Flying for Kosovo

By far the best organized welcoming has been here Lausanne, Switzerland.  I guess it is fitting since this is the place where I first started down my path as a pilot.  Aside from my young life in Kosovo, it is Lausanne that I consider as the place that has made me who I am today.

Our great friend Tom Duhani from Detroit had organized a wonderful homecoming with our Ambassador Naim Malaj and all the diaspora. More than thirty people were present and I am very grateful that the airport officials in Switzerland were understanding and kind enough to allow us the freedom to gather and celebrate this very important milestone.

As I was approaching the Swiss border, tears of joys began flowing from my eyes.  Many, many times during the mission I thought this day would never arrive.  All of the struggling that has happened over the past year seemed to disappear as I hugged all of the family and friends that welcomed me home.  Having my nieces and nephew beside me again was priceless – the powerful emotions of the moment will be engrained in my mind for many years to come.

It is a joy to know that our mission has touched many lives and has become part of their lives as well. Thanks to everybody for the great dinner.What a joy this has been despite the year long struggle. Next stop is Kosova with a technical stop in between.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you all.

PILOT TO FLY THROUGHOUT ALL CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA IN SUPPORT OF KOSOVO’S INDEPENDENCE

James Berisha behind the controls of a Learjet which he flies for Sierra West Airlines

El Paso, Texas, USA, 02/19/2009 – An El Paso resident and native Kosovo pilot is planning to fly throughout all of Central and South America in order to encourage recognition of Kosovo’s newfound independence from Serbia in a trip planned for late March.
James Berisha, 37, of Pristina, Kosovo, (www.flyingforkosovo.com) is planning to depart in his single engine plane from El Paso, TX in late March to more than 30 countries to rally support for newly independent Kosovo which officially became an independent country in February of 2008. Berisha, now an accomplished airline pilot, has made similar flights after graduating Flight Safety Academy in Vero Beach, Florida.

To gain flight hours, Berisha made a more than seventy hour flight from Fairbanks, Alaska, to Skopje, Macedonia. This time he is not in need of flight hours, instead he is funding his journey out of pocket so that he may talk to the people of South America and encourage them to recognize Kosovo’s declaration of independence.

“I will thank those countries who have already recognized us, I will tell the others how important it is for Kosovo to be recognized worldwide, and I will try to end racial stereotypes that belittle our people,” said Berisha about his upcoming journey.

Kosovo has been recognized by 55 out of the 192 UN member states as of the date of this publication.

Flying for Kosovo

Flying for Kosovo from Fatmir Jusufi on Vimeo.

We are in Southend, UK.  We flew 12 hours and 1,080NM until 11pm last night.

The flight went well from Iceland, where we were thankful for the help of our friend Hannes.  I knew we were in good hands after he worked on our plane, as he has over 40 years of experience in the aviation industry.

Our first landing in Europe was Wick, Scotland (in Northern Scotland, where it’s always raining) and we were there less than an hour before we were off to Southend, UK, where we slept for the night. It feels so good to be in the UK again.

Next stop: Lausanne, Switzerland!

No more open water to fly over folks!!!  Durim and I made it to Scotland today.  Tomorrow, our plans are to fly to Switzerland in the baby plane.  What a trip this has been… more updates to come.

Flight was okay form Greenland, though it was another long day flying over water, which I hate. Upon arrival, the weather here was really nasty. On top of that, we had a mechanical problem before landing the plane in Reykjavik – the alternator quit. I’ve been with the mechanic for almost two days and doing lots of troubleshooting. At least I can rely on the fact that the person fixing it has over 40 years of experience in the industry.

From what I’ve been able to see, Iceland is beautiful and Durim and I are very fortunate to be staying at a nice place with a great breakfast. We’ve also learned that there are approximately 500 Albanians living in Iceland. We met up with some and it was a good feeling to spend time with them last night as they drove us around town and stopped for some pizza.

I’m grateful that the volcano is resting and hopefully won’t give us any delays tomorrow, when we plan to leave for Scotland. Now that the plane is fixed and the volcano is quiet, it’s all up to the weather gods to give us a window to fly out of in the morning.

Until next time…

I did not like being 07:15 hours over cold water and next to polar bears in a single engine plane, but thankfully we survived. The landscape of Greenland is absolutely breath-taking and this place is by far one of the most fascinating places I’ve visited on earth. Flying over the icebergs, glaciers, cliffs and fjords of this country was absolutely breath-taking! We met some nice German friends here and found out together that prices here are pretty expensive. AVGAS is $17USD a gallon. Though beautiful to fly over, this country is one of the most expensive fueling stop that I’ve made on the entire mission.

Next stop is Iceland and then Europe.

From Detroit, it took 14 hours and five stops to fly to Goose Bay,Canada, the last airport in Canada before heading over the ocean to Greenland. I enjoyed most of the flight though, flying over 1000+ miles of Canadian countryside was beautiful. As we got closer to Goose Bay, the weather began changing and we entered into colder Arctic temperatures where it began snowing. Tomorrow, we are hoping to get an early start to Narsarsuaq,Greenland. I will be traveling with my friend Durim Elezi, who works with Illyria newspaper – it will be nice to have some company.

Voice of America interview  – May 11, 2010

Ladies and Gentleman,

I would like to announce that I have made it back to the United States.

I can’t tell you how great it was to be back on US soil – and what a greeting we received. I’d like to thank our friends in Florida who gave me the royal treatment upon arriving. Augustin Shqalsi and Arben Mucollari greeted Nail and I with great conversation and fine dinners and Richard Nikezic gave us a tremendous nights sleep in the finest room is his hotel, along with other forms of assistance.

From Florida we flew to New York and had a great flight. It was so good to reunite with our good friends in the city – Arta Rama has been a tremendous help at Kosovo’s Consulate in New York and I was fortunate to meet with RTK New York to do a live interview. And it is always good to see friends in Washington DC at Voice of America as they have been covering our story since the beginning.

On my way to Canada I wanted to stop in Detroit to thank some supporters there. My good friend Mr. Duhani and about 10 other people greeted me at the airport! It feels so good to know that so many people support our mission.

After a great nights sleep at the Duhani house I was off to visit the great land of Canada