Pilot Makes Bullseye Landing on a Tiny 56 Story Helipad

Polish pilot Lukasz Czepiela made a phenomenal bullseye landing in his small plane on a tiny helipad at the top of the 56 story Burj Al Arab Jumeirah hotel in Dubai.

Pilot Luke Czepiela lands an aeroplane on the world famous helipad on top of the Burj Al Arab Jumeirah, the iconic seven-star hotel in Dubai.

Czepiela practiced this landing over 650 times as the helipad was only 27 meters (31 yards) in diameter and needed almost 21 meters (23 yards) to stop. This was accomplished by engineering the plane to be very light but powerful enough to take off again.

To make the feat possible he and a team of CubCrafters engineers along with renowned American aviation engineer and aircraft builder Mike Patey made a number of modifications to the aircraft, reducing the total weight to only 425 kilograms, moving the main fuel tank to the rear of the plane to allow for more aggressive braking and adding nitrous to enhance power for Czepiela’s secondary challenge – taking off from the helipad.

Bullseye Landing on Helipad

The talented pilot was overcome by his achievement.

The landing was the first time I performed this manoeuvre in real life…I imagined it, trained on a simulator, but never used it in real life before.”

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.

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