Late autumn 2018 MAK General Aviation Services assisted Polish pilot Maciej Krych in flying to Russia to meet his business colleagues. For a long time he wanted to fly his airplane to Russia “terra incognita” and a business meeting was arranged in Rostov-on-Don. As a matter of fact it was not the first time for Maciej to came to Russia. In summer 2017 he visited Russia as part of Memorial Hans Gutmann Tourist Air Rally 2017 arranged by AOPA Luxembourg.

This time the pilot flew from Poznan EPPO to Gomel UMGG (we assisted with permits and fuel in Belarus as well), then to Voronezh UUOO. Unexpected circumstances prevented leaving Voronezh airport straight away - part of the airspace was closed due to military activity and we had to amend the flight plan, file it again and wait for approval. Next point was Rostov – Olginskaya URRX, where traffic controllers were getting ready to land a foreign private pilot on a private airfield for the first time.

Maciej Krych: “Radio communication en route was in English without any problem. Sometimes when I asked controllers about weather conditions I could even talk in Russian. I studied Russian at school and it was great opportunity to recall it and that was very useful for me. And when we talked about something in Russian to avoid any mistakes we confirmed it in English too for recording and security reasons.

Fuel was not a problem - Avgas 100LL was arranged for me at every stop. The most impressive was “true pit-stop” in Bryansk UUBP, where it took me only 40 minutes from landing to departure with taxing, refuelling, customs, border control, navigation briefing - one of the fastest services anywhere :)

Most memorable was my visit to Rostov-on-Don. Russian authorities declined my sightseeing flight over newly built Kerch bridge, so I stayed with my friends in Rostov. We had eaten quantities of crayfish and sang a famous local aviators song “первым делам, самолеты, но а девочьки потом”, it became the hit of this journey!

Thanks to MAK General Aviation Services my trip arrangements required only some time and money, we successfully got through all bureaucratic obstacles. The most important for me was the possibility to actually fly to Russia myself. Many pilots warned me it was “Mission Impossible”.

My future flight ideas are to fly to Moscow in spring 2019, and St. Petersburg, Arkhangelsk and Murmansk in summer 2019. This is my dream but who knows?

I plan to work further with MAK General Aviation Services, they proved to be exceptionally helpful and perfectly knowing how to solve any problem I encountered as well as avoid lots of problems I could have encountered. For me it is the best way to establish relation between pilots, support each other etc.»

We are looking forward to welcome Maciej Krych in Russia again!