Flying for Kosovo

Another long flight today (more than six hours) from Douala to Bangui, the capital of the Central African Repulic.  More importantly though, most of the flight was spent flying over dense jungle.  While most of this country is savannah (flat land), I am flying through the south side of the country, where there tends to be more jungle.  Folks, that is a lot of time to spend flying over lions, tigers, giraffes, elephants, monkeys and thick forests! Many times I have heard stories from other pilots... more

We have received word that the government of Guinea-Bissau has formally recognized Kosovo’s independence.  A heartfelt thank you to their government officials and Mr. James Berisha for making this possible.  Please show them your appreciation by sending them a personal thank you note. Tweet  Read More →

I’m still enjoying the progress of this mission so far, despite the extreme stress encountered nearly every time that I have to deal with those nonsense permits required in every country. The way that I figure it, it only takes basic math skills to understand that it would be much better to eliminate these nightmare permit requests.  By doing so, these countries could have many more airplanes land at their airports, which means that they would also put more money into the local economy through... more

Niger is the 20th country since I left Kosovo.  It feels so good to know that there is some progress finally being made on our mission after all. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that our mission would have come this far.  When I initially began our mission Flying for Kosovo, my goal was to complete the Central and South American countries.  During that time, I faced many struggles that made me wonder if I would ever be able to finish.  But friends, it is only with the help of you... more

On to another country and it continues to amaze me how fast that we humans can adapt to a new life and new surroundings. It’s been more than two months now that I have been on the go, flying all Africa and I’ve been able to see some really fascinating, beautiful, unpleasant and chaotic things. You name it, I’ve probably seen it. But no matter what you’ve seen in the past, no matter what spoiled, rotten lifestyle you’ve lived beforehand, pretty soon, people and faces... more

It is weird, but after a few days with people in each country, I begin to get used to the surroundings and accustomed to the way that each system works.  Just when I become comfortable and settled into everything, it’s time to move on again and start all over.  Though part of me wants to move on to my next destination, there is a part of me that is sad to leave the new friends that I meet in each country. Many times, I feel like I am enrolled in a University to get a degree, being exposed... more

I reached Cotonou (the coastal town in Benin where all of the major facilities and international airport are located) in the early evening and tried to find a hotel somewhere near the city center so that I could get things done faster in the morning and not have to drive for miles and miles wasting time. This was when I found out the hard way that the traffic at night in the capital is miserable. This seems to be a common theme in these West African countries and so is the common shortage of electricity.... more

I arrived in Togo in the late afternoon and went to check into a nice hotel (it was French-owned and the price was right) in the capital city of Lome.  Togo is another country that borders the Gulf of Guinea (so the beaches are very refreshing to see).  It has a tropical climate right now and is also dependent on agriculture to survive economically. Though the main language here is French, there have been many cultural influences and it is a country with a rich cultural history.  In fact, the... more

I had a very long and nerve-wracking flight from Liberia to Ghana today when I had to fly over lots of jungle and spent over four hours flying over the Ivory Coast, a country that is on the verge of a civil war.  Friends, it felt very strange to fly over a country where there is a lot of killing going on.  Before this, I thought that flying over some of the Latin American countries was bad, with all of the coca fields that they had below.  But it was  definitely more scary to fly over a country... more

After being taxed like hell in Sierra Leone, I finally made it to Liberia. I landed just before dark, parked the aircraft and in no time I was out the door. My unexpected friend, Richard Zawiea was already waiting for me with a bill from civil aviation authorities for their services. But he seemed extremely nice and is just an employee of someone else, so he can’t do anything about it. This airport in Liberia is far from being cheap (very much like Sierra Leon) and having a USA aircraft does... more

Due to civil unrest in Cote d’Ivoire, it was highly suggested to James that he should not visit this particular country. In 1893, Cote d’Ivoire became a French Colony and in 1960, it became completely independent of France.  Though it was always considered the Ivory Coast by the Western World, in 1985, the country requested that Cote d’Ivoire be used officially. In the 80’s, the country went into some economical crisis and in 1999 and 2001, there were two coups d’tats... more

No matter how short is the flight between departure and arrival airport, with the nightmare of airport bureaucratic nonsense, you always end up spending at least half of your day dealing and shoveling paperwork around.  Today’s flight to Freetown was only 45 minutes, which went well over all, except that I arrived in Sierra Leone after the hours allowed by the airport authority.  I didn’t realize that it closed early due to maintenance. Things were going well so far, I was getting a... more