Not Always in Chronological Order
Before we continue, I should probably mention one thing.
The posts here will not always follow a perfect timeline. Memories do not usually arrive in the correct order, and I think this diary will be the same. Sometimes I may go far back into the past, sometimes I may jump to something that happened just a few days ago.
So let’s make this one of those jumps.
Some of you may have seen the recently installed UH-1 Huey and the moving Cessna simulator and thought:
“Are Flyboys going into the flight simulator business?”
No, we are not. 
At least, there are no such plans on our desks right now.
But simulators have always been a very important part of our story. In fact, the story of World of Airports started in the cockpit of a Boeing 737-800 NG simulator.
Years ago, Kubasan received a flight in a B737 simulator as a gift. It was built in a flat in Prague, and for a hobby setup at that time, it was actually quite decent. We enjoyed it a lot. It was our first real contact with civil transport aviation. Before that, I mostly flew WWII fighters, while Kubasan was busy raiding Europe in a B-17.
We spent about an hour there, trying an approach — something like a “pilot unconscious” scenario — and on the way back, Kubasan told me:
“I think we can build this too.”
And I said:
“Yes, we probably can.”
But honestly, at that moment, I thought it was just an idea. Nothing more.
A few days later, he told me to start investigating. He sent me pictures of curved-screen setups and gave me the task of finding out how and where we could get the parts.
So I started searching.
I found suppliers, technical information, and the legendary OpenCockpits portal. Fortunately, we also found someone who was selling a partly assembled cockpit. About half of it was already mounted, and it was capable of flying. So Kubasan bought it.
And then the real work started.
We had to completely renovate a small house we were not using. We had to build the curved screen. And because Kubasan never does things halfway, we also decided to build a control tower section, where someone could simulate an air traffic controller connected to the Boeing simulator.
The tower had four “windows” made from portrait-mounted LED TVs, showing the apron and runways of Prague Airport.
Along the way, we got in contact with someone who later became a good friend — the owner of a service facility for R22 and R44 helicopters. He provided us with a retired Robinson R22 cockpit and also gave us a contact to a person selling the fuselage of a crashed Cessna 152.
So after about a year of work, we had:
- a two-seat, operating B737NG simulator,
- a BlackHawk-like helicopter rig,
- and a rally car simulator for visitors who had no connection to aviation.
The last two were later replaced by simulators built from the real sourced cockpits. At that time, both were still fixed-base simulators.
The Cessna used Saitek instruments. The R22/R44 cockpit was equipped with dedicated gauges and instruments running on servos and potentiometers. We linked the real controls through lever systems to a USB controller. Both simulators had large flat white projection walls in front of them and used single projectors.
So yes, we have always been deeply connected to airplanes, helicopters, and simulators.
Later, I was able to prove — at least to myself — that spending time in a simulator is not wasted time.
When I was working on my UL license, it took me three years because of money limitations. But every time I finally had the chance to book a flight hour, even after a three- or four-month break, my instructor did not believe I had been away from the cockpit for that long.
The reason was simple.
I had installed the same aircraft model I was using for training, the C42 Ikarus, and I practiced hundreds of traffic patterns in the simulator. I repeated the procedures again and again. I watched the pattern altitude, the turning points, the landing configuration, go-arounds, and even navigation flights.
It helped.
A lot.
During that time, for personal and family reasons, I moved to Germany. I had to leave my beloved work in the flight simulator center and started a career in IT Service Desk.
I did not really like it.
But sometimes life gives you a heading, and you have to fly it for a while.
One of the few good things was that there was an airfield with a tarmac runway only about four kilometres away. So, step by step, I could get closer again to my dream of flying airplanes. Since I was fifteen, I had already been a passionate paragliding pilot, but powered flying was still something special for me.
And somehow, all of this brought me to last weekend.
I spent two full days — about eight hours each — sitting in the rather small cockpit of a Cessna 152 simulator. Yes, we used the “old” cockpit and completely redesigned it into a full-motion simulator.
During that weekend, I flew more than 200 approaches and traffic patterns with children and their parents at LKPS Plasy Airport.
Some of the children were so small that I had to lift them up during the flight because they could not see out of the windshield. Others clearly had a lot of simulator experience already. Even real pilots enjoyed the ride.
But two visitors were really special to me.
One was a woman in a wheelchair.
The other was an autistic boy.
The energy they brought into the cockpit was incredible. You could not only see it — you could feel how much they enjoyed every second of it. Even with some coordination difficulties, they flew the aircraft gently and with real focus.
My only concern was not to interfere too much with my rudder pedals while I quietly helped control the rudder on final approach.
And in that moment, the hell week before the event was forgotten.
The night before the event, when I slept maybe one hour, was forgotten too.
All that remained was the feeling that this is exactly why aviation is so powerful. It can connect people. It can create joy. It can give someone an experience they may remember for a very long time.
And honestly, moments like that are worth every hour of work behind the scenes.
So, if nothing goes wrong, I will be more than happy to invite any of you to Aviatická pouť at the end of May, which should be the next event we will attend.
Maybe we will meet there.
And maybe we will fly a few more traffic patterns together.