I have already written to Tom Cotterill at the Portsmouth newspaper.
He wrote this article: Calls for famed pilot to be stripped of her titles in Portsmouth amid claims she lied about solo flight - The News

and his e-mail address is in the link just beneath his name.


As for generating a fund for others, yes it is a great idea, my first request for financial support would be to Airbus - it doesn't look as if their main rival, Boeing, are getting shown in a good light with this. I get the impression they may not have been entirely happy with it if one of their head bods went to Africa and asked TCT et al to go easy on the solo claim.

Interesting you take that line.

Boeing appeared to want to capitalise via their sponsorship on Lady Mary Heath and Amy Johnson's journeys.

Good old British Aircaft and both women were well qualified for their time.

The Spirit of Artemis and Tracey Curyis Taylor were a sham.

I think the Daily Mail would not miss £100k to sponsor a Moth and a genuine solo female to Australia.

My thoughts are that writing to Boeing to ask them to sponsor a solo biplane flight to Australia would be a waste of a stamp; no point starting your fund 64p down
:-)

JS, your #1595


HCAP Australia,Hong Kong and NZ contact details are in these websites:

The Honourable Company of Air Pilots, Australia > Contact Us

https://www.airpilots.org/australia/

https://www.airpilots.org/hong-kong/

https://www.airpilots.org/new-zealand/


Cheers

I have had a reply to an e-mail I sent out.

The gist of it is that they have looked through old press releases and newspaper cuttings that show the continued use of the word SOLO.
The paper has done all it can at this point in time but they will be following up on the story once the LAA AGM decision is known.

It would seem that the LAA can either make or break this story, depending upon what the members decide on 22nd Oct.

I think this bird is far more worthy of the attentions of HCAP, LAA, etc. (I don't know if she has been because there isn't a great deal of information about her)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polly_Vacher

16 hour leg from Hawaii to California in a Dakota, now THAT takes bottle.

Indeed, and without any fanfare from a PR team!

Compare that with TCT. Nowadays if she takes even a ROAD trip to some dinner or another she posts it on FB and Tw@tter.

Polly Vacher had a lot of publicity at the time, though I don't remember if she got many awards...she got something from the BWPA, but that's all I recall. I remember her giving a really good talk about that 16 hour leg though! And I do know that she was far more interested in publicising and raising money for FSD (Flying Scholarships for the Disabled) than self-publicity or awards.

PV is inspirational. She has done a lot of charitable flying in the UK as well as her long distance trips.

Some pics of her with Royalty and the military, to perhaps redress the balance a bit.

http://www.targeta.co.uk/images/071_9504ww5+.jpg

http://www.inspiredpilot.com/wp-cont...ot-podcast.jpg

http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafcms/mediafi...D561986D63.jpg

http://cloudancer1.tripod.com//siteb.../harrier2.jpeg

Excellent post Hoodie.

Polly got her Masters Medal back in 2001 when GPS was not so refined.
More importantly she flew SOLO not 'sole pilot' whatever that weird term means.

I received this letter today from the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity.

Perhaps someone can explain what it means because I am baffled.
https://s18.postimg.org/7z7incru1/Ro...harity_001.jpg

Perhaps you should forward the letter to the Mail, Express and Portsmouth press. I'm sure they'd be interested to read that Mr Robson believes 'Tracey' has dealt with their accusations and that's that.

My thinking as well ATC.

He will be getting a reply tomorrow suggesting that Dave Sykes achieved a lot more with a lot less and is a genuine 'sole' pilot plus a better candidate to support the RNRM charity

I would love to hear verdicts on TCT from Polly Vacher or Gabby Kennard who really did fly around the world instead of dismantling their aircraft and sending it across the Pacific via sea.

Round the world: My friend's flight of fancy - Telegraph

That's how I read it too ATC; a very nice FO letter.

What they have failed to notice though is that TCT's public statement simply says that we all misunderstood what she meant when she said SOLO, and ALONE, and then the twisting of the argument to suit her and the rest of the team. Namely "[detractors]...making false assertions that my flight expeditions should have been executed as solo flights."

To TCT:
I don't think anyone has said the flights should have been solo TCT, what people are saying is that you should never have claimed them to be, you should never have stood in front of a big FO poster with the words ALONE emblazened across it, you should never have accepted awards for SOLO achievement, you should have corrected every interviewer when they mentioned SOLO or ALONE. Maybe something to that effect on the BiaB page might, just might, start to rectify this mess YOU are in by your OWN doing.

Jay I would write back to the RNRM Charity and politely point out that the address on the BiaB page does not clear the matter up.

Robert Robson says in that letter...

Which is fair enough.

However he has not stated where the charity is now with their support of this bogus solo flight from the UK to Sydney.

I am going to email him tomorrow asking for TCT to be dropped by the RNRM Charity and their logo be removed from the Spirit of Artemis.

Whatever her suggestion of being a 'sole pilot' she has lied about a 'circumnavigation' and 'global' flight.

Can I suggest the others who have contacted the RNRM charity do the same with an email?

I am also minded to write to the key people listed in the bottom left hand corner of Robert Robsons letter if he does not give us the answers we require.

In a sentence....ditch the Spirit of Artifice.

Jay,

Come on now, don't you understand, changing the wording from "solo" to "sole pilot" and and stating "I don't know why they insist these flights should have been done solo" now makes good all the falsehoods the have been presented to the world. :E

Perhaps some organisations don't really understand what has been going on?

Has anyone contacted Awald The Mechanic (sic).
He knows who flew what, where and when. :ok:

It would be interesting seeing a table of the legs flown A>B, B>C, C>D etc and put a name to the front-seat occupier. I wonder how many would show as "Ewald", how many would show "unoccupied", and how many show "A N Other (film crew)".

Is it worth pointing out to Mr Robson that TCT appears to be wearing FAA pilot's brevet on her flight suit and that this is annoying quite a lot of currently serving FAA pilots who went through extensive and tough training to get theirs?

Good point. The Fleet Air Arm brevet is not something you buy in Halford's with a blue mechanics overall.

How should we word a generic letter?

Maybe quote Ewald?Point Mr Robson to this picture in Sydney?

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/...7415934076.jpg

On closer inspection it looks like it is an RAF pilot brevet. However, that in no way diminishes the affront to those who have earned theirs. Perhaps increasing the catchment of those who are peed off at her wearing them.