US-based German couple Detlef Heun and Liliana Tagliamonte provide an update on a lengthy circumnavigation they're currently conducting in their kit-built Vans RV-7.
The pair started their planned five-year circumnavigation back in March, 31 2009 in Punta Gorda, Florida, and their plan is to fly across every line of longitude and latitude. Their planned route, which totals an impressive 240,000km, is as follows:
US - Bahamas – Dominican Republic – Guyana – Suriname – Brazil – Argentina – Antarctica with landing on the South Pole – back to Argentina – Chile – Peru – Ecuador – Panama – Costa Rica – Nicaragua – Belize – Mexico – US – Canada - Greenland – Island – Europe – Turkey – Saudi Arabia – Oman – Pakistan – India – Maldives – Sri Lanka – Thailand – Indonesia – Australia – Tasmania – New Zealand – most of all South Pacific Islands – Borneo – Philippines – China – Japan – Alaska – Canada – US.
As well as the adventure of a lifetime, Heun says they aim to promote General Aviation with their flight.
“Like an ambassador we will connect pilots of the world together, since we have all the same thing in mind, independent of country, colour or religion,” he explains. “Together and with a lot of publicity we can win the war against the fees in the air and keep flying at an affordable price. We do a lot to promote GA worldwide – about 70 TV appearances so far show people that you need not be a millionaire to fly, and that your dream can come true.
“Our goal is not to hop from one big airport to the other, but to stay one or two days in a place, visit the country and meet many people who can show us the beauty of their country. The most important thing to us on this journey is to meet people and pilots all over the world, share experiences, talking and eating together.”
You can follow Detlef and Liliana through their circumnavigation by visiting their regularly updated website, which includes photos and blog updates, or via their Facebook page.
Below is a report, written by Liliana, documenting the lead-up to the first leg of their circumnavigation through to their landing on the South Pole…well, almost…
The beginning of a great adventure The dream to fly around the world in a light aircraft had been brewing in our minds for a long time. There were many questions to be answered and many problems to be solved before this flight could become a reality. There were doubts if this flight was really even possible. We had the choice of living a comfortable life or realising our dream and concentrating all our energy and resources on reaching for the seemingly impossible – to cross every longitude and latitude of the world from the South Pole to the North Pole. This flight would enrich or souls and fulfill our dream and desires. It was now or never.
It took a while to search for that ideal plane: fast, long range, little fuel consumption and the largest possible capacity to carry supplies and equipment. Most of the space was for emergency equipment – life raft, life jackets and survival suits. Whatever space was left over was for personal items, camping equipment, and cameras to record our flight. We did not go to a local aircraft manufacturer and fly home on a brand new, sparkling aircraft. Rather, we bought a Vans RV-7 kit, and building it took two years of hard work, specifically for this flight.
It is a huge difference if you buy or if you build your own aircraft. When I saw the footage of our first take-off I could not help but shiver with my eyes moist with tears, Detlef besides me did not say a word, but I knew that at that moment he was the proudest man on earth. All the hardship was forgotten all the miserable times were only a distant memory.
Planning our flight around the world occupied just about every minute of every day. We were so busy planning the route, analysing potential problems and corresponding with new contacts that we had hardly time to stand back to see how enormous this project had become.
It was very early morning of March 30, 2009 in Punta Gorda, Florida. A few friends came to see us off and wish us good luck. It was a sad moment leaving them all behind. So many of them helped us to finish our plane after we moved the project from Germany to the US.
I watched Detlef’s hand starting to push the throttle. I wanted to say something but my throat would not let out a sound. We just looked at each other. I am sure Detlef could not speak either. Then came that familiar feeling all pilots know. There was only air between us and the ground. We were airborne. I think astronauts must feel like this, after the gravity has no more effect on their bodies. Our feelings however were emotional, not physical. It was the gravity of planning of the trip, endless hours of working on the plane and the rest of the problems that now disappeared. We were heading south-east towards South America.
The GPS was showing all blue. We were not used to seeing so much water. One look out of the cockpit confirmed the colour. There was nothing but the ocean below. Our first flight over open sea – what an unusual view. The Bahamas were just ahead of us. Exuma was our destination. It was a short flight, only three hours long. Before we continued on our flight we wanted to celebrate our great beginning on a very personal note. Our dreams were so intertwined that it was only natural that here on this beautiful island our friendship and comradeship became a union of husband and wife.
As we took off from Exuma, the chain of islands soon disappeared and the blue water of the Atlantic Ocean down below and the blue skies above were all we could see. No matter how long we looked at the charts and plotted our flight path when planning the flight, one can never know quite what to expect. There are not many options available. One has to be realistic that adventures do not always go smoothly. I guess that is why they’re called ‘adventures’.
Below the huge cumulus cloud, suddenly a bit of green appeared – a big sigh of relief. Hispaniola was in sight. Dominican Republic played a couple of important roles in our journey. For some reason our stopovers started becoming longer and longer. Each place seemed to have something magical that made us postpone our departure. Suddenly a list of new friends started to grow and grow. The Dominican Republic has a great and expanding flying community. They even banned all landing fees to make it more attractive to make a stop on this wonderful island.
We met also a Guyanese airline pilot, who changed our plans by inviting us to Guyana and an Argentinian guy who could help us with our flight into the Antarctica. After a farewell party all good things must come to the end and the Caribbean Sea was calling our names.
It took four hours to fly to Guadeloupe. On the final approach to Saint Fracois the circuit breaker for the flaps failed and we were unable to land with our fully packed plane on the short grass strip. ATC redirected us to the international airport Pointe a Pitre, where we landed safely. On this island without a repair shop, where can we get a spare part? Easy! Detlef removed a circuit breaker from an old PA-28 and installed it in our plane.
Next destination was Marie Galante, a very small island with very unfriendly airport staff. We could not leave the island due to raining pitchforks for a couple of days. There was no internet and no weather information available, until a helicopter landed and gave us some information for our planned flight to Carriacou.
As we approached Carriacou the next day, we saw a very beautiful island ahead of us. While standing in front of the fuel pump, the guy says, “Sorry, we ran out of Avgas”. This is never a problem for us. Whenever possible we refuel with car gas and 91 Octane was all we needed. We knew beforehand that it would always be a problem to get Avgas in these remote places. Our plan was never to hop from one international airport to the next and make a round the world flight in couple of months, or even weeks. Our goal is to see the world – not only airports and the Hilton’s – and to meet as many pilots as possible, to land on small airfields and experience as much of each country as possible. To be a guest in a family for one or two nights and see the colourful culture of the world and explore the country side. This makes our round the world flight unique.
The last 600 miles over the open water and we arrived in Georgetown, Guyana. The whole country is crossed by rivers and the main transportation is by boat. We visited gold mining boats on the Essequibo River and went for the first time through the jungle. It was a totally new impression to see ourselves in the jungle, instead of watching it on TV. The last highlight in our Guyanese journey ended with an invitation from the Prime Minister, where we met the President of this country.
On the way south we flew over this seemingly endless rainforest. The beauty of canopies of trees was so deceiving. Now we had to be really alert. Here, there is no place to land. No life raft or life jackets can carry you on the sea of green. Perhaps panic and the loud screech of Macaws and Parrots will mark the emergency landing for few minutes. Then the canopy of trees will close again, swallowing our unlucky plane and hiding the unlucky spot. Can you imagine what feelings we had crossing for the first time the Equator in Macapa, Brazil in our small, self-built RV-7?
We had a lot of invitations in Brazil and with the aero club of Catuleve, Fortaleza we flew together for more than 2000 miles to Foz de Igazu, the site of the world’s largest water falls. Ever changing scenery exposing the beauty of lush forests, empty plains, rugged mountains and the Pantanal. A tropical wetland and one of the world’s largest wetlands of any kind with an unbelievable biodiversity. The home of the famous Anaconda, Capybara and the Giant Anteater. From our last stop in Brazil, Porto Alegre we flew to a small airfield near Buenos Aires, General Rodriguez.
Our friend Gustavo Passamo offered us a hangar with an apartment to prepare our plane for the South Pole. We installed skis, an engine heater and did all the paper work. The Argentinian Air Force flew all our necessary equipment including the fuel to their Base Marambio in The Antarctica. The distribution to another Base, Patrick Hill, was also ensured. Everything was ready for the South Pole after an incredible amount of logistic work was done.
After a routine physical check, I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. We flew back to Germany for the therapy, and the surgery and the therapy took five months. During the surgery a nerve was hurt and nobody could tell me how long it would take for me to talk again. Now we were late, but still not too late, for the Antarctic summer and we made the decision to continue our flight – with or without my voice. The last preparations on our plane had to be done and after three months I got my voice back.
In mid-December we left General Rodriguez heading south. As we flew we experienced all the emotions one can have. From the peaceful flight when the mind is filled with satisfaction and pleasure, to those nervous, scary moments when visibility is low and clouds limits the visibility and the next airfield is still a long way away, to those panic situations when the engine starts to overheat and the oil pressure drops. Where to land. There? Or over there? A couple of miles later we landed in Azul, a nice little airfield with their own swimming pool and tennis court. But most important of all, with a lot of helpful people. It took three weeks to get the spare parts and to repair the engine.
The time window for the Antarctic was getting closer now as we headed further to the south. Hundreds of miles with no cities and only rough terrain. Rawson and Rio Gallegos were our last stops before we reached the “end of the world” Ushuaia in Argentina, commonly regarded as the southernmost city in the world. We landed in Rio Gallegos with 45-knot crosswinds and we were trapped there for another week due incredible strong winds and turbulence.
Finally we made it to Ushuaia - only four hours from The Antarctica. Only four hours away from our goal. This time is was nature that would not grant us our flight. There is no room for error in such a flight. And we sure did not want to spend months in Antarctica stranded until good weather returned.
Will we ever get a second chance to fly to the South Pole, one of our biggest goals on this flight? Everything is prepared, permission was granted, the fuel and the skis were shipped to that frozen land. We had to make a decision. It would have been much easier to just say, “Let’s fly!”. But we didn’t, so hopefully we can do it as the last highlight of our journey in a couple of years.
Detlef Heun and Liliana Tagliamonte with their kit-built Vans RV-7.
