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1. 04:58 PM - Flying around the World (CCHOYA@aol.com)
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| Subject: | Flying around the World |
--> RV8-List message posted by: CCHOYA@aol.com
This is copy from AV Flash a online aviation news letter.
Dave in Toledo
_http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archives/avflash/378-full.html#189474_
(http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archives/avflash/378-full.html#189474)
RVing Around The World...
Homebuilt Pilot Well On His Way
Some say that in a homebuilt, every flight is a test flight, and a
California pilot is putting his RV-8 through the ringer. While thousands of fellow
EAA
members and other aviation enthusiasts are getting ready for the annual trip
to _Sun 'n Fun_ (http://www.sun-n-fun.org/) in Florida starting April 12
(of course, AVweb will be there with special coverage next Monday, Wednesday,
Friday and the following Monday), Bill Randolph, of _EAA Chapter 119_
(http://www.eaa119.org/) in Watsonville, Calif., should have arrived at or be close
to Bali, where he'll visit his son on the final leg of his round-the-world
trip. Randolph left Watsonville on March 9 and the peppy RV helps him cover
some pretty significant distances on each leg. After stops in Abilene, Fort
Lauderdale, San Juan, Trinidad and Fortaleza, Brazil, Randolph tackled the
Atlantic. The flight from Brazil to Dakar, Senegal, took 14 hours (three
hours longer than planned because of headwinds). But Randolph apparently likes
flying over water. Chapter 119 is providing daily updates on its Web site
based on Randolph's almost daily calls to his wife, Shirley. In his account of
the ocean crossing he's reported to have said that he "feels free" over the
water. Maybe that's a good thing. About 20,000 miles of his 26,000-mile trip
is over water.
...Bureaucracy Slows Him Down...
Now, anyone in the surprisingly small club of those who've flown around the
world will tell you that the flying is the easy part. It's getting permission
to fly in countries that rarely see small private aircraft (let alone
homebuilts) that can be the most time-consuming and stressful part of the journey.
So far he's dealt with a put-out tribal chief in Senegal, had the Greek air
force looking for him (they didn't find him), been surrounded by police and
military in Cypress and waded through a quagmire of bureaucracy in India.
Ironically, however, one of his most unpleasant experiences was just before
leaving the good old U.S. of A., Shirley Randolph told AVweb. Randolph said some
of the surliest people her husband has met en route were in Ft. Lauderdale,
Fla., where folks at the airport "refused" to help him find a hotel for the
night (it was spring break) and appeared otherwise to be generally rude. But
she said the nastiness of that encounter has been more than made up by the
kindness of strangers along the route, including a hotel owner in Brazil who
lent Randolph an expensive headset after his failed. "You can give it back to
me when you return, don't worry," Randolph quoted the hotel owner as saying.
...An Elite Club
Assuming he makes it, Randolph will be among a handful of people on the
list kept by _Earthrounders_ (http://www.earthrounders.com/index.html) who've
flown a homebuilt around the world. So far, Australian adventurer Jon Johanson
is the only RV owner (on that list) to make the trip and he's done it twice,
including a loop over the North Pole, in his RV-4. Randolph's successful
jaunt would be another feather in the cap for Van's Aircraft, which makes the
RV
series of kit planes. (Experimentals -- originating from all manufacturers
-- now make up about 10 percent of the GA fleet.) According to the RV company
Web site, Randolph's is one of 4,118 flying RVs, making it the most popular
homebuilt. In fact, if all those RVs were registered in the U.S. (we don't
know how many aren't), they'd represent about 20 percent of the homebuilt
total, which weighs in at about 22,000 finished flying aircraft, according to
figures supplied to us by the FAA.
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