Robert HardingLondon to Sydney in a 1966 Piper Cherokee
This week two private pilots from the UK, Andy Hardy (50) and Sam Kidd (24), embarked on a grand adventure – to fly their little 1966 Piper Cherokee “Yankee Sierra” over 10,500 nautical miles, all the way from the UK to Australia during October & November 2013. This trip has been attempted by relatively few people in a single-engine piston-powered aircraft. We loved their idea, so we decided to follow them as they cross the globe.
The two took off from the UK on Wednesday, before taking the next leg of their trip from Odense airport in Denmark to Vienna where they are waiting for the weather to clear on the next part of their route. Track their location here
This diagram shows their planned route, though this is likely to change depending on the weather. The list of airports they intend to stop at include Zagreb, Corfu, Iraklion, Port Said, Cairo, Sharm El Sheikh, Riyadh, Dubai, Muscat, Karachi, Nagpur, Chittagong, Pattaya/Utapao, Kuala Lumpur/Subang, Jakarta/Halim, Denpasar, Kupang, Darwin, Burketwon, Atherton, Hervey Bay, Coffs Harbour and finally Sydney’s Bankstown aerodrome.
Andy and Sam hope that their trip will raise a substantial sum of money for Oxfam, to help those across the world who are less fortunate than themselves. “I’ve always tried to spare a thought for those who cannot even dream of such a thing as flying,” says Andy. “Those without enough water, shelter or food; those without the education and economic opportunity into which I have had the good fortune to be born.”
“So I wanted to find a way to not only fulfil my very selfish urge to fly halfway around the world in a light aircraft, which is perhaps more at home on weekend jaunts to the seaside, and to somehow balance my karma by doing something – no matter how small – to help those who have been born into less privileged circumstances than I was.”
Support their fundraising efforts here