From: Steve Marriott [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: 14 October 2018 13:14
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: Journeys in a Biplane, Following Female Pioneers of the Air

I must apologise for contacting you like this and with such short notice. We have arranged a talk by Tracey Curtis-Taylor about early woman aviators and recreating their journeys for next Wed, 17/10/2018 and thought it might be of interest to your members.
Tracey's talk is about the story of early woman aviators in history and the contribution that they made to aviation; the universal dream of flight, and what it's like to fly a vintage aeroplane across five continents in the modern age. Her recent epics have included:
• Recreating the flight of Mary Heath, one of the most outstanding pilots of the late 1920s and the first person to fly solo from the Cape of South Africa in a light aircraft. Tracey restored and made the flight in a 1942 Boeing Stearman
• In 2015 following the route of Amy Johnson’s solo flight to Australia which was another world first in 1930.
• In 2016 flying across America following the historic airmail route from west coast to east coast which took a second attempt a year later after she crashed in the Arizona Desert with an engine failure
The lecture takes place Wed 17/10/2018, 7pm for 7:30pm start. Venue in the Chemistry Lecture Theatre, University of Bristol, off Woodland Road, Clifton. Bristol. BS8 1TS (allow time for parking). Advance tickets available from Stanfords, Corn St, Bristol. BS1 1HT, cost £10:00 (concession rate; £9:00) or available on the door price £11:00.

This is just one of a series of lectures we run every year as Wilderness Lectures. Our full programme is available on wildernesslectures.com. If you would prefer I don’t contact you in future to pass on news of relevant lectures do let me know.

Yours
Steve Marriott
Wilderness lectures
[email protected]

Wilderness Lectures

Tracey Curtis-Taylor was born in England but raised in British Columbia, Canada, until the age of ten when the family returned to the UK in the early 1970’s. Tracey had her first flying lesson at the age of sixteen on a holiday to Canada and continued flying after she emigrated to New Zealand in 1983. Over the next six years she gained her private and commercial pilot’s licences and qualified as a flying instructor. She joined the New Zealand Warbird Association and was trained by military pilots to fly WW2 training aircraft. But her real passion was for early bi-planes and open-cockpit flying, and a defining moment was when she bought a share in a replica WW1 single-seat fighter, the iconic Se5a, which famously fought against the Red Baron in his Fokker Triplane.

Flying old aeroplanes fostered an interest in the early pioneers and the recordmaking solo flights of the inter-war period. In 2012 Tracey commissioned the restoration of a 1942 Boeing Stearman for the purpose of retracing Lady Heath’s flight from Cape Town to England in 1928. Accompanied by a support aircraft and film crew, a documentary called T h e Avia t rix was made of Tracey’s flight in 2013 and was screened by the BBC. This was the forgotten story of Mary Heath, one of the most outstanding pilots of the late 1920s and the first person to fly solo from the Cape of South Africa in a light aircraft. Continuing with this theme of celebrating the achievements of the female pioneers, in 2015 Tracey followed the route of Amy Johnson’s solo flight to Australia which was another world first in 1930. In 2016 Tracey flew across America following the historic airmail route from west coast to east coast which took a second attempt a year later after she crashed in the Arizona Desert with an engine failure. Another documentary about Tracey’s flying adventures and the pioneering story is in the final stages of completion. Tracey’s talk is about the story in history and the contribution that these remarkable women made to aviation; the universal dream of flight, and what it’s like to fly a vintage aeroplane across five continents in the modern age.

Continuing with this theme of celebrating the achievements of the female pioneers, in 2015 Tracey followed the route of Amy Johnson's solo flight to Australia which was another world first in 1930. In 2016 Tracey flew across America following the historic airmail route from west coast to east coast which took a second attempt a year later after she crashed in the Arizona Desert with an engine failure. Another documentary about Tracey's flying adventures and the pioneering story is in the final stages of completion.

Tracey's talk is about the story in history and the contribution that these remarkable women made to aviation; the universal dream of flight, and what it's like to fly a vintage aeroplane across five continents in the modern age.