With reference to James's statement earlier today...
"Subject to ratification, my aircraft G-KTCH is the first gyroplane to make a circumnavigation under FAI (Fédération Aéronautique Internationale) rule.
However, it is important to recognise the achievement of Norman Surplus who also circumnavigated in G-YROX".
There has been a lot of misunderstanding and confusion today (from all sides it seems..) regarding what the Record is that James Ketchell is actually being ratified for by the FAI. The actual record with regard to flying around the world, is set out in the FAI Sporting Code (copied below for clarity) it can be clearly seen that the actual Record is for setting a Speed Record around the world, over a course which is provided with a benchmark minimum distance for all would be competitors to attain.*
Setting this first Speed Record for a Gyroplane (catergory E-3a) has never been in question and once ratified, James will be easily recognized as the completing the fastest gyroplane flight around the world (eastbound) and will be the current World Speed Record Holder for the E-3a category. As i say this has never been in doubt as my own flight around the world took 4 years (due to Russian intransigence) to complete and was therefore never considered "in the running" to compete.*
You will note that the FAI Rules as laid out verbatim below make no mention of the word "circumnavigation" They simply award a speed record according to their strict rules of maintaining fair and proper competition. In short, the FAI do not claim to be the police officers of what is, or what is not, a circumnavigation flight..., they can only adjudicate on what is the fastest flight for any given category according to their sporting rules.*
The common perception of what is a full circumnavigation is that an aircraft takes off from one point goes right around the planet and lands again at the same point where it started. The common perception of a First Circumnavigation is that it was the first time that a pioneering flight has managed to fly right around the planet, flying in very uncertain terrain for an aircraft type that has never ventured there before. This type of flight can be undertaken regardless of distance flown and time taken (as, in my case, it is simply not claiming to be a speed record of any sort)*
An analogy might be to consider the first ship to sail across the Atlantic (either it was Columbus or the Viking Eric the Red depending on your standpoint) either way it was a voyage into the unknown and the unknowable, precisely because it had not been done before...there was no consideration of the length of time taken or the minimum route distance that might be sailed...it was simply seeing if it could be done in the first place. Fast forward to the 20th century Transatlantic passenger liners, competing for the "Blue Ribband" fastest crossing - no longer is just crossing the Atlantic the prize, what was then important is how fast the record holder could make the voyage -*
The point is Speed Records are set when the hardest parts of the course (the unknown Atlantic crossings) have already been established and proven... and by extension therefore, it is known it is possible to set a fastest circumnavigation only because of the pioneering, pathfinding, flying efforts that have gone before. Efforts put in by the pilot of course, but also by the ever vigilant flight planner support crew coordinating everything back in the UK... namely*
Eddie Gold*and his GASE (General Aviation Support Egypt) crew. These are the real unsung heroes of the piece, with seemingly very little acknowledgement given to the less glamorous and mundane aspects of achieving a successful world flight.*
The difficulty comes in James statement above, where he does indeed offer some recognition that I did in fact make a circumnavigation with G-YROX and I of course welcome that recognition from him, albeit far too late to redress the exposure in the media to the contrary ...as reported in the Times newspaper this morning, I was semmingly referred to as "the next best effort" implying that James's own effort must be somehow far in advance of my own... I think flying 27,000NM (5,500 over water covering 14 major open water crossings between 200-400NM... across 32 Countries, surviving a lake ditching and major rebuild in Thailand emergency outlandings in Saudi Arabia, India and Alaska...yes folks, I must have nearly been hit by that lightning too... (not that you would know I was actually there of course!)...All this should speak for itself in regard to the amount of "next best effort" that was put in on my part...).*
The fact that my journey back to the same place where I started 4 years earlier was completed in Oregon on the 28th June 2019, it logically follows that this has to be indeed the First Gyroplane Circumnavigation flight (as of course there can only be one First Flight), regardless of time taken and course flown... and if it is acknowledged as such, why then has the media been misinformed en mass in the past few days that the GYROX flight was not the first circumnavigation and that in fact the G-KTCH "first flight" was the only show in town with Norman Surplus and Roxy seemingly swept under the carpet, hidden from all the recent photos showing the first half of the world, simply to be "airbrushed" out of history .???
Of 40 pictures put up in one post recently, not one showed the phantom "other Gyro" or unmentionable "ghost pilot" in the frame....that's just not right. Its selective and deliberate manipulation of the facts to gain some false misrepresentation.*
it just doesn't work for over zealous
PR teams to over claim these things looking for maximum media exposure for short term gain, it always backfires in the long run when overly ambitious claims and information given out as "fact" begin to be questioned
G-YROX is the First Gyroplane to physically circumnavigate the globe
and
G-KTCH (will be) the first and Current FAI World Record holder for setting the fastest Speed around the world...
This is how it should have been accurately reported in the first place to save all this unnecessary posturing, hoohah and ruffled feathers.*
Cheers N.*
5.3.5 SPEED AROUND THE WORLD (EASTBOUND AND WESTBOUND)
5.3.5.1 The course, including the control points, shall be approved in advance by the
NACs concerned and must start and finish at the same place, crossing all
meridians. The length of the course shall not be less than 36,787,559 kilometres
(equal in length to the Tropic of Cancer).
5.3.5.2 All control points must be at a latitude of less than 66 degrees 33 minutes (outside
the North and South Frigid Zones).
FAI SPORTING CODE - SECTION 9
17
5.3.5.3 If, due to circumstances, the final landing cannot be made at the point of
departure, the rotorcraft may be timed over the finish line on an alternate point
lying beyond the original one (at a greater distance from which the start was
made).
5.3.5.4 Intermediate landing places, turn or control points must be declared and agreed
in advance with the NACs concerned. These may be changed before passing if
weather or political refusal prevents the use of any. At least 48 hours notice must
be given.
5.3.5.5 Any time spent on the ground between start and finish shall be counted as flying
time.
5.3.5.6 Repair or replacements of parts of the rotorcrafts rotors and engine(s) are
permitted except that the winglets and fuselage may not be changed.
5.3.5.7 Crew members may not be changed during the attempt. However, in the cases
of an emergency a crew member, other than the pilot-in-command, may leave
but must not be replaced.
Passengers may be changed during the attempt.