Which way do I go?

Well I am definitely heading off from Australia, my home airfield YMMB, Moorabbin in Victoria. That’s an easy decision. Should I go the East route or head out West? East is early mornings and shorter days, yet maybe tailwinds. West means the days will be longer before dark but maybe headwinds. Mind you wind direction is not quite that simple.

I have this idea I’ll take off from YMMB and if its quiet contact the tower and declare a long final for 35L with 26,000 miles to run. Of course that would not be so funny if I had a problem and I was back in 10 minutes.

What Route?

We are still deciding East or West! I don’t know yet as I write this. Its 14/11/17 and the plane has an awful lot still to do on it before it flies. Let along the big journey. I’ve been looking at the Earth Rounders site which has the ‘classic’ routes for both east and west. Then there are all the books I’ve been reading for people how have done this task and where they stopped. There are a few deciders. Where can I get fuel? What are the friendlier airports, which ones are ports of entry or exit as required?

If you are reading this and have some ideas… I’d love to hear from you. Travelers say consistently its all about the people you meet. I certainly intend to drop in of a few of those facebook ‘friends’ and make it real. Then there are a lot of people already who have helped me enormously, they all get free dinners!

A Ground Team

Yes I did say ‘We’ in the last paragraph. I hope to assemble a ground team back here at my main Melbourne base. I’ll want to be able to use a ‘sat phone’ to get help when I can’t get weather or if I have other issues. This is no small undertaking.

Maybe this team will be in different parts of the world too. I’m just throwing the idea out there for now. I’ll be doing things like having a spare propeller ready for shipping if I need one. A plan for medical evac that I hope I’ll never use.

More likely I may need some help with the paperwork. Getting permissions through for example. I may get clearances and say a visa but find myself delayed due to weather. All sorts of possible scenarios present themselves.

Your Suggestions

My world trip is still a couple of years off, maybe three.  If you have any ideas, thoughts or suggestions at all I’d LOVE to hear from you. I think there are contact forms all over this website. When I work out how I’ll slip one in here too.