15 November 2016
It’s been a week of high drama for three pilots flying around the world. Brit Colin Hales finally left Russia and flew to Japan. Spaniard Michael Gordillo successfully flew over the South Pole. And the first kitplane built in Hong Kong has arrived home after completing a global circumnavigation.
Colin Hales… we think he’s pumping fuel around in-flight in this pic.
Colin Hales has been stuck in Russia waiting for permission to enter China flying his tiny Rand KR2 homebuilt. However, after several attempts to get the required visa, which included FLYER obtaining an invitation for him from the Zhuhai airshow organisers, Colin had to change plan and Japan was the only choice. He left snowy Sakhalin and its minus 11º temperature. This is his flight report:
“[From] -11 to +12 in one flight. Not an easy flight though and I’m in a bit of trouble, but it was the sensible thing to do. I dropped the IFR flight plan as it took me into cloud and snow storms. I could have gone above, they wanted me to, but I thought I might get trapped up there.
“So I asked to go VFR, and then went low and eventually ended up passing the worst of the weather with a little scud running along the coast into 40mph headwinds. The rain has damaged the prop.
“500 feet over the sea, the wind was as strong and rougher than at 3,500 feet. So the reserve fuel I didn’t think I would need had to go in and again I ran the engine at max rpm as I was running out of daylight. I went past two maybe three nuclear power stations, with whatever exclusion zone they must have. But Itzy is small and looks a long way away, even if only a mile or 10 offshore. ”
Michael Gordillo’s RV-8 fitted with skis for the landing in Antarctica (top pic also). Inset below: Michael planning the flight.
Spanish pilot Michael Gordillo successfully crossed the South Pole earlier this week. He is flying a figure-of-eight round the world trip taking in both Poles. He’d already flown over the North Pole in the Van’s RV-8 that he built himself.
Michael is now at Marambio Station in Antarctica, about to cross to Argentina. Then he’ll fly up South America, cross the Atlantic crossing to Africa and north to Spain. By the time he reaches home he will have flown across all seven continents and five oceans – solo all the time. (Story courtesy of GASE).
Hank Cheng arrives back in Hong Kong after flying his Van’s RV-8 around the world.
Captain Hank Cheng also flew around the world in a Van’s RV-8 he built himself. The trip was a fairly standard circumnavigation, 50,000km in 70 days, but the real story was how Hank built the RV-8, the first homebuilt in Hong Kong. When he presented it to the aviation authority, they had no process for approving a homebuilt. Undeterred, Hank took it apart, shipped it to Australia, flew the test flights there and had the aircraft approved. He then took it apart again, shipped it back to Hong Kong where the authority accepted the Australian approval!
