Saturday, 14 July 2007, 00:00 PST
A pair of Indian Air Force wing commanders took a detour through Prince George Friday while attempting to smash a world record for the fastest flight around the world in a pint-sized plane.
The microlight aircraft is piloted by Rahul Monga, 37, and his co-pilot Anil Kumar, 38, who left an airfield near Delhi, India, on June 1 as part of the IAF’s 75th anniversary celebration.
The pilots had hoped to circumnavigate the world in 64 days, which would slice 34 days off the record held by British pilot Colin Bodill. The flight is in the 300-to-500-kilogram weight category for the aircraft.
“These guys are really frustrated,” said Bob Beaty of the Howard Group, a Calgary-based investor relations firm that represents the flight. “They hit torrential, record, foul weather along the eastern seaboards of both China and Russia. So they lost a bunch of days there and then they got stuck in Anchorage for four days. They tried to get through a really narrow mountain pass. They tried four times to get through it, but every time they got to the mouth of this pass, it was covered in rain, or the plane was icing over. So they decided instead to divert to Whitehorse. But even though they’re 14 days behind, they can still shave about 20 days off the 98-day record, assuming all goes well from here on in.”
The microlight plane weighs less than 500 kilograms, even with one pilot, fuel and baggage. The pressurized cabins are without heat or air conditioning.
The microlight reaches a top speed of 140 knots, which is about 250 km/h.
“We’ve been maintaining about 200-km/h because it’s better for fuel economy,” said Monga, a helicopter fighter pilot, who has already set a world record by flying a microlight up to 21,000 feet.
The pilots have the assistance of a tracking and communications device – provided by Flyht, a Calgary company – which enables controllers in India to provide exact directions to rescuers, in the event of a crash. Such technology has provided some piece of mind when traversing potentially dangerous areas such as the Bering Sea.
“That particular day the weather was absolutely clear. Normally it isn’t, so I got lucky, but I faced plenty of rough spots in China, as well as Russia,” Monga said.
One of the craziest moments was during a landing in a busy airfield at Shanghai International Airport, sandwiched between a 767 and 747.
“I had to come as fast as possible, 11,000 feet down to 2,000 feet with all clouds, zero visibility,” Monga said.
Monga and Kumar, both of whom are married with children, were planning to travel through Prince Rupert en route to Seattle, but inclement weather forced the detour to Prince George.
“So we’ve been following the (Alaska) Highway now,” Monga said.
After a brief stop at Prince George Airport, the pilots were scheduled to land in Seattle Friday night. From there it was south to California, east to Florida and north to Toronto before exiting northern Canada via Iqaluit, Nunavut.
“Coming into North America and leaving Canada are two of the most dangerous passages these guys face,” Beaty said. “Going out of Iqaluit to Nuuk, Greenland, he’ll (Monga) be the only one on board to get the maximum amount of fuel on board. He has to make a decision halfway whether he should continue on to Nuuk or head back to Iqaluit. Icing of course is going to be a big concern. Weather is incredibly temperamental in Nuuk and he has no other airport to land but in Nuuk, so it’s going to be a really risky part of the journey.”
Despite the dangers, Monga and Kumar have already started planning their next global adventure in the air.
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July 15, 2007 at 6:06 am