PPRuNe Forums - Maurice Kirk is in Africa

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- - Maurice Kirk is in Africa (https://www.pprune.org/private-flying/587307-maurice-kirk-africa.html)

He is looking much better now and smiling again, I wish him well and hope he has a quite Christmas in Kenya, can't wait for the pictures of the Cub in the air again and on its way south.

https://scontent-lht6-1.xx.fbcdn.net...c0&oe=58DC33C2

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I reckon somehow the start of this video should be used to show him promoting aviation. I think the start of this video is as good as you get.

Great video with the feel of those magnificent men in their flying machines.
There is something very raw of a long lost era of aviation in his flying which is appealing in our modern age of all singing and dancing aircraft
The true experience of man and his machine and freedom so lacking in our era

Reminds me too of two world war pilots landing in a field to sit out a thunderstorm
Both who would fight each other in the air one German one English who shared a cigarette together, parted company and both flew off on their merry way

Maybe its the spirit of adventure, two fingers at authority attitude which touches us about him But I wish him well too

His legs look much better, and he looks in better health and spirits.

Ah, he found the map we gave him as well - told me he'd lost it!

What looks obvious to me is that map looks very fresh if not knew. And any map with Maurice could not be without creases, not crumpled and as clean as that after what he had been through. My guess is that if Maurice owns or keeps something even for a short while, it will look as tidy as his hair. but that map looks fresh?

Is that a dowsing stick to find the South Africa coast.

I think it may be a radio aerial. Plus he has a simple GPS in his hand.

I can find no evidence online as to who carries his bags to the 5 star hotel every evening but his hairdressers need the boot.

On a serious note Terry Holloway has suggested the Air League might be minded to give old Captain Kirk a long deserved award for his travels.

I am going to open a new thread ,with the intention we all contribute words to a collective effort ,to nominate Kirk a well deserved award for pushing the frontiers of LAA type flying in the 21st century.

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Originally Posted by Jay Sata (Post 9617895)

I think it may be a radio aerial. Plus he has a simple GPS in his hand.

Its a VHF aerial in his right hand, and a Garmin III GPS in his left hand.

The database is up to date, no doubt.

Looking forward to the next instalment, though his FB has been pulled today

Quote:

I am going to open a new thread ,with the intention we all contribute words to a collective effort ,to nominate Kirk a well deserved award for pushing the frontiers of LAA type flying in the 21st century.

You forgot to mention "Outreach".

As I understand it from another thread somewhere: this involves posing in front of the aircraft with a photogenic child, preferably of indigenous extraction, and looking concerned. :p

I am sure that this is a central part of MK's skill set. :ok:

To be honest Jonzarno Kirk's 'Outreach' is a bit more basic and less PR.

His honesty is on the ground and what you see is what you get.

Trust me there will be a big feature on Kirk's Africa Adventure in the newspapers over the coming weeks.

The man does not know the word fail.

For all his critics I ask one question....could you better him?

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Originally Posted by Jay Sata (Post 9617980)

For all his critics I ask one question....could you better him?

At what - self-publicity or navigation?

PDR

In a few words flying a beat up old Cub.

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Originally Posted by Jay Sata (Post 9617980)

Please observe: tongue in cheek!! :p:rolleyes:

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The man does not know the word fail.

For all his critics I ask one question....could you better him?

Well, yes, sometimes when I'm wrong, I admit it, and change my behaviour.

A person who will not admit failure/admit being wrong could be trampling someone else's right. Adventure and perseverance is great, but only to the point where it still respects the rights of others, whether you agree with to hose rights or not.

For me, MK does not get a free pass simply because he's a very driven eccentric, with good hands and feet skills.

Info on Kirk now here https://www.facebook.com/groups/343026909406967/

This story from The Times website today.

Quote:

Jerome Starkey, Kenya
December 24 2016, 12:01am,
The Times

He has crashed four times, been detained at gunpoint twice and dropped his sat-nav system down a drain, but a British pensioner attempting to fly the length of Africa insists that none of it is his fault.
Maurice Kirk, 71, blamed fellow aviators in the Vintage Air Rally for reneging on a promise to carry his luggage, which includes a tuxedo and top hat, in their planes.

The former drinking buddy of Oliver Reed, the late actor, said that he was forced to put his bags on his lap in his 1943 single-engine Piper Cub. He also had a long-range fuel tank installed above his head which meant he couldn’t see his compass.

“It meant I was flying with an awful lot of extra baggage in the cockpit,” he told The Times from Nairobi, where he is waiting for a new propellor to enable him to continue his journey south.

He has used his smartphone to navigate but said he struggled to find some airstrips. The former vet, from south Wales, had already crashed in Cannes on his way to the rally’s start, when his engine cut out above the runway. “It did it again in Khartoum,” he said.

He left his maps in a hotel room and dropped his GPS navigation system down a drain, but denied suggestions that he was reckless. Sam Rutherford, the rally’s organiser, said that Mr Kirk was an “extremely good aviator” who could land in a small field on the side of a mountain, but he asked him to leave the Vintage Air Rally because he was dangerous.

“There is nothing that annoys me more than somebody who doesn’t take basic preparations and precautions in order not to have someone else putting their lives at risk [with a search and rescue operation],” Mr Rutherford said.

He said Mr Kirk had crashed off the end of Khartoum’s runway. Mr Kirk said that was nonsense and he had “cleared it on purpose to be out of the way”. He has refused to leave the rally. Asked about Mr Rutherford, he said: “I hope I never see him again or I will punch him on the nose.”

Mr Kirk, who was arrested in the US in 2008 after landing too close to George W Bush’s Texas ranch, boasted about “flying below camel level” on a trip to Australia. He was rescued by the US Coastguard after crashing in the Caribbean.

Mr Kirk crashed twice in South Sudan. The first time he punctured a wheel. The second time he ripped part of the undercarriage and a propellor. None of this has dampened his determination to complete the 8,000-mile journey. The plane was loaded onto a truck and driven to Lokichoggio in northern Kenya.

“I just need two people to help me put the wings back on,” Mr Kirk said. “If the engine runs I am heading straight to Cape Town.”

Only 15 of the 22 aircraft that started the rally have made it to Cape Town. A Boeing-Stearman biplane crashed in Kenya. A Tiger Moth was blown into one of the support helicopters in Botswana, damaging both beyond repair.

Mr Kirk said he planned to ship his aircraft, Liberty Girl II, from Cape Town to the Falklands then fly the length of the Americas. He was banned from the US in 2008 but believes Donald Trump will welcome him in.

source http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/pi...rica-d5rcdbx7l

If MK ever writes his memoirs then I'll demand a signed copy. I think we ought to hold some sort of welcome home party when he eventually makes it back to Blighty. As for an award, well it could only be for "rogue of the year".

If you are reading this Maurice, a very merry Christmas to you. Just don't fly over my house.

MK should get himself some GoPros, aka Darwin cams, and set up a reality YT channel.

Then fly up the Americas, cross Bering Strait and proceed towards dear old Blighty.

The longer he takes, the longer he will be out of the hair of British officialdom.

That is an excellent idea.

Real raw footage is better entertainment than the processed artificial rubbish we see on tv.

It would help fund his adventures as well.

This is my view also:-

RatherBeFlying said "The longer he takes, the longer he will be out of the hair of British officialdom."

I reckon the best thing he can do now is this kind of long trip. So I also think Jay Sata's and like coments from others, are very helpful