Oz Teen World Record Flight
 

Teen World Flight

One more sleep.

Blue skies and tailwinds Ryan :ok:

CG

I need to do it at 18! Perhaps Cessna could lend me the new diesel Skylane?

Ryan has come such a long way from his first speaking engagement at AusFly last September thats for sure. We were happy to be one of the first sponsors and its a personal dream of mine to do such a journey.

We'll be catching up with Ryan at Oshkosh in a few weeks - cant wait!

Bevan..

VFR or IFR?
 

That would be hard work VFR!!

Bevan666

Well said sir! :D


He deserves many bars for the way he has conducted himself so far.

Proud to say that some of us have had a strong influence in his progress so far.

On Behalf of Andrew, John & Walter Tail winds to you Ryan, and look out for a friendly face at Van Nuys airport :ok:

I look forward to seeing you in YNRM at Ausfly. :ok:

Incredibly impressive young man! The hard work he has put into raising sponsorship sets a great example. No wealthy parents or patrons here,

Ryan's web site is also impressive and the Telstra sponsored tracking system will allow all of us to follow the flight as it progresses.

Long ocean crossings in small single engine aircraft that take off heavily overloaded involves risk that will inspire everyone.

I think it's great that a young person like Ryan is still allowed to go on such an adventure. With just about all risk taking for young people being prevented in some way or other by do gooders and bureaucrats this must be one of the few activities that can still take place to inspire all!

All the best Ryan - Just keep heading into the dawn until you see the Tasman Sea again .

Good luck, sir. Hope the UK weather is OK for you...

What a bloody good story!
 

Ryan, kudos to you young man! There certainly is more to life than XBox and Facebook. You are going to use skills you never realised you had, you are going to gain skills you never thought possible, and you are going to make decisions well beyond your years. Mate I suspect you will even gain a few extra hairs on your chest. I envy your passion, admire your conviction and feel refreshed by your youth.
Just one tiny piece of advice - as busy as you will be, tired, sore and everything else; take in the beauty of gods hands along the way - sunsets, sunrises, valleys and peaks....fly safe.

Into the wake of Hinkler, Lindbergh et al/. ( Neither of whom, by the way, ever said or probably thought 'God speed'.) May some guardian angel though, be on your wing. May 'The Luck of the Draw' be yours in abundance too.

Just as David Attenborough, on the doco of his life, 'Living on Air', said, he chooses to never respond to correspondence from creationists who want to engage him in religious debate. In other words, he distances himself by never mentioning God, or any god or gods.

Bear in mind the well known injunction posted in the ward rooms of Royal Navy warships . . . .. .. "Abstain herein from three contentious subjects - religion, politics and sex."

Unless Ryan happens to subscribe to a particular denominational creed, it may be just a bit presumptuous to ask him or expect him to -

p.s. Other more latter day forerunners to Ryan come to mind too, who have tackled the big one, all all alone. Gabby Kennard. Jon Johannsen. Clive Canning . "The Electronic Appendage". And Bill from Boonah, shoe-horned into his V-tail Bonanza, (VH-TYE)

Bill's survival gear was one of his paramount concerns -

OurSafaris

p.p.s. Just remembered a little detail of CAL's departure from New York in -27. A woman thrust a paper bag into his hands as he sat in his cockpit about to start. It contained two sandwiches and one Saint Christopher. So there you go.

And just remembered the young boy going to his first fight at the Sydney Stadium with his fight-game loving dad.

As one of the boxers is warming up , the lad asks -

"Dad, why is he rubbing his feet in that white stuff?"

"So his shoes won't slip on the canvas son"

"Dad, what's that he's putting in his mouth?"

"It's a mouth guard son. So his teeth won't get broken."

"Dad, why is he crossing himself like that?"

'Well son, he's praying to the Lord that he will win the fight.
But you know what? If he can't box it counts for nothing."

'Fantome' yr last message seems to ring a bell (no pun intended either), similar words from the movie "Flight of the Phoenix':-)...."why's he crossing himself like that?............not a damned thing if he can't box"

It's nice to read that adventurers are still out there in a cotton wool world as aviation is no longer a frontier but just an everyday event!

Ryan make it last as for life will get in the way of ever doing such a thing again, God's speed:ok:


Wmk2

I love the placement of the logo on the tail fin transition!

Onya Ryan :ok:

:}

Dick, great message too! Get out and have a go! :D

He's using our app, AvPlan - I hope it hasnt gone that wrong!
:eek:

ohh no Bevan.....Should he download Bas's app? :uhoh:

He should be at Norfolk about now, plus or minus a bit for winds. Not sure which schedule you are looking at but I have a copy of his plan summary.

He has a day in Norfolk then launches at 3am local Tuesday for a long lonely leg to Pago Pago.

One leg down......almost!

Perhaps the distance thingy is actual travelled with legs around airspace and via Lord Howe etc it is further than the direct distance?

the good thing about IFR and Flight aware. Even with non radar, it has ATC position reports.

VH-OLS ? FlightAware :ok:

Anyone know what he is using for comms out in the non VHF areas? I saw no sign of HF. Satellite links?

He has a sat phone..

Good luck for the journey!

Was planning on heading down there this morning, but work called. Hopefully I can be there for the return! :ok:

If outside radar coverage, I thought what you see on flightaware was only a computer generated position??

yes its computer generated from the pos reports.

Well it appears leg 1 is done and dusted! :D

Oz Teen World Record Flight
 

He has HF also

Hey Bevan, looked what I found :ok:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.n...03687929_n.jpg

Dick, great message :ok: one that should be pinned up in every primary school, better still, every maternity ward!

Good luck Ryan, thoughts are with you :ok:

Good luck!

RE IFR or VFR ?
 

After reading Ryan's blog, it would appear he is IFR rated. As one would want to be attempting such a flight.

Good luck Ryan! Enjoy the experience.

He is.


plus some more characters....

Interesting how in Flightaware his plan was in to Pago Pago last night, but now it has vanished.

I see the data stream to his website shows he is 2/3 the way so arrival around 3.30pm or there a bouts.

Anyone have any better tracking links?

At first I had a chuckly to myself when I read this but then I thought of Amelia Earhart and the countless numbers of VFR aircraft that have traversed the globe safely over the years.

Am I the only one thinking that zooming along in an SR22 with auto-pilot at 170 knots+ tas wouldn't be too taxing?

XXX – That would be the most myopic post I have seen on this site.
Think – 19 years old; the 21st century bureaucracies; IFR through dozens of countries with all their vagaries; paying for it himself etc. etc.
I think his workload would be far more onerous than the risk taking pioneers.
What he is doing is proving that there are still young people game enough to test and prove themselves at a level very few would even contemplate.
I congratulate him just for having a go. If he achieves his goal he should be considered for recognition as “young Australian of the Year”

yep you sure are

XXX, yeah mate, Why didn't you do it if it is so easy ? :ok:

Good luck to him.

Having been a contributor to Ryan's progress so far, I can assure everyone this has not been a half baked exercise, nor has it been handed to him on a platter.

From all the planning business and logistics (his mum is a significant help ;) )he has done an outstanding job.

My observation of how he spent 3 days in an engine class....being the most attentive student, like his life might depend on it, was something to behold and watch. And then to spend a long time after with John Deakin and in particular Walter Atkinson, who knows the the Cirrus / Klampier folk closely and how they were designed and operated, was a level of maturity beyond his years.

I need to repeat that, he showed a level of discipline and maturity beyond his years.

Heck.....beyond mine, and probably most reading this board!

This is not another Ray Clamback professional ferry flight, and every one of those is impressive in its own right.

I would say that DBTW and MakeItHappenCapt would agree. This is a serious task and at 19 none the less.

I am just humbled by the level of involvement I have had with such an inspiring young man.

I've had a dozen emails and PM's suggesting that they agreed with me!

That being said, it was a little out of context. I was moreso thinking that the workload would be significantly less than doing it in a VFR TigerMoth or similar.

Not to detract from Ryan's much admired effort, but I could not resist the invitation from XXX,

You mean this one Mr XXX..??

Solo to England (In a Tiger Moth) - ABC WA - Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)

Although Barry did have some sponsorship, it still cost him heaps......
Its all in the book....

Cheers:ok:

I'm just saying the flying part should be the easy bit with an aircraft like that. He will only need to focus on the corrupt police forces, politics, cyclones and lack of fuel... Easy ! :-)

Only 172 hours :sad:

Should be able to snag himself a good job once he gets back from the trip :ok:

Good luck Ryan!

I could be completely wrong, but was he originally going to use a Cessna 182? I can vaguely remember seeing a photo with him next to a high wing. Of course senility could be creeping up on me...

He was in search of an aeroplane and during the early part he was using a 182....but as we all know they are a great machine, however a machine of the SR22/A36 etc kind of performance is more suitable.

The 182 I think was just something to get the story started, or was handy at the time.

Didn't take the tall poppy syndrome to come out.

Here we have a kid who, when most of his peers are getting pissed every other night on a backpacking tour of Europe, is getting out there and doing something pretty cool.

I'm not aware that he has made it out to be a huge risk, unprecedented or that he is a pioneer in any way - besides his age.

Why wouldn't we support him, even if the aircraft is IFR capable, autopilot and 170kts? So what? What would you say if he had no GPS, autopilot etc? You'd be bleating about how irresponsible he was.

That the spirit of adventure is alive in this is fantastic. And nice to have Dick's support too. Many years ago I was the recipient of a few grand from one of Dick's former companies to pursue an adventurous (non aviation) dream. It is certainly a good driver to have such support.

There should be more of this adventure. Good luck Ryan, and a circumnavigation is a great achievement at any age, let alone yours.

Here here Stallie. Well said.

morno