO.
I did one mistake – on arrival, in one of the papers, to the question “No. of passengers” I filled “1”. It took the lady in handling office several phone calls to fix that and make sure I do not pay yet another fee for services for passengers. Now I know for sure, we are Crew!
We saw these AN-74s at the airport. Tower and briefing office in the background (photo courtesy of Youtube, we were a bit afraid to take pictures):
In the AR office there was a lady at the desk, and a tall man – probably the manager of the office. I am pretty sure the lady was the one that rejected my flight plan to UKKK. Both were very welcoming. I discussed with them my route, presented the plan and the lady put it into the computer. Then they both called various places including military to make sure I will be cleared throughout the route. The lady printed a briefing for me. The manager then was warmly shaking my hand with his both hands and wished a good flight. In the meantime the fueler came and topped the tank with Pavla supervising him.
UKKK Kiev Zhuliany raw data:
Our handler was Master Avia, tel: +380443392163, e-mail: [email protected], this company seems to be owned by the airport. Besides this one, there are many other handlers operating there.
The Avgas company is Helmcoil, e-mail: [email protected], tel: + 38 050 383-03-49, contact provided to us by the handler.
We took 58l, that makes it 19l/h for 120kt IAS. We paid fuel in cash straight to the fueler.
As to the language, all the ATC officers had a very professional English. All the personnel we met at the airport spoke a good English, too. During my phone call adventures the people I reached ranged from no English at all (yet they were able to advice another phone number) to professional.
We were chatting with Sergii. I told him that there is quite an interest in the GA community to visit Ukraine and specifically Kiev. However, the handling fees are prohibitive. He said many years ago small aircraft such as Cessnas used to visit Zhuliany, but not anymore. He said he likes challenges and he will check if anything can be done with the handling fees. Also, if anybody with a GA aircraft would be interested to come, he is ready to help, for the fun of it. So, if any of you is contemplating about flying there, PM me and I provide his contact.
Then we said Goodbye and took off. The flight back was uneventful, we just were hanging in the air, Pavla took some picture time to time. Another church here:
Lviv asked us to avoid the active area, the same like on our flight in, so the navigation was easy, the approach and landing at EPRZ as well.
Beautiful and modern international airport EPRZ, Rzeszow:
At EPRZ again the immigration and refuel procedure was smooth, and then we spent three hours in the restaurant, observing the trends on the weather radar. The stormy area across our country was big and scary, and seemed to move north. At one point it looked that it is cleaning up at the south and we thought about flying it around. But then we noted that new line of storms is growing in the free space and we changed the decision. Let’s just move on, get closer to the weather and then we’ll decide what to do. We filed the flight plan with route direct Praha through that ugly weather. Plan B – turn south and land somewhere in Czech Republic. Plan C – return to Krakow or some other airport in Poland. And off we went.
There was 34 degrees Celsius outside the building. I had to use the hot engine startup procedure to get the propeller turning. After takeoff we balanced between a minimum positive climb and minimum power to avoid overheating. FIS asked me whether I really want to use my declared 5000ft enroute altitude, our vertical speed probably was not too convincing. But eventually we reached 5k, still some 29degC OAT. When getting closer to EPKK TMA, we were handed over to Krakow Approach and the ATCO asked us for 6k. I responded that we will do our best, but the air is a bit thin. Yet, we got up there quite fast. The reward was a nice view of Krakow airport and thanks of the ATCO. I am sure he felt safer with every foot of our altitude.
We kept flying west. Ground visibility was OK, but the haze illuminated by a late afternoon sun close to the horizon created an orange wall in front of us. As we were progressing, we noticed thin lines of altocumuli. The front is nearby. Then the OAT dropped some five degrees and, short while after, the sunshine turned off and there it was. Through the haze we saw a huge dark cloud, spreading from left to right, from bottom to the very top. Even from our distance it looked scary.
The sferics pictures ran out of colors and were shining white. Time to implement plan B. I called ATCO, requested him to close our flight plan and continue own VFR navigation. He asked to avoid the active restricted area and wished a good flight. We turned south, crossed Czech border, gave our Hello to Ostrava Approach and landed at LKFR, Frydlant, still with blue sky and no wind, right into the hangar party.
Turning final at LKFR, with mountains around, nice change after many hours over flat land.
Upslope landing. RWY has 770m of grass and its western end is 23m lower than the eastern one.
BTW, the LKFR is a great weekend destination, with good hotel (Rajska bouda) and the beautiful mountainous natural reserve Beskydy, with plenty of things to do.
At night, with aircraft safely in a hangar, the storm arrived and we enjoyed it from the comfort of our hotel beds. The sky was turning black to white every second and thunder sounded continuously. IFR through such a weather must be an incommunicable experience.
The next day, in a beautiful morning with good visibility and broken clouds at about 3500ft, we said goodbye to the great people at Frydlant and flew home. Now we are passing over Konopiste (do you want to get married? This is the right place to do so) near LKBE, one of the busiest GA airports in the country (this fact is not related to the previous one).
And, finally, we reached our home airport, LKKL Kladno.
Here, in the Single Track Friends Club we had a tasty sausage, and that’s all folks!
Thanks for the great trip report, Pavel! And a great aircraft you have 
I’ve been to the Ukraine and also Kiev back in 2001 (made a trip on the Dnepr down to Odessa and back). A fantastic country!
BTW did you meet up with @ploucandco in Kiev?
Pavel wrote:
We were chatting with Sergii. I told him that there is quite an interest in the GA community to visit Ukraine and specifically Kiev. However, the handling fees are prohibitive. He said many years ago small aircraft such as Cessnas used to visit Zhuliany, but not anymore.
europaxs wrote:
BTW did you meet up with @ploucandco in Kiev?
What a great story! Goes to show what’s doable if you don’t give up. Congrats, fab trip!
Thank you Pavel to show us what it takes to go to Ukraine.
Kiev indeed looks charming. Meet-up there someday (after discussing a discount of the handling fée of course) ?
Combining VFR, business and pleasure is not an easy job ! Well done !
Thank you for this great report!
Thank you for the great report, Pavel.
It’s also always nice to read about my country of origin 
Your narration excited my fantasies….congrats for withstanding stiff systems.Bonsoir Ploucandco !
Thanks for the helpful report, right now if I decide to use my own ‘Airline’ service instead of those boring big birds, I have an additional reference.
I was there recently but decided to use ‘external competition’
I went to Chayka for a session of aerobatics and realized that my Arrow IV landing gear would probably suffer some sort of damage landing there. For your airplane I see no major problems despite a few bumps that for a YAK 52 are irrelevant (should also have been for me after a few Ss Vs Us 8s and other sort of maneuvers *%$^## that brought my stomach very close to my mouth).
I also have sent a email to Chayka with no feedback, I had no chance to reach any of the responsible, but I was of the impression that they are too much orientated for what they do there and whoever intents to go there could be a seen as sort of headache. Moreover, all ATC is done is local language and from what I saw from local pilots, and I assume ATC linguistic level (at that station) would be similar, creating problems to those not proficient in Ukraine. I might be wrong.
Once again, thanks for the report.
