Frantisek Hadrava thought driving to work for 14 minutes was too much, so he built a plane to cut the commute by half.
The `vampira’, which is an ultra-light plane, is built based on the U.S design called Mini-Max by the 45 years old Hadrava who is a locksmith.
The plane has an open cockpit, propeller powered by a 3-cylinder engine made by Czech firm Verner, and maximum speed of 146 km (91 miles) an hour.
It cost between 3,700 Euros and 4,200 dollars to build, Hadrava said.
Early in the morning, Hadrava flew his usual path through the forested hilly foothills of the Sumava Mountains for his 6 a.m. shift at Drevostroj, a small factory in the town of Ckyne.
He lands on a meadow across the road from the factory, and then needs to push the plane across the road, leading to the German border to a parking lot outside the factory.
“It takes me about 12 to 14 minutes by car.
“By plane, it would take around 4 to 5 minutes if I flew directly, but I take a bit of a detour so that I don’t disturb people early in the morning.
“So it takes about seven minutes,’’ he said.
