Tag Archives: aviation

Eastern Europe

Cheap thrills in the Czech Republic! Part three

Saturday morning, we woke up bright and early.  Bill went hunting for a bakery and didn’t find one.  He did find a small mom and pop shop, though, where he found some rolls that kind of resembled hot dog buns (but tasted much better).  He had scored some ham, cheese, and eggs the night before at the neighborhood Coop, which is tiny, but has the basic stuff.  Our rental had one of those coffee pod machines, which my coffee purist husband hates.  He resolved to pick up a French press later.

After breakfast, we beagle proofed the house and set off for Plzen.  Bill took a couple of turns and we suddenly found ourselves confronted by a truly awesome sight…  Who would have thought that little Senec would have an Airpark?  We pulled up at the same time a young family with a little boy arrived.  The boy was obviously very excited to check out all of the old planes, helicopters, and tanks.  I was excited, too.  Some of the stuff they had there was flat out awesome.  The fact that we weren’t expecting to find this place made it even cooler.  I mean, where else but in a former communist country would you find huge airplanes on display on the side of the road?

The boy rang the bell and a tall, older woman came out.  She didn’t speak any language other than Czech and the signage was mostly in Czech.  I think I saw one or two English signs and a few more German signs.  The rest was all local lingo…  Fortunately, my husband was a tanker in the Army, so he knows about this stuff.  He especially took great pleasure in telling me about the tanks.

There are a couple of areas in the park that cost extra to visit.  There’s one area that requires a guide and has a plane you can pay extra to see the inside of.  Since the lady on duty didn’t speak our language, we decided to stick with the basic tour.  It was pretty frigid outside, anyway.  There were a couple of planes where you could climb up on ladders and look into the cockpits.

I should mention that the Czech Republic has kind of a special place in Bill’s heart.  At the beginning of his Army career, back in the mid to late 1980s, he was posted at both Ansbach and Vilseck.  Part of his job, in those days before the Berlin Wall fell, was to guard Germany’s border with the Czech Republic.  He said there were times in that era when he and his buddies were sure the Russians would invade and they’d be killed due to being outnumbered.  I remember so well what it was like for Bill the first time he crossed the Czech border in 2008.  He said it was very surreal, since he could easily remember a time when that was an unthinkable thing to do.  I must admit, having grown up during the Cold War era, it’s a little strange for me, too.

The entrance.  It even hearkens back to the days before communism fell.

Stalin is watching you!

Missiles!

For an extra fee, you and three friends can climb the steps and see inside this Soviet era plane.  Since I flew in one in 1995 on the way to Yerevan, Armenia, I didn’t need to see it.

Extra charge for this exhibit… maybe if it hadn’t been so cold outside… and our guide could communicate with us or vice versa.  But we were content to look at the planes over the gate.

Bill was explaining the finer points of missiles to me.

We spent about a half an hour here, I think… give or take a few minutes.  It was really cold out and I had to rely on my eyes to tell me a truncated story.  Still, I think this would be an awesome place to explore on a warmer day with your buddies who are fascinated by aircraft, tanks, missiles, war stuff… you know, stuff military folks dig.  It’s well worth a visit if you visit Plzen.  I think it was probably the highlight of our Saturday, which turned out to be a lazy day.  After we checked out the planes, we drove to the city with big plans of touring Pilsner Urquell’s brewery or a brewery museum or something.  But we got waylaid by lunch.  More on that in the next post, which I’ll probably write tomorrow.

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A review of Patrick Smith’s Cockpit Confidential: Everything You Need to Know About Air Travel: Questions, Answers, and Reflections

I have been doing a lot of flying lately.  In 2014 alone, I’ve flown across the Atlantic three times.  I also flew to Virginia to see my dad for the last time before he passed away last month and flew on a couple of European flights, too.  In the years prior to 2014, I took quite a few trips by plane.  It’s not so much that I enjoy flying; I really don’t.  It’s just that flying is faster than driving is and some of the places we’ve gone haven’t offered a better alternative.

When I saw Patrick Smith’s book, Cockpit Confidential,  I immediately decided to buy it.  I did this not knowing that Smith has had a popular column on Salon.com and Web site called Ask the Pilot.  For years, Smith, who has worked as a pilot since 1990, has been answering questions put to him by the masses.  He explains in his book that he has been passionate about airplanes since he was a young lad and made it his mission to get into the industry.  And so he has… but I think he’s also a very good writer.  I really enjoyed his book.

Filled with personal stories about his time as a pilot as well as informative articles on how airplanes and the airline industry works, Smith does a good job educating his readers.  The book also offers answers to questions people have sent in.  Not only are Smith’s answers interesting and informative, they are also very entertaining.

I got a kick out of reading about how even pilots get harassed by the TSA.  Smith writes a colorful anecdote about how one time, his knife– the same knife that was used on the very aircraft he was about to pilot– was confiscated by the TSA.  The reason?  It was serrated.  Smith explains that it was a stretch to call the knife serrated, but because the knife had little ridges on it, it was deemed unsafe.  This, even though the passengers in the first class and business cabins on his airplane would be using the same knife as they tucked into their in flight meals.

Smith also writes about how pilots and flight attendants have to be screened like you and I do…  but the folks who are hauling your suitcases, cleaning the planes, and stocking the galleys with food can come and go with a simple swipe of their ID cards.  Granted, Smith explains that they are always subject to being searched randomly, but they don’t have to deal with the same screening ordeals the rest of us do.  If you think about it, that’s a little unsettling.

Smith covers a huge range of topics, which is why his book runs for 320 pages.  But once you’re finishing reading it, you will be a lot better informed about all things pertaining to the airline industry.  He writes about how to become a pilot and how it’s not nearly as glamorous or well paying as it might seem; in 1990, when Smith got his first pilot job, he was getting a mere $850 a month.  He writes about the history of some of our best known airlines, many of which are no longer around.  Some of his commentary is hilariously snarky, too.  His comments about some of the ad slogans and cutesy names airlines give their planes are pretty funny.

If you’ve ever wondered how planes fly, Smith has you covered.  He offers a detailed explanation about how it’s possible to get a metal tube filled with thousands of pounds into the air.  He also explains how some “emergencies” aren’t really emergencies.  And he even dares to explain why Chesley Sullenberger’s landing on the Hudson River was not as impressive as it seemed.  Ever wanted to check out the cockpit?  You can, you know… not while the plane is flying, obviously, but before or after the flight.  You don’t have to be a kid, either.  Smith says a lot of pilots are kind of flattered when people express an interest in seeing their work space.  Just ask a flight attendant to find out if it’s okay.

I like non-fiction books, especially when they satisfy my curiosity about things I’ve always wondered about.  I have read a number of books by flight attendants, but Smith’s Cockpit Confidential is the first book I’ve read by a pilot.  He did a great job demystifying the airline industry for me.  I would definitely recommend Cockpit Confidential to anyone who has ever been curious about the airline industry.  I also think it’s good reading for anyone who has ever considered a career in aviation.

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