Thread by @PaliparanDotCom

Day 4 of the trip and I'm off to Zagreb Airport for a rather unique flight. It seems it will be a gorgeous day for flying judged by this sunrise.

I will fly with Trade Air on a PSO route (Public Service Obligation, similar to the EAS - Essential Air Service - in the US). It's a government sponsored route linking smaller but vital places which would otherwise not be viable. But that's not what is unique about this flight..

What is special is the plane that is operating the flight, a Czech-made Let L-410 Turbolet. And the fact that I'm the only passenger on this flight!

Off we go!

The fun thing of this kite is that there are no doors to the cockpit so you can look a bit with them. A flight crew of three for this flight, plus two flight attendants!

On board the Let L-410 Turbolet on our way from Zagreb to Osijek.

This is definitely good fun too!

Landing at the first intermediate stop: Osijek.

Tiny Osijek Airport. Besides Trade Air it only sees the odd seasonal Croatia Airlines flights and (currently suspended AFAIK) Ryanair flights.

One café, one tiny shop which seems mostly stacked with local wines, and one gate area - that's it at Osijek Airport. For the next leg to Pula there will be 5 other passengers. No more private plane experiences :(

Take-off from Osijek!

View from the plane..

Somewhere above a beautiful Croatian forest..

After a while the coastline comes in view. We fly just south of Rijeka, which can clearly be seen in the distance.

And we fly right over the island Krk on which Rijeka Airport is located. The runway is clearly visible. And what a gorgeous blue colours!

Flying over Istria on final approach to Pula Airport.

Landing at Pula Airport.

And also at Pula we have to wait inside the airport terminal for some 15-20 minutes. This time the plane is refuelled as well. After a short while we can follow the ground handling agent back to the aeroplane.

And take-off for the third and final flight from Pula to Split on this Let L-410 Turbolet.

What a pleasure it is to fly over beautiful Croatia on a day like this.

Croatia must be the best European country to fly over - together with Greece. Blink your eyes and for a moment you might even think these are Tahiti atolls!

That's the (lovely!) city of Zadar down below. Looking back you can also see the beach & the mud lagoon of Nin (another nice destination to visit). Hitchcock said Zadar's sunsets are the best in the world - and he was right. Need to go back once as I have some good friends there!

I need to look up where this is on a map but wow, those shades of blue!

Final approach to Split Airport with some fantastic views over Trogir from this cool little Czech turboprop.

Flying over Trogir..

And the landing at Split. What a fun, fantastic flight. I can really recommend Trade Air for anyone visiting Croatia. For these 3 flights I paid the fixed price of 69 euro. PSO route advantage is that no matter when you book, this is always the price you pay for this 🇭🇷 flight.

From Split Airport, Trogir is just a short ride away by city bus. I've visited Split before, but it's my first time here in town. Time for some delicious seafood risotto!

The church bells of wonderful #Trogir.