Flying for Kosovo

Flying for Kosovo Flying for Kosovo from Fatmir Jusufi on Vimeo. Tweet  Read More →

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.... more

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. Tweet  Read More →

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... more

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.... more

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... more

Voice of America interview  – May 11, 2010 Tweet  Read More →

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... more

Despite the frustration of not being able to fly the plane into Cuba, Nail and I managed to make it there anyway -though not without significant unforeseen cost. For a round-trip flight to Cuba from the Bahamas (only a hour in the air each way), the cost was $380 for each of us, plus an additional nearly $100 in fees per person to leave both the Bahamas and Cuba. Once we landed, we were immediately pulled to the side and spent an hour and a half with customs officials who proceeded to check every... more

On our way to the Bahamas from Jamaica, we had to fly Eastbound to avoid Cuban airspace. Though even then, we were in their airspace for about 10-15 minutes, during which time I was on pins and needles awaiting the Cuban military to come after us. We also struggled with being able to communicate to air traffic controllers in both Haiti and the Bahamas. The reception was horrible and thankfully there was an American Airlines plane flying above us that was able to relay our messages to the airports... more

After my own very emotional stop in Haiti, I took a quick flight back to Santo Domingo to pick up my dear friend and colleague Nail Spahiu (whom you may remember has been doing some filming throughout the trip for our upcoming documentary).  Since we had to fly back over Haiti airspace, Nail was filming as much as possible from the plane.  He could not believe his eyes when he looked down at the devastation in the beautiful city of Port-Au-Prince.  You get a much clearer picture of this from above.... more

My flight from Santo Domingo to Port Au Prince went very well until I approached the capital city of this wonderful nation.  A few miles before landing, while flying at minimal altitude, I thought that I was seeing that this nation’s people had lots of swimming pools alongside their houses.  Shortly after, I realized that  those were not swimming pools at all. What I was looking at was the devastating news that millions of people were living in tents made with blue plastic covers –... more