From Goway Travel:
Two vetertan pilots will be landing their single-engine biplane at Muskoka Airport midway through their 100-day journey around the world, 100 years after the first successful round-the-world flight. They plan to land on Friday, August 30 in the late afternoon (exact landing time to be confirmed Friday morning).
Their journey began on June 1 departing Papua New Guinea, tracing the Pacific, Russia, UK, and North Atlantic.
The local landing opportunity was presented by longtime friend Bruce Hodge, who is a Muskoka cottage owner and fellow octogenarian. Bruce founded Toronto-based GowaynTravel in 1970 and works closely with Bob Bates operating tours in Papua New Guinea.
This year is the centenary of the first flight round the world. Four Douglas Air Cruisers, “Seattle, Chicago, Boston, and New Orleans”, operated by the US Army Air Service, departed Seattle on April 6, 1924. The 4 aircraft were configured for the long over-water portion of the flight, by exchanging wheels for pontoon floats. They flew a westwards route that took them down the Aleutian Islands chain to Russian Kamchatka and onto Japan. Their route is depicted in the map shown to the right.
Shortly after departing Prince Rupert Island on 15 April, the lead aircraft “Seattle”, flown by Martin and Harvey, blew an 8cm hole in its crankcase and was forced to land on Portage Bay.
The crew resumed their journey on 25 April, and attempted to catch up with the other three aircraft that were waiting in Dutch Harbor. However the “Seattle” crashed in dense fog into a mountainside near Port Moller on the Alaska Peninsula and was destroyed in the crash. The crew survived six harrowing days in the elements before finding shelter in an unoccupied cabin on Moller Bay. A second aircraft ditched in the North Atlantic and the crew was picked up by the U.S. Navy. The two remaining flight crews returned to a huge welcoming crowd in Seattle on September 28, 1924 after completing the epic 175 day, 26,345 mile journey and becoming the First to Fly around the World. The World Flight’s aircraft had their engines changed five times and new wings fitted twice.
So what is the significance of this..? Well, on 1st June Bob Bates and Barry Payne departed Mount Hagen in Papua New Guinea, in Barrys Piper Comanche ZK-BAZ on a Centenary Commemoration westwards flight round the world. Step one is for us to be in Kagoshima where the original flyers were 100 years previous. We will then traverse Russia and onto the UK landing at Breighton Airfield which is close to Brough.
The aircraft will remain in the UK for a few weeks and then we plan to leave the UK in August, retracing the original flyers air path over the North Atlantic, across the USA back to Seattle. From there we will pickup the 1924 route through Alaska, along the Aleutian Islands chain to Kamchatka and complete a full circle back at Kagoshima. We aim to arrive back in Mount Hagen on 28th September, the same day the two Douglas Air Cruisers landed back at Seattle in 1924 completing the First Flight Round the World.
As it presently stands, our flight could end up being the only single engine Round The World flight this year, and the only flight closely re-enacting the 1924 flight route. And there are potentially other benchmarks involved. A combined age of the two crew Bob & Barry is 161 years, and a total of 105 years of pilot experience. This will also be the first time such an around the world flight will start and finish in Papua New Guinea.
Amelia Earhart too included Papua New Guinea in her fateful attempt to be the first woman to fly around the world. It was on 2nd July in 1937 from Lae in Papua New Guinea, in her Lockheed Model 10-E Electra, with Fred Noonan as navigator, from where she made her final take-off, and, even to-day searches are still being conducted in an effort to find the true story as to what happened to her.
During our flight we should be visible on Flight Radar 24 if we are in the air. We will also have a Garmin tracker link with us that will show you where we are and will also enable satellite email and messaging.
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John Whitty says
Luckily this afternoon the wind is to be from the south so they will be able to land OK.
All pilots know the wind is usually from the west here, aligned with the grass runway so no problem.
Not any more.
“The sheer stupidity of the District’s decision to permanently close runway 09/27 despite consistent, overwhelming opposition from many qualified and credible sources is shocking.”
Unlike a previous enlightened council who agreed with the latest and earlier consultants that the grass runway is a valuable asset and should be maintained.
To be fair not all councillors were fooled.
Just the majority.
The airport also closed the grass area beside the main runway and has banned skiplanes in the winter.
For no reason at all.
3 accidents have resulted, so far, as a result.
Including putting a pilot and his wife in “extreme danger.”
Anyone competent in aviation knows a second runway at 90 degrees makes any airport safer and increases the usability.
Unlike at Muskoka.
Airport traffic and fuel sales are way down as a result of mismanagement.
If driving away airport traffic and increasing airport losses is the goal, mission accomplished.
Their solution is to charge pilots $25!! to use the fridge for 12 hours and plaster advertising all over the airport.
That will eliminate the $2 million deficit for sure…
No one is going to buy advertising when Muskoka airport is a ghost town.
Unlike nearby airports that are thriving with competent management.