I will be making my first trip next may, and if all goes well, will try and return by years end, if not Jan the year after. My question is, has anyone been there during the winter??
Winter does not bother me, being from Ontario, Canada. Just wondered how winter flying is?
The international flights were fine. The Zaporozhye to Kiev flight was delayed 6 hours. It was 9 below, Celcius. There were about 25 passengers in a plane with two propelers. The plane was on jacks the whole time. I didn't see too much work being done on it. Then again, I stayed indoors most of the time.
When everyone was finally aboard and the engine was running, they suddenly cut the engine off. A mechanic closed the left engine door with a screw driver. Again the engine was turned on. Again, they killed it. The same mechanic looks at the other engine door and shrugs his shoulder as if saying it's already closed.
Besides that, nothing else unusual happened to the flight.
"Time to spare then go by air" particularly during a Ukrainian winter.
I too copped a significant delay out of Zaporozhye, nothing wrong with ZP or the aircraft, it was due to freezing fog in Borispol, fortunately I had needed to plan an overnight in Kiev en-route to home.
Schedules can run OK and for days or weeks at a time but then heavy snow of fog may suddenly fall and everything goes to pot. During the winters try to allow for some flexibility in flight connection times, I didn't always do this but I guess I was lucky.
I flew Delta into Kiev this past February and was there from Feb 14 - 24. Temperature was always -1 to 1 deg C during the day. Snowed about 5 cm on night. Walking around was no big deal; a head covering might be useful. Cold at night but made for good snuggling.