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Round the world by KR2

Without dragging age old subjects up, I do tip my hat off to these people. You couldn’t pay me enough money in the world to be over the north Atlantic in a single.

NickP wrote:

A very inspring and brave story.

Mostly brave …

FAA A&P/IA
LFPN

I think nowadays all these record attempts are first and foremost exercises in attitude to risk, logistics and sheer physical endurance:

The trip to Australia involved 66 legs

The bottom fell out of the navigation business with GPS, and an autopilot takes care of the rest. I can’t tell if he has an AP but his panel is so loaded he probably does.

A friend of mine flew a MD500 around the world about 10 years ago and had a guy full-time back home doing the logistics, with a constant contact via an Iridium satphone (installed by my freelance avionics guy ). He spent more than $100k, with $60k spent mostly on bribes to cross Russia.

Still an amazing achievement and hats off to him

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

The KR2 does not have an autopilot as I recall from looking at it.

Peter wrote:

I think nowadays all these record attempts are first and foremost exercises in attitude to risk, logistics and sheer physical endurance

Exactly what I think. To gain attention, it has to be some sort of extreme (youngest pilot, open cockpit, you name it) because we’ve seen everything. Where I get really mad is when they come up with some BS charity cover. Like flying to Africa in a turboprop to present a €500 check to some orphanage. I’ve seen a few of these disgusting flights in recent years. Almost as good as shooting Lions to protect Lions with the fees. Just pay the money, shut up and let the Lion live and the turboprop where it is.

If it continues, we’ll probably see the first Atlantic crossing in inverted flight with an Extra 300 soon.

Like flying to Africa in a turboprop to present a €500 check to some orphanage.

Exactly, and completely disgusting.

Well, IMHO, it depends on whether the charity actually rips people off by misleading them.

Here in the UK, most charities spend the bulk of donations on a lifestyle for the Exec(s), salaries of vast numbers of employees, and a ton of mismanagement (which is to be expected anywhere where you have a lot of volunteers) thrown in. In that sense, they mislead the donors.

We see that mismanagement here with the National Trust… people get paid nothing or very little so they can’t be bothered to fight with the “larger than life characters” who as a result rise and rise through the organisation. At the opposite end, Justine and I pay them c. 100 quid a year for membership… currently!

Actually one sees the same in some GA organisations… the “volunteer or low paid” problem is big in GA, in many guises.

But if I set up a charity to collect donations for a TB20 flight to ferry 100kg of medicines from Shoreham to Timbuctu, am I ripping people off? Everybody with a brain can see it’s a daft exercise. And everybody without a brain is going to get ripped off everywhere anyway, sadly, in this “modern age”

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

I think nowadays all these record attempts are first and foremost exercises in attitude to risk, logistics and sheer physical endurance

Wasn’t it so even in the past? Yes, navigation is easier these days. It’s still a significant undertaking. You can fly without a GPS. You can fly without an autopilot. But nobody would probably do that on an actual record attempt unless it was necessary to fit into same category, unless navigation wasn’t an issue.

That (the 66 legged trip to Australia) wasn’t a record attempt. If you read it, you know what his goal was. That explains the number of legs. And he was in no hurry. Since he can fly on mogas, getting fuel is not that difficult. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to fly the way he does (with minimal planning). Of the three you mentioned, only attitude to risk is relevant in his case IMO.

Peter wrote:

I think nowadays all these record attempts are first and foremost exercises in attitude to risk, logistics and sheer physical endurance

In other words you need to be bold and physically strong and fit. You also need a brain and extreme will power. No matter how you look at it, they are great achievements, way beyond what most people are capable of, or even think is possible at all.

The elephant is the circulation
ENVA ENOP ENMO, Norway
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