The original concept and inspiration distilled from ideas and a chat during a dinner party. Australia became the chosen goal because, while it is vast, the infrastructure and climate lend itself well to a supported adventure during the cooler winter months. We also felt that the variety of inhabitants, wildlife, scenery and unique culture of the country, would make an interesting journey. The plan now is that a team consisting of both Brit and Aussie Microlight pilots will fly their Flexwing aircraft from Perth up the west and north coast of Australia to Darwin and then across the 'Outback' to Brisbane in July 2008 – a journey of more than 5,000 miles. The trip is in aid of Leukemia Research in the UK and the Australian Flying Doctor Service which is celebrating its 80th anniversary in 2008.
While similar trips have been undertaken before, the difference is that they have all been completed by fit, young adventurous types. The youngest pilot on our team is over forty and most are in their fifties. The ground crew following us around the country in their 4x4’s is all over the age of sixty! What’s more, all of us are more used to comfortable hotels and regular meals when we are away from home and the biggest challenge we faced until now was getting through the working week! Suddenly we are going to be camping under the stars, (with associated spiders and snakes), cooking our own food, washing clothes and flying or driving more than eight hours a day.....
The logistics of this expedition have already proven “interesting”. Packing and shipping the aircraft, personal flights, organising time away from work, equipment, first aid, photography, spares, maintenance, visa’s, licences and so on.
As the trip draws closer this website will be updated regularly to keep everyone up to date and we hope to communicate with sponsors during the trip too through use of this site. (Blogg coming soon)
The participants are all funding the costs of this 'challenge' themselves and therefore 100% of donations made will be channeled to benefit our chosen charities! (We do however wish to thank those aviation based sponsors who have kindly provided assistance to the team).
