I Got My Pilot License in Prague

In September 2025, I got my pilot license with AeroPrague in Letňany, Prague. Actual airplanes. I still get a kick out of being able to say that.

The short answer to “why did you learn to fly?” is freedom. I like going beyond the paths someone else has already explored and paved. That was the answer I gave at a pilot meetup in Prague last December, and it's still the most honest one.

Me and Fluffington. This is the site portrait; a flight photo can come later.

Of course, the freedom part comes with a lot of preparation. The license didn't mean I was suddenly done learning. I had an IFR rating on my 2026 vision board, and by spring the weather had canceled enough flying that I had to slow down. It's hard to make progress on a schedule when the sky hasn't agreed to it.

At that Prague pilot meetup, we paired people up with licensed pilots and tried to talk them through emergency landings in a flight simulator. There were crashes. Quite a few. It was funny, but also a pretty good reminder that the part people imagine when they hear “pilot” is only a fraction of it. The preparation and decisions matter too.

I'm glad I learned here in Prague. Letňany is part of my life here now, along with the less dramatic stuff: work, side projects, Czech lessons, and trying to make time to actually fly. I've written plenty about software. I want this site to make room for the airplane stories too, without turning every one of them into an engineering lesson.