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Since he was a boy, Robert Burczak, now 37 years old, felt the urge to get into a plane and join the birds in the sky. However, he never flew until 2004 when he decided to leave Poland and come to the UK.

“The passion started when I was very young. I was looking at the planes in the sky, and I always dreamt of becoming a pilot. Then, I said to myself: yeah, I’m going to be a pilot one day.”

Once settled in London, he focused on hard-working and developed a career in residential building construction. Still, he had not forgotten his passion for flying. His wife was the one who encouraged him to pursue his dream by buying the first flying lessons in 2013.

“Oh, it’s a beautiful feeling really! You can feel the freedom, you can feel like a bird, you can see beautiful views, and enjoy yourself, you forget about the problems that you have.”

Learning to fly a light aircraft like the Grumman American AA5 is not easy.

“With a small machine, you can feel everything, any gusts of wind. Especially when they are closing the vision for you, with a special hat that you have to wear, you just focus on instruments and fly only on them. What is a part of the training is closing part of some of the instruments on the plane, and they are putting a cover on it, so you do not rely on all of them but just a few. You have to be not only passionate but very disciplined to fly planes.” 

But all the effort is well worth it. 

“I decided probably after the first flight, when I was in the plane I enjoyed it. It was beautiful weather, and were beautiful views. And then, I said to myself... yeah, this is what I want to do in the future, either hobby and work. Will see later on.” 

At 30 years old, Robert succeeded in taking his pilot license after 46 hours spent up in the air, the minimum number of hours required to graduate the flight school.

“I was actually lucky to complete. It still took me 2 years to complete 45 hours, but yeah, I passed my license when I had 46 hours in total. It is rare in England because the weather is quite difficult, so it takes a little bit longer to learn to fly. I know lots of people are flying for 60, 70, or 80 hours just to pass a license.”

The long trips he made so far with his plane were to Scotland and Paris. But his biggest desire is to fly home one day.

“My dream is to fly to my home country with my private plane. So, it will take approximately 8 hours to fly to Poland, to Mazury, where I am from. Probably take family, brothers, maybe mother, father in the air, show them our country from the sky.”

Race cars and fast motorcycles are also part of Robert’s life, especially during the weekends. But the most precious treasure is his family, his wife Wioleta, and their two daughters, Nela and Veronica. And his parents and relatives who are in Poland.

“It was always difficult because you have to make your living in England and, of course, the living here is not that cheap to send lots of money back to families to give it to everyone. But still, of course, whenever someone is calling me or needs my help, I’m always there to help.”

He appreciates that he could rely on the Opal Transfer team for money transfer services and advice during these years abroad.

Robert Burczak’s journey strengthens our motivation to continue our mission of sustaining hard-working people and improving their lives abroad by providing fast, cheap, and easy money transfers to their families back home.

Opal Transfer supports the community of expats since 2003 by transferring money to and from 41 countries in Europe and Asia. Moreover, our multicultural team can offer friendly advice and support to people who come for the first time in a new country and look for a shoulder to lean on. So far, Opal Transfer has succeeded in bringing joy to more than 930,000 people.