Australian pilot David Green has landed his new Carbon Cub UL in Port Macquarie, New South Wales, after flying it home from CubCrafters' factory in Yakima, Washington, in a 30 day journey spanning almost 17,000 nautical miles.
Rather than crating the aircraft, nicknamed "Dusty," and shipping it home, Green chose to fly it himself. He departed Yakima on 22 July, stopping first at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh in Wisconsin before heading east across the Atlantic and on through Europe, the Middle East, South Asia and South East Asia to Australia.
By the time Green touched down in Port Macquarie on 20 August, he had logged approximately 16,800 nautical miles and 143 hours 40 minutes of flight time across 22 flight legs and 16 countries and territories. CubCrafters believes the flight is an unofficial world record for a journey of this kind by a Cub style backcountry aircraft.
"Flying Dusty home from Yakima to Australia has been a heck of an adventure," Green said after arriving in Port Macquarie. "Nearly 17,000 nautical miles across oceans, continents, and some incredibly remote parts of the world, and the Carbon Cub just kept going. The airplane performed beautifully, and I trusted it every step of the way."
The route took Green through Canada, Iceland, Scotland, Guernsey, Italy, Greece, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia before he crossed into Australia. His longest single leg, from Goose Bay in Canada to Reykjavik in Iceland, took 12 hours 13 minutes. The final leg, from Birdsville to Port Macquarie, took 7 hours 9 minutes.
Built for the backcountry
CubCrafters says the qualities behind Green's flight are the same ones the Carbon Cub UL is built around for everyday backcountry flying: reliability, durability, efficiency and confidence in the aircraft.
"We focus on reliability and safety, and as a result, this is the kind of adventure the Carbon Cub is capable of," said Brad Damm, Vice President of CubCrafters. "David could have put the airplane in a container and shipped it to Australia. Instead, he pointed the nose toward home and flew it more than halfway around the world."
"Very few people are ever going to take their backcountry airplane on an adventure like David's," Damm continued. "But whether you're crossing an ocean or heading into a remote strip, you need to trust your airplane to go the distance. That's what we build at CubCrafters, aircraft you can have confidence in when the pavement, the airports, and the roads are far behind you."
The Carbon Cub UL pairs CubCrafters' backcountry airframe with lightweight construction and the turbocharged, electronically controlled Rotax 916 iS, giving it strong high altitude performance, fuel efficiency and system redundancy for operations far from conventional support.
The full story of David Green's flight home will run in the next print edition of Australian Flying.