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During the ground up restoration of this airplane a number of modifications and improvements had been installed to cope with the special challenges of this adventurous trip. To cover the long distances across Africa this airplane was fitted with two additional fuel tanks, doubling the range of the airplane.

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Ewald Gritsch, an Austrian engineer who helped restore Tracey Curtis-Taylor's 1942 Boeing Stearman, grabs bolts while reassembling the plane at the Historic Flight Foundation in Mukilteo, Friday, Mar. 18, 2016. Gritsch has tagged along on Curtis-Taylor's flights all over the world, performing maintenance, repair, and reassembling the plane when it's shipped, as it was to Mukilteo.

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...I am not an engineer so how could you increase the range given the extra weight of the fuel required to have a margin for headwinds and weather?...

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“I think Lady Heath had it much easier than me on this trip”

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Less than 100 hours when she left the UK. Could any man or woman match her achievment in a similar aircraft today

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It took Ike Bartlett 155 hours flying time to go around the world in his Mustang II during the summer of 1999. By himself he crossed the Pacific going from southeast to northwest through Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, the Marshall Islands, Midway, and up the Aleutian Islands. He crossed the Atlantic in much shorter, easier legs from Newfoundland, to Greenland, Iceland, and into Europe. From there he flew through Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and then on to Asia. From India he flew to Indonesia and then turned south, finally returning to Western Australia. Crossing the Pacific he faced the difficulties of very long flights over open water and in the second part of his trip through Europe and Asia he faced political boundaries that prevent an easy direct flight. All of this he did with only three years flying experience and without an IFR rating.

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On July 19th, 1999 Ike left Perth and started east across the Australian continent for Queensland and the northeast coast. This leg alone was well over 2000 miles. He made his first night landing in his Mustang at Tennent Creek in the Northern Territories. This is in the center of Australia. The next day he landed at Horn Island Resort in the Torres Straight, North Queensland and prepared for his first overwater leg. On the 21st he departed Australia and crossed Papua New Guinea at 12,500 feet to get over the mountains. After refueling he then flew 13 hours over water to Majuro Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Most of his flying was below 10,000 feet at 50-60% power for best fuel economy. With 9 hours to go before reaching the Majuro Atoll his voltage regulator failed. This left him with a handheld radio and his battery powered GPS.

"The GPS batteries died at 30 miles out, just when I needed it most. I had been flying at 9,000 feet when I approached a great wall of cloud. I had been able to go around the rest, but not this one. I descended to 2,000 feet and tried to go under it, but the base just kept getting lower and lower. At 800 feet I was in rain but could see the water below and then it was gone. MMC became IFR without electric's. Me not being real happy at 800 feet, I climbed to 2,500 feet. As a virgin cloud flyer, I kept MMC basically level but had changed direction 30 degrees. After correcting that, I broke out of the clouds and there was the atoll. That was the worst bit of flying I have ever experienced. I really thought about putting MMC in a box and shipping it home. My handheld radio is not connected through the headset, so the guy at the tower must have thought I was a raving lunatic. I was yelling to speak over the noise of the engine and he had to say everything three or four times. I was shaken, but once on the ground I just focused on sorting out the electrical fault.

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