Even large airports like Ruzyně service very small aircraft when needed (and when the aircraft operator pays the landing fees). The next set of pictures shows a light propeller-driven aircraft belonging to the F-Air flying school behind the follow-me car. The car guides the aircraft to a parking position.
Follow-me cars are used to visually guide pilots to specific spots on the airport, most often to a gate or to a parking stand. Follow-me cars have a special signalling device mounted on the roof. The device transmits commands and information to the pilots: it tells them which way they should be turning soon, when to stop, when to shut down engines, and so on. Once this follow-me car did its job here, its driver stepped on the gas pedal, the car sped up, and it was gone; it must have travelled at about 150 kilometers per hour. I guess he did not have to care about speed limits, because the probability of police stopping him and giving him a speed ticket on the airport grounds!
The above pictures also nicely show the marks on the taxiways. As I already mentioned, solid yellow line marks the center of the taxiway, but there are many more marks used, each type telling the pilots a different thing.
Ruzyně also services private jets. People who need to travel at a moment's notice (as long as they can afford it) can use them when they realize they need to be in a different part of the world very soon. We were told that usually the traveller can take off in a private jet an hour after they realize they need to travel, assuming a jet is ready and the person has enough money to pay for the services of the companies providing it.
The next picture shows one of those private jets in the foreground. It's a Raytheon Hawker 800XP and it belongs to NetJets Europe, a private company that can take you almost anywhere in the world faster than any commercial airline. The second aircraft in the background of the picture is a twin-engine turbo-prop Beech Super King Air 300LW belonging to a Time Air company.
Copyright notice: Text and images copyright by Michal Řeháček.