Geez, 100+ knots wind speed? Wow! What altitude was this at?

 

Awesome, and all the best with your flight training. There's no better feeling of satisfaction when your flight instructor finally steps out of the cockpit one day and tells you to take her for a spin round the aerodrome. May I ask which helicopter type you're flying right now?

 

I found this article which might be of interest. It has the FAI's rules for what constitutes global circumnavigation.
https://angusadventures.com/adventu...powered aircraft to,at the point of departure.

 

Interesting to this conversation, because the rules “FAI stipulations include that it must cross all meridians in one direction, travel a distance of at least 36,787.559 km (the length of the Tropic of Cancer)” are accompanied by a map




This is what Steve Fossett followed when he became the first person to fly a plane solo, non-stop around the globe without refueling.

It’s noticeably different from the young woman’s path. Surely the lack of a need to refuel had some effect on the planned path, but how much? I wouldn’t think that difference explains the entirety of the differences between the two maps.

Then also the Fossett map I think indirectly supports the idea that the young woman went MUCH farther than Fossett, and so surely her route’s path isn’t explained by needing to reach the 37K km trigger

 

If it was me doing this flight, what would have scared me the most is the over water legs, especially over the North Atlantic. Being in a single engine craft, there's no backup if the engine goes kaput so full marks for bravery.

The Shark aircraft she flew was also remarkably light, only 472kg MTOW. From memory, the Piper Cherokee I used to fly had a MTOW that was more than twice as much at 1055kg.

 

Fl 360-370 .79m

 

Thanks, @DoctorEvil . All of my training will be done in a Robinson R22, the least expensive way to get to licensure.

 

@Jones in LA -Following up on your question in WRUW, I’m a huge fan of the Lightspeed Zulu 3. You can always turn the ENC off, turning it into a passive headset. The fatigue added in flight from noise or a heavy clamp headset starts to add up.
I wore David Clark 10-13.4 since it came out until I switched to electronics. Night and day.
Whichever way you go, go with quality. You’ll hear and be heard much better with a quality set, and then the weight and clamping force all come into play.
Enjoy!

 

Thanks, appreciate the advice!

 

There was me thinking it was an orbital flight path tribute ;0)
Joking aside it is a very impressive and brave achievement. Nice to see her safely home.

 

Just watched the movie The Maggie a 1954 "Ealing Comedy" about an old coastal cargo boat in Scotland. It features several scenes with a De Havilland DH-89 Dragon Rapide. On the ground at engine start it sounds like the proper six cylinder DH Gipsy Major, but on several flybys it seems to have a couple of RR Merlins. I suppose that Mosquito flyby recordings were easier to get. The DH is a common sight and sound where I live, there are two operating sightseeing trips out of Duxford and they come my way rather than getting tangled up with the Stansted (EGSS) traffic.

Edit: in the script it cost "£16 per hour" to charter, wet including pilot. There's a bit of DC3 action too, and the American airline (not AA) executive has a model of a DH Comet on his desk.

 

£16 an hour to charter a DH-89 would be a an absolute bargain these days. Wonder what that converts to today's money?

 

£466.78 allegedly based on inflation from 1954....But then again the average wage in 1954 was £9 per week... so nearly two weeks wages. The average UK salary now is £538.... so on that model it would be £958 which is a big difference. A 70 minute flight over London (part of a group) in the dragon is £229. I am not sure how much it would be to hire but they will do it - 01255 424671. The plane is an eight seater so a full aircraft on the London trip would make £1832 before costs as a sighter for possible one hour private hire costs.
A private jet hire from London to Dublin (about 1 hour 20 mins) is around £5k

 

Heathrow yesterday, from BBC news.
Avoided a major but prudent to call an earlier abort?

Flashbacks to baby zoomies' first deck landings, making multiple attempts on the Ark Royal, back in the day.
At sea and out of diversion range... get down or ditch!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60216196

 

Almost a tail strike / close call with the wing. It does look like a freak gust caught them out and then well recovered?
I have been on smaller scheduled flights in and out of Aberdeen a few times - normally to East Mids. It was the Aberdeen end that used to be more hairy for weather and helicopter Dodging :0)

 

Seems they didn't get away with it.

 

Not good - will be investigated. Lucky they did not make a left turn.....
.

 

It was horribly close on that left bank, heart in the mouth moment.

I find it strange there is no tail strike bumper on the A350 or perhaps there is and the strike was closer to the trailing edge than was bargained for. Happy to hear from someone with experience of this aircraft.

The ground engineers call that a "smell of shit in the cockpit" incident

 

Strange; the linked video shows an A321 (G-NEOP), not the A350 (G-XWBC).

 

I would guess there is no video of the actual tail strike of the A350 but as we all know the media does not let the truth get in the way of a good story.

I have to be honest and say the 321 tail looks like it touched lightly at seconds 28,29 & 30 in the video.