Round the world
 

I see Jennifer Murray is going for it, big time, via both poles, I believe.
She quoted that she believed she was better prepared than Q's attempt.....
I bloody hope so:(

Here's wishing them 340/03, 1/8@10,000, cavok, +10/-10. Nosig.

It seems an awful waste of perfectly good grandmother time for Jennifer Murray to be doing this trip. I'm sure I'm being very dull but as I see it there are three issues here:-

1..if its technically possible to do it from the range/payload point of view then its just an expensive technical exercise. (Money better spent providing clean water wells for Somalis for example?)

2. If its not possible, well.. :confused:

3..If its marginal, then its irresponsible because it causes other people to risk their necks trying to pull the ditched/ crashed/ forced-landed aircrew out of the goo.

...Oh, and TC, shurely 360/30 for half the flight and 180/30 for the rest?

MBJ: I was trying to keep the wind neutral, being on her beam!!

You may have opened a can of worms re the irresponsible approach to this trip, as the thread on the R22 ditching at the pole with Q onboard suggests!! But I think you got away with it:)

Interestingly, Q taught this lady to fly. I wonder what else he instilled in her, from an air(wo)manship point of view, of course!

Lets see what happens eh...early days yet.

Is Q involved in this latest trip at all? Seems like trip starts and ends in New York and will be flown by Jeffa and Colin Bodill (the microlight pilot from the last trip) in a Bell 407 - that should ensure more space in the back for fuel than an R44 ;) . Jeffa's husband, Simon, will be walking to the South Pole to meet them for Christmas! :ok:

Big write up in the telegraph about them, week last Monday(18th).
Seems an amazing character, this Jeffa woman! In fact both her and her husband.
Anybody know her, or better still, able to contact her and get her to comment here on Pprune?
There wasn't a contact number in the article unfortunately.

Jefa
 

The only contact I know is this email address : [email protected]:ok:

I'll have a go at contacting her. Thanks

Getting a bit boring this round the World stuff can't they go anywhere else ?

I plan to be the first pilot to fly solo around the world with nothing but a jock-strap and a pair of loafers! :ooh:

Well, I guess my one claim to fame is that I know her well enough to say hi and have a friendly chat...but not well enough to have a phone number or anything else useful, sorry.

And good luck to her and I hope she makes it. :ok: :ok: :ok:

I hope she makes it, too. Best of luck; I wish her tail winds, clear skies, and a safe flight! :cool:

TC,

The Polar First Challenge team has a website at www.polarfirst.com. I'm talking to one of the team tomorrow, and will pass on the Pprune community's interest in hearing from Jennifer.


Cheers,
T/shaft

Mrs. and Mr. Murray, Mr. Bodill: Good luck and godspeed. I salute your fortitude.

To the spoilsports: if it hadn't been for people willing to push the envelope and take some risks, we'd still be standing around the holy oak, waiting to be read the future from the entrails of a calf. Nobody is being forced on this trip who doesn't want to be there, and not a penny of public money is being spent. And if it does go pear-shaped and SAR has to go pick them up, isn't that what SAR is for? Emergency services spend public money on daily basis saving drunk and speeding motorists when they could let the ba$tards bleed to death and save a bundle.

Rant switch to OFF.

Buitenzorg,

:ok: :ok: :ok:

Couldn't have put it better myself!

Get the facts right TC!
 

"the R22 ditching at the pole with Q onboard" It was a 44 and it didn't get as far as "the pole". Although his earlier flight to the North Pole did make it - and that was the same 44 which now rests at the bottom of the sea.

And, BTW, both Jennifer and Colin were taught to fly by Quentin Smith - although Colin has thousands of hours microlight time, he has only started flying helicopters in the last few years.

YES YES YES

THREE CHEERS to Jenifer Murray and Crew, for going out there into the wild and have another brilliant adventure!

If you have the means and you have the Idea and prepare properly then you should be allowed to do it.

I hope to do the same in the future need just to earn the money.
And then I will criss cross the world in a 109 and then maybe an R22 to finally shut people up and prove how capable the R22 is.


I wish them all the very best, CAVOK and endless fuel.


yours T:ok: :ok:

headsethairdresser:

I already mentioned she was trained by Q?

Brilliant Stuff - whats the point. That type of quest will have been thrashed to death by then...if it hasn't already - yawn.

Save your money and invest in property or something :rolleyes:

Come to think of it. What exactly is there left to do in a helo these days, any ideas?

(a) lands end to john o'groats - backwards!
(b) world record for hovering - solo of course so you can't sleep!
(c) A competition to travel the furthest from a fixed point with a fixed amount of fuel, all in the same type. Say a mass (50 helos) takeoff from penzance heliport, clockwise around the coast of the UK and the last helo airborne - wins :cool:

As I said on the Q issue, it is not cutting edge adventuring to fly a helicopter around the world - everyone knows it can be done and apart from suffering from a sore backside after being strapped to a helo for so long, it is hardly physically or spiritually challenging.
Shackelton was an adventurer, Livingstone was an adventurer - Jenny Murray will thoroughly enjoy being a tourist with a helicopter on a sight seeing trip, I hope she has a great time.

I think (not certain) that when Q and Jennifer flew the R44 round the world a couple of years ago, it was the first time it had been done in a piston-engined helicopter. When Jennifer did it alone, she was definitely the first woman to do so in a piston-engined helicopter. Personally I'm losing interest in women's only records, for something where gender shouldn't make any difference anyway (I had a women's only record once - for six months - read on :)). But for many people, a record is a record. And has a piston engined helicopter actually been flown around the world via the poles before? I didn't think so, though I'm not certain.

In any case, who cares if it's cutting edge. Jennifer has the helicopter, and the money, and fancies doing it, so why not? If I could afford it, I'd do it too. Actually, if I could afford it, I'd probably start with something easier, like flying round Britain, but I can't even afford that, so it's irrelevant. I doubt very much if Jennifer will care what you call her - adventurer, tourist, or sight-seer - that's all for the world in general, not the person doing it.

I speak to a certain extent from experience, though nothing to do with flying. Some years ago (before I was Whirly) I walked nearly 5000 miles round the coast of Britain. It was a mad idea I'd had for years, and when I had the time and money, I did it. I didn't want to break any records; I fancied seeing the country and being a kind of wandering minstrel, strolling along beaches and chatting in pubs. The reality was often being wet, cold, lonely, sometimes lost, and with sore feet - but I enjoyed it in a bizarre sort of way. But people's reactions? Firstly I was criticised for not raising money for charity. Then there were those who were furious that I didn't care about beating any records ( I had one anyway - for the longest continuous walk in Britain by a woman - for 6 months). Then people thought I shouldn't do it, or should do it some other way, or was some kind of amazing superwoman. It was all weird. I just had a bit of money and time and a mad idea, that was all. But for some reason, I got turned in people's minds into something I wasn't, and they then made me into public property. I rebelled in the end, refusing to do a national TV interview several hours after getting home, and telling my horrified self-styled "manager" ("You just don't turn down the BBC" that I didn't care if it would get me fantastic publicity for the book I might write - I'd had enough!!!

Which is all probably why I empathise with Jennifer (while being madly jealous too) and wish her lots of luck, and don't try to say why she's doing it or put labels on her.

My Polar Flight
 

I much appreciate the positive reactions - and, well, there will always be those who criticise. Please check out my web site to understand a little more about what we are hoping to achieve - not www.polarfirst.com This is just a holding site but it will be fully up and running by mid September.
We are doing more than 'just' attempting what has never been done before. We will be raising funds for WWF (The World Wild Life Fund) visiting many WWF sites and running a forum on www.schoolmaster.net - giving a great geography lesson to schools. Like so many others, we too will be celebrating 100 years of flight - and if we get those winds you so kindly wish us we will be at the South Pole on 17th December.
In the meantime I'm facing the toughest(I hope) part of all - just getting to the starting line - 2 years of planning and still so much to put in place.
...and Steve and Q. A brave attempt, but not a good idea to attempt Antarctica at the end of the Austral summer. Too much pressure to go when conditions are other than perfect.
Hope we don't have to sit around too long but we are allowing 2 months for a journey that could be done in days.
Again - thanks for the encouragement and stay with me as we go! Take off is 22nd October NYC.