New challengers to Henshaw/Stobbart record
 

Those with an interest in long distance flying might like to follow two new attempts to beat the London - Cape Town - London record.

Steve Noujaim will leave in his Vans RV-7 at 0438Z on Tuesday 31st.
Look here The Cape Challenge, flight record bid and here Cape Challenge Blog for more. Progress can be monitored here Track Aircraft

Another attempt will be made later this year by Tony Smith, who will be flying a Glasair. Incredibly he plans to complete the distance with only one stop for fuel each way.
The Cape Run 2010 - Tony 'Taff' Smith - London to Cape Town and back FAI record attempt

Good Luck to them both!

Here's the link to last years thread:http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histo...otographs.html

With a few more entrants they could start off together; it would be like the intercontinental air races of old!

Good luck to both of them.

It's a shame that this cannot be a 'Sticky' for the next few days.
Both Steve and Taff are about to relive the rudimentary and nostalgic days of man and machine against the elements.
No doubt a lot of blood, sweat and tears has gone into both endeavours and I hope they both succeed in what are undoubtedly longheld ambitions.

If the tracking is as good as Chalkie's was, it is going to be difficult to switch off at night, but will be up early each morning to check on G-IIXF's progressive during the forthcoming working week.

Not so according to Henshaw, if you scroll down to a letter from him here, you'll read: Steve Noujaim

:ok:

You still need to get an IFR approval for these VFR-only planes, as I see it.

Unless you plan to do loads of illegal VFR, but even then you have the airspace classes against you; can't fly where you can't get a clearance, and I would expect VFR clearances through CAS are not trivial down there (same as here).

The actual flight is trivial, with a GPS.

Range-wise, a TB20, with a massive ferry tank, could do 2500nm which means 2 fuel stops from London to Cape Town, and that is without even exceeding MTOW. If you go to MTOW+30% then you could do it with 1 fuel stop. Interesting toilet arrangements.... better start off with an enema, and not eat any veg for the preceeding week ;)

IMHO the record will always be held by narrow-cockpit planes, for speed / fuel flow reasons.

And the record has stood for How Long?

Sure; I can think of several reasons why it has done so.

- logistics
- getting overflight permits, probably very difficult under VFR but there are few a/c types which have the necessary speed and fuel flow combinations which are IFR certified
- extreme personal endurance
- interesting toilet issues (I am fine with plastic bottles but this is "another level" above that, unless you do it in something very fast but then you will need a number of fuel stops, which is how it was done originally, but this is logistically hard these days)
- huge amount of hassle
- logistics
- sponsorship?

Navigation was a huge issue back then, for if you got lost you probably faced death, but today it is easy, and with an autopilot and oxygen thrown in, the actual flight is trivial. And with satellite phones, ELTs, etc, you have a fair chance of getting rescued before the locals boil you up into soup :)

IO540

These “VFR only aircraft” are not VFR only. True, you need special permission from the UK, but all are IFR capable under South African rules and even the good old CAA have granted special status to the UK reg examples so all can compete on an equal status. If you think the TB can win against these home constructed aircraft give it a go...:E

Rod1
PS all the aircraft trying to brake the record are side by side two seat designs.

OK, I'm confused. The track at

Track Aircraft


shows Steve headed(ing) north to the tip of Scotland. Is the record from the northern tip of Scotland or is it from southern England?

The track to Scotland was from an earlier shakedown flight. This has been removed and it now shows Steve heading south, just west of Paris at the moment.

Tony Smith plans to fly the whole trip IFR at 12,500 feet.

The Cape Run 2010 - Planned Route

Hi Misd-agin,

Glad to see you are up watching;)
The tracker did not show that the aircraft had left Glos for Southend and the experts in S.A. realised that something was amiss and it is now fixed.

Making great progress!

Tony Smith's website is not very informative; does he have planned dates for the flight yet? "September/October 2010" is quite vague, and very close!

GK - Stuck in SJU. Windy and rainy last night as Earl spun just NE, then north, of the island.

The tracker is very interesting. :ok:

It's very captivating. He's still ahead of Chalkie and only has one more stop compared to the two that Chalkie made after Algiers on his southbound leg.

Misd - just posted you some lo-res from the Tam stop.
Glad you missed Earl - hear it went close to St. Barth's and I am due TNCM post Hurricane season.

He's going strong at the moment. He was very glad of the leg stretch in Tam!

I'm afraid I can' agree with the 'easy' suggestions, 6x10 hour stints with barely a pause in a small, uncomfortable plane at just the right height to get all the weather.

We're early days yet, with all to play for...

Safe flights, Sam.

GK - thanks for the pictures.

Finally got to stretch after 3+30 in a 737. A lot more room than Steve's aircraft. I'm sure he really enjoys being able to move around on the stops.

Questions about the stops -

1. why so long (1-2 hrs?)
a. fuel slow to get into the extra tanks?

2. are advance teams in place or has he contracted out maintenance checks on the aircraft with FBO's?
a. what checks are being done? Oil replacement, etc?

Sat. picture for the weather south of him looks great!

Hi, perhaps I can answer a couple of those questions...

Questions about the stops -

1. why so long (1-2 hrs?)
a. fuel slow to get into the extra tanks?

In Tam, we were 55 minutes from touchdown to a possible 'request engine start' - but in fact Steve needed a little more time to de-compress (physically and mentally). There are 6 tanks on the plane (takes about 2.5 drums) and this took about 40 minutes from start to finish (we're hoping to manage faster on Thursday night, but it's a slow process with changing between 3 drums and using a hand pump).



2. are advance teams in place or has he contracted out maintenance checks on the aircraft with FBO's?
a. what checks are being done? Oil replacement, etc?

We're covering Tam, then there's a team (resident company) in Brazza, and then another team sent out for the challenge is waiting in CT. For us, quick check of airframe, add oil and that's about it. In CT they'll do the full pit-stop.



He's on schedule to take the record London-CT, so fingers crossed on that one. Then he has to turn her around and do it all again to get the CT-London and the big one, London-CT-London!

Safe flights All, Sam.

Misd,

You can actually thank Sam for the Tam photos - we'd all like to be at each transit point, but I shall have to be content with being at Southend for the arrival.

As Sam says, all looking good on the Southbound leg so let's hope Steve get's sufficient R & R in C.T. for the northern slog.

Kind of reminds you of the old joke of the fast jet pilot showing off alongside the C.130 and the latter crew brewing a fresh cup of coffee!

He's doing well! We're planning to be in Southend for the arrival too; maybe we'll see some of you there :)

He's looking really good for the London-Cape Town record, and that'll give a big morale boost for the return...

Sam.

Sam, will there be a regularly updated ETA somewhere for Southend, so we can ensure we're there in time on Friday? We're flying in from Rotterdam and don't want to miss his return!

There's live tracking at www.followsteve.co.za, I can tell you now that the planned/hoped ETA Southend is 1405Z.

Safe flights, give him a big punch on the shoulder from me!

Sam.

You bet! :)

He's landed in Cape Town, a new record!:ok:

Just two more records to go now :eek:

Safe flights, Sam.

Excellent, it looks like a problem free flight so far. Just before the landing I saw 204 kts at 3,700 ft on the tracker. That is diving for the finish. :D

Katamarino,

G-XF is filed out of FACT at 02:25z
All being well, Sothend at approx 14:00 ish on Friday.

Just following from a distance but it is exciting to see results after all the hard work put in by the volunteers. :ok:

A quick update, and not be taken 'officially', but he's more likely to hit Southend around 1500Z. It's a take-off + darkness + large lumps of granite kind of thing:eek:

In any case, you'll have about 10 hours after his departure from here to get yourself to Southend with a bottle of bubbly (finger crossed).

Safe flights, Sam.

Hi Sam, depending on how long Steve takes at Brazza, Steve might still have some waiting time at Tam as he will not be taking off at night due to the Cumulus Granitus you referred to as due to high oil temp he will need to climb slowly (read high IAS) so will delay departure till daybreak.


Chuck

OK! Just hope I can get back to Rotterdam before darkness - they don't allow night VFR due to all the dangerous mountains here in Holland :ugh:

Hi,

I got up before the sparrows this morning to check real-time 'useable minimum' daylight. I reckon with clear skies he can get away at 0440Z, and 0455Z if overcast (like this morning).

So, extrapolating that further, makes an arrival in Southend of 1530Z - should be enough time to give him that punch and head back to the land of clogs ;).

Safe flights, Sam.

Airborne @ 1620Z. :D

Looking at the sat. picture for Africa, especially Nigeria/Cameroon, and I was wondering if he has any real time weather briefing service that can contact him inflight?

He gets phonecalls on an Iridium from the base team if there's anything really nasty out there, and his stormscope is running on overdrive for the ITCZ...

Safe flights, Sam.

Looks like he'll have to get through a small band of weather in southern Nigeria and then he'll be on the east side of the significant weather in central Nigeria that is over his southbound route.

misd-agin, can you show where you get wheather info for Nigeria/Africa?

Try Sat24
for a look at the sat picture

Floppy - thanks.

If Flies - I get it from a company(work) provided site.

Thanks, Floppy & misd. There is quite a bit of difference in groundspeed. 150 kts now vs. 180-ish earlier.