India Four Two posted
The Cape to Goodwood flight took place in 2013, and the website was claiming it was a solo flight more than a year later, in 2015.
By the time of the next archived snapshot on 23 March 2015, the Operations tab is no longer present in the website's menu, but unfortunately for TCT's
PR team, the Operations HTML code, containing the same text, is still present in the archived versions of the website, until 8 June 2016, after which date, someone must have noticed and deleted it.
It was just a few days later this appeared on the Bird in a Biplane site.
Statement
I and the Bird in a Biplane Team believe it is helpful to respond to some commentary appearing in the
press about whether the flight expeditions undertaken in 2013-2016 were flown solo or in company.
For the avoidance of doubt, I have always been the sole pilot of Spirit of Artemis.
In planning the expedition through Africa in 2013 there was an initial hope of a solo flight in the
beautiful & original 1942 Boeing Stearman.
However, in the early stages of the flight this concept was intentionally and officially dropped as I
and the Bird in a Biplane Team brought our flight planning and logistics increasingly in-house and the
expedition evolved into a much bigger opportunity to extend the program with documentary filming,
an extensive outreach program involving different charities along the route and sharing the experience
of open cockpit flying with others.
I am deeply disappointed at the comments coming from a particular source making false assertions that
my flight expeditions should have been executed as solo flights.
They were not.
They are all about a collaborative team effort and celebrating the brilliant achievements of women
like Amy Johnson and Lady Heath who made history when aviation was in its infancy.
Tracey Curtis-Taylor
11 June 2016