Okęcie runway repairs complete

It's all done. Okęcie's three-weekend runway remont (isn't that a useful word - it should make its way into English). But yesterday over Jeziorki the skies were quiet and whatever flew overhead was interesting. Regular stuff were the short take-off and landing ATRs and Avro RJs, but bizjets and general aviation got a good look in too.

Airliners - from Switzerland - Darwin is a regional airline from the south of the country. No regular flights to Poland - Swiss airlines swapped their usual Fokker 100s for this SAAB 2000 (HB-IZG) from Darwin, which could land on the truncated runway.

Below: a real rarity! Aero Ae270 Ibis inbound to land. At first I thought this was a Pilatus PC12, but for the low-mounted tailplane. The registration of this aircraft, OK-ALE, briefly raised hopes that this Czech-built plane would drop bottles of Pilsner Urquell on little parachutes onto my garden. Sadly not - this plane is not owned by the brewery (that indeed brews an OK ale) but by aircraft manufacturer Aero Vodochody.

As well as the above-mentioned visitors yesterday, there was also a number of light aircraft making the most of the quiet skies over Okęcie to do some sightseeing or some practice approaches. Below: Cessna 172S Skyhawk, SP-COM. The 172 is the most widely manufactured aircraft of all time; over 43,000 have been built since 1956, and this 54 year-old airframe is still in production!

Below: Cessna 152, SP-KSY. This one must have flown over our house ten times or more as it circled the airport.

Below: Another Cessna 152, SP-KOD. The 152 is a smaller version of the 172, though no longer in production.

Below: Cirrus SR22 - best know for having a parachute that should bring the entire aircraft down safely in case of emergency. This one, SP-KLS, also spent a long time in the air circling Okęcie.

Today, things at the airport were back to normal, so the usual stream of Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s were the staple fare once again. I must say, I enjoyed the three weekends of runway closure yielding some interesting stuff in the skies above us.