To be fair you have to look at press reports to understand the true story.
Reading this I must ask how many of us are capable of facing such an epic series of flights?
By Jonathan Pearlman, Sydney12:15PM GMT 09 Jan 2016
Before setting off on her treacherous 14,600-mile solo voyage across the world in a vintage open-cockpit biplane, British aviator Tracey Curtis-Taylor was aware of the risks and planned for the worst.
So much so she had even carefully detailed her own funeral arrangements.
Today she joked she "needed a drink", after completing a three-month journey to retrace a pioneering feat of legendary aviator Amy Johnson, who in 1930 became the first woman to fly solo between Britain and Australia.
Setting off in October in her tiny 1942 Boeing Stearman, the 53-year-old soon faced thick “unflyable” fog that left her flying blind in Romania. Later, she flew through frightening dust storms in Saudi Arabia and fierce hot winds in central Australia.
But none of these proved to be her greatest moment of terror.
Instead, and somewhat fittingly, the biggest danger came from a threat that had also been faced by Johnson herself, whose 1930 voyage from London to Sydney was the model for Curtis-Taylor’s.
About 500 feet above the Pakistani city of Karachi, Curtis-Taylor suddenly found herself flying through countless flocks of “huge raptors”, or large birds, including vultures, eagles and buzzards.
Setting off in October in her tiny 1942 Boeing Stearman, the 53-year-old soon faced thick “unflyable” fog that left her flying blind in Romania. Later, she flew through frightening dust storms in Saudi Arabia and fierce hot winds in central Australia.
But none of these proved to be her greatest moment of terror.
Instead, and somewhat fittingly, the biggest danger came from a threat that had also been faced by Johnson herself, whose 1930 voyage from London to Sydney was the model for Curtis-Taylor’s.
About 500 feet above the Pakistani city of Karachi, Curtis-Taylor suddenly found herself flying through countless flocks of “huge raptors”, or large birds, including vultures, eagles and buzzards.
Recalling the episode after finally completing her voyage in Sydney on Saturday, Curtis-Taylor said she knew as she steered that a collision with a single bird could prove fatal.
“They were massing all around, wheeling all around the plane - sometimes they were out front looking down on me,” she said.
“If one flew into the engine, I wouldn’t get out [alive]. I didn’t know whether to try to dodge them or whether they will dodge me. In the end you just a steer course… Amy made the same comment in her memoirs. But the bloody things are still there, 80 years later.”
In her vintage reconditioned piston-engine plane, without a parachute and using 2,100 gallons of fuel, Curtis-Taylor traversed 23 countries after taking off from Farnborough on October 1 in her plane, the Spirit of Artemis.
Unlike Johnson, who famously set her course by using a ruler to draw a direct line between England and Australia, Curtis-Taylor was forced to fly around warzones in the Middle East and to navigate a maze of varying airspace rules and airport regulations in this age of the autopilot, which is often ill-equipped to deal with a vintage, fly-by-sight plane.
Curtis-Taylor’s voyage, aided by a support crew, eventually took her across Europe and over the Dead Sea and the Arabian desert to India, Pakistan and through Asia to Australia.
In the cockpit, her only modern conveniences were a GPS device and an iPad, which was essential for navigating a path through military airspaces and restricted zones. But she said the only damage to her plane was some dents from landing on a gravel strip in the Australian outback.
“It is all visual contact,” she said.
“I can’t fly at night, I can’t fly in cloud, I can’t fly in severely reduced visibility. It is stick and rudder. I am flying the terrain as I see it. I have a GPS, but if I see things I like I swoop in - over emus and kangaroos, over the rivers, looking for crocodiles. It is one of the rarest adventures in the world.”
An experienced solo pilot, Curtis-Taylor said the weather and varying winds posed almost daily challenges, including a period fog in eastern Europe that forced her to land in a cow paddock in Hungary.
In Saudi Arabia, she said, thunderstorms and dust storms forced her to “track” roads, keeping an altitude of about 100 feet.
“But they still have pylons and towers,” she said. “You have to be so careful. There were jagged rock mountains that loomed straight out of the desert. You are in lightning and it is dark as night. Every day there was something.”
Before departing, Curtis-Taylor, who lives in London, prepared a will and made funeral arrangements, including directions for the catering and music (she selected the songs Southern Cross by Crosby, Stills & Nash, about a Pacific sea voyage, and Gordon Lightfoot’s If You Could Read My Mind).
to be continued
Female pilot Tracey Curtis-Taylor lands in Sydney after epic journey in 1942 aircraft - Telegraph
When I read that I am in awe.
Prince Michael must be pleased he helped push the Spirit of Artemis out of the hangar at Farnborough in October 2015. A momentus day when the Queens cousin did his bit to launch a historic series of flights.
How many of us can say we had a member of the Royal Family push our aircraft out of a hangar?
That claim alone must be historic?
Here she is in a touching picture sporting the WW2 RAF brevet alongside Prince Michael.
He must be remarking what a nice touch to wear those historic wings worn by the brave during World War Two. ( If you read Pprune Prince Michael can I have some too? There must be a whole bunch of those lying in the attic at Buck House?)
If you manage to read the above you will understand why Tracey Curtis Taylor deserves the awards for the sort of flying none of us could ever imagine
