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VOL. 12.5

 

A Week Without Walls
Behind the DMC
Island Racing – Yachties Just Wanna Have Fun
Pizza Pizzazz

Those Magnificent Flying Machines

Epat Diary: Topless in Phuket

 

ARCHIVES:

 
Those Magnificent Flying Machines
 
By Terry Blackburn
 
A motley assortment of vintage aircraft left Biggin Hill airfield in Kent on March 11th, all participants in the 2001 London-Sydney Air Race, following a route which took them through stopovers in Corfu, Luxor, Dubai, Delhi and Calcutta. Heralded as the first great air-race of the 21st century, this was only the third race to follow the arduous ‘kangaroo’ route since 1919. The pilots had no doubt been looking forward to a relaxing afternoon on the beaches of Phuket. Instead, they got unseasonably bad weather – rain, rain and more rain.
 
Still, the storms over Southeast Asia did give Maurice Kirk, flying solo in General Patton’s 1943 Piper J-3 Cub, a good tale to tell. “After leaving Yangon, I ran slap bang into serious weather,” he explained. “The thunderstorm was so bad you could say that scared would be an appropriate word to describe my feelings. So I decided to turn back and try to outrace the storm. I spent the next 200 miles at about 6 feet above sea level before heading inland. The engine then cut out so I had to bring her down in the jungle. Within minutes, about a 100 locals turned up. Problem was none of them could speak English… or German or French.” After eventually communicating his needs – food and water – and repairing his plane, Maurice was on his way again. Biggles would no doubt have approved.

The Piper Aerostar 601P The Spirit of Kai Tak, representing Hong Kong, was overall race leader in Phuket and clear favourite to win. This was perhaps unsurprising since the plane, worth one million British pounds and sponsored by Cathay Pacific and Glen Fiddich amongst others, was technically the fastest in the race. One of its four-man crew was Cathay Pacific pilot Mike Miller, which probably helped as well. Though, having spent nine hours in the baking heat of Delhi dismantling the plane’s propeller to replace an alternator and nearly refuelling with car instead of aviation fuel in Calcutta, he was the first to admit that anything could happen. He clearly enjoyed his time in Phuket though, “The people here have been fantastic, willing to do whatever they can for us,” he related. “When we landed, we asked the ground staff for a bucket of water to clean the plane. Half an hour later they turned up with a fire-engine for us.”

Coming a close second was the British Beechcraft A36 TC Bonanza piloted by Tim Ellison and Mark Wilkinson. Flying without sponsors, Tim’s major incentive for competing was to help promote the British Disabled Flying Club (BDFC). Left paraplegic after a Harrier crash in 1992, Tim was in the air again within months. “I was a trained pilot and needed to get back to work,” he explained, “so I flew planes commercially in the USA for three years before returning home. The BDFC has over 200 members now and this is a great opportunity to globally promote the club and disabled rights.”

Yangon-to-Phuket race winner, Jennifer Murray vied with Maurice Kirk for the most eccentric aircraft in competition - she completed it by helicopter with co-pilot Colin Bodill. Aviation adventures were nothing new to her though, as she was already the first woman to fly solo around the world by helicopter. Their Robinson R44 was the only competing craft without autopilot, making theirs the most physically demanding journey. Luckily for her though, she has a house on Phuket, so was at least able to sit out the rain with some home comforts.

The race did indeed eventually finish as expected, with The Spirit of Kai Tak coming in first, Tim Ellison’s Beechcraft Bonanza coming a close second and, despite winning many of the later stages, Jennifer Murray’s Robinson R44 finishing 3rd. As Project Director and Chief Executive Officer, Wilf Barker put it: “Each and every competitor earned the right to win, but at the end of the day the best-of-the-best gained the accolades. For everyone associated with Air Race, it has been a rare distinction to serve these magnificent airmen and airwomen who, in their own right, have made history.”