Round-Tripper times TWO!

TangoWhiskey

TangoWhiskey

Touchdown! Greaser!
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CarolAnn Garratt, who flew her Mooney M20J around the world WESTBOUND a few years ago, just emailed my daughter that she's now planning a SECOND round-the world attempt for 2008, heading Eastbound.

Here's the details: http://www.kerrlake.com/mgarratt/RTW08.htm

Go CarolAnn! If you ever get a chance to hear her speak and see her slideshow, it's well worth it.
 
Very cool, I think I mentioned this in the thread about guy flying to hawaii, in which carrolann came up, but Matt and I watched her speak at Iowa State last spring, and were priveledged enough to get to join her for supper afterward. Was pretty cool for her to talk about her adventure and then us to share our gliding adventures. She is one cool lady!
 
Wait, does that mean her second trip will cancel out the first? Then she'll be just like the rest of us.

Chris
 
Gutsy. Very gutsy. As if once, westbound, wasn't impressive enough. Makes a $100 burger seem pretty lame....
 
awesome. i forgot about this thread. it was cool having dinner with her, hopefully she has a good trip.
 
Yeah, Tony, she's an impressive lady. I followed her last trip, then she came as a guest speaker with slides and such to our EAA chapter--took my wife and our three girls that night, to meet her, and we're all fans now. :) At least she'll have somebody to talk to on this trip--she has a passenger, not solo!
 
Wow, talk about a fast turn! They landed in San Diego (Brown Field) a little over an hour ago, and are scheduled to depart in just a few minutes for Lihue, Hawaii.... a 15.5 hour leg over the Pacific, after flying 16.5 hours (since 9PM ET last night) from Florida to California. I know they're trying to break a round-the-world speed record, but Daaa-AMN!!!

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N220FC
 
So, what am I missing? I thought it was eastbound this time!?!?
 
As of 7:30 AM (EST) she landed 15 minutes ago.

Awesome trip, that's for sure.

Edit: Just looked at her first leg from Florida to California. Geez! That must be a comfortable plane!
 
Last edited:
Kelvin said:
16 hour legs...That is incredible...
Click to expand...

The article didn't mention, but they must have a bunch of Gatorade bottles with attachments. ;)

The Mooney's a good plane for the trip, though. And Kent thinks I'm nuts for being willing to fly over the Great Lakes in winter! :rofl:
 
Ted DuPuis said:
The article didn't mention, but they must have a bunch of Gatorade bottles with attachments. ;)

The Mooney's a good plane for the trip, though. And Kent thinks I'm nuts for being willing to fly over the Great Lakes in winter! :rofl:
Click to expand...

:D ...With your favorite Lady Va-JJ attachment...
 
Kelvin said:
16 hour legs...That is incredible...
Click to expand...

And, after a SHORT rest, they are back in the air now, headed for Guam, on their longest leg of the flight: 22 hours.

Flight updates are posted here. Many of them come in semi-realtime, as they are using an HF radio-to-email program available to amateur radio (ham) operators:

http://www.alsworldflight.com/flight_log.php
 
Dave, she talks a bit about their sleeping/resting schedule on this page:

http://www.alsworldflight.com/flight_log.php

They are sleeping for 4 hours at their Guam stop; they alternate "2 hours PF, 2 hours sleeping/resting" in the plane. They must be feeling the effects of this though--two days into it, they posted that they plan to add an overnight stop at Djibouti and Cape Verde to keep fatigue at bay.
 
Those gals have the right stuff. I don't think I could survive a '23 hour leg'!
 
So several sources say its an M20J....Flightaware says "P"
which is it?
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
So several sources say its an M20J....Flightaware says "P"
which is it?
Click to expand...

When filing in Duats, it takes "M20P" for I believe M20 A-N models. If you look on FlightAware for me flying the M20F that I fly, it is listed as an M20P, at least when I file on Duats, and also for certain flight following.
 
I had the wonderful opportunity to meet Carol Foy a couple of months ago. She's an awesome lady as well. She was telling me about some of their, um, arrangements for the long flights. They actually have some sort of undergarment like the military uses for their pilots who will be doing really long legs. She also told me that they studied nutritional information to help in that respect as well.... That must be the most awesome flying adventure ever.
 
They're in Africa! Only two legs left--one across Africa, then one across the southern Atlantic back to Orlando.

Entry #20 : Monday, December 8, 2008 09:50 AM EST

Another continent "in-the-bag"! The team just landed at Djibouti-Ambouli International Airport, Republic of Djibouti, East Africa. Arrival time was noted at 17:33 local time (14:33 GMT, 09:33 EST). The flight down the coast took 4 hours 16 min for the shortest leg so far. The flight must have seemed like short "jog around the pattern" compared to the other legs. The team plans to overnight here in Djibouti and get some 'real' R&R (rest and refresh). The next leg will be a long one over the continent of Africa and staging for the final "hop" over the Atlantic ocean. The crew will be studying weather charts and making final plans for the last two legs and an update should be available by later today.
 
wow, seems like they've had a pretty smooth trip. I assume they are on track to set the record?
 
They did it! Landed in Florida this morning, made it around the world in seven days:

Entry #33 : Thursday, December 11, 2008 09:35 AM EST

The Team is on the Ground! What a triumphant arrival. Under low clouds and breezy conditions at Orlando International Airport, The team touched down at approx 08:55 EST (13:55 GMT) and rolled up to the customs building to a cheering crowd of supporters and media. Carol and CarolAnn climbed out of the well traveled Mooney, that actually looked no worse for wear than when they left here 7 days ago. The crew looks fantastic and are obviously "pumped" with the completion of the Dash trip. They are now doing press interviews and look forward to some place to wash the chamapne off and get some Real rest. We will do a stats update after the dust settles. ====wes

Entry #32 : Thursday, December 11, 2008 05:30 AM EST

The race with the storm continues--- The Dash team sent the following messages, === The Atlantic. It's about midnight over the Atlantic and we are now more than half way home! Looking out, the almost full moon is illuminating the clouds, making it much easier to avoid them. We have been rigorously taking turns sleeping and being on duty each 2 hours. This system seems to be working well. Using the HF system, Carol just found out that family children and their friends have voted the "Dash for a Cure" the designated charity for the annual Christmas brunch held in the neighborhood. Won't you consider something similar? Soon, a note from Florida!---------------------------------------- Good crossing. Mainly clear, some puffy clouds with bumps in them. Beautiful moon guiding us home. GPS is showing about 5 hours to go. In 45 miles we switch from NY radio to Miami and turn a little more northeast. Our biggest worry is the storm headed across Florida. From ground crew reports, looks like we'll make it in before the squall line, but there will still be rain, low ceiling and turbulence ahead of it. Our plan is to follow the route to Vero Beach; if weather is terrible, land at Ft. Pierce. If ok, continue and take a look at MCO. If good, land, if not head south and find another airport to land. We will have about 3 hours of fuel remaining at decision point. So, thank you all for ALL your support. The adventure is almost over; with a race to the finish with a storm. CarolAnn =================================== With about 500 nm to go to reach Florida, the team presses on and hopes to beat the worst of the cold front weather to Orlando. Currently calculating an ETA in Orlando of 08:30 EST==========wes

Entry #31 : Wednesday, December 10, 2008 09:50 PM EST

OK, the race is on! It's a head-on race between a Mooney and a Florida cold front. The ground crew wants to get the team to land in Florida rather than some down-island layover. The strong cold front is oriented almost north-south and is currently forecast to cover the state by 18:00Z on Thurs. (1pm local time). The planning also needs to avoid challenging a tired crew with hard IFR flying and turbulent approaches to unfamiliar airports. The Dash crew is continuing to make good progress, picking up tailwinds and averaging 160 kts at 7000ft. They are currently 1800 nm away from Orlando and have flown almost one half the distance from Cape Verde to their destination. ETA calculations based on the current ground speed puts the team into Orlando at almost exactly the same time as significant cold front wx arrives. Too close for comfort! Stay Tuned for race results! ====wes

Entry #30 : Wednesday, December 10, 2008 04:50 PM EST

In-flight update from the Dash Team as they "sail" over the Atlantic at an altitude of 7000 ft and a ground speed of approx 145kts: === Cape Verde Islands, After a day of beige, it was nice to see some blue. The Cape Verde Islands, also quite beige and flat, greeted us with a marvelous facility and a number of curious staff to get us underway. Here, we actually had fuel out of a truck, although it still had to be hand pumped. The hose to fill the ferry tanks was too small for the nozzle, so a funnel was jury rigged to make it all work. The things you have to create to keep a program moving forward! We really would have liked to stay and sleep a few hours, but potential winds and weather coming to Florida made us press on. Now, over the Atlantic it is cool and smooth with some cloud layers to break up the blue. A leg with anticipated tailwinds will carry us home tomorrow! ==== The team is almost 1/3 of the way across and antipate an Orlando arrival between 9 and 11 am EST, again dependent of conditions due to the cold front passage. ====wes
 
Write-up from the team:

Subject: We Did It!
Sender: Dash for a Cure add
Date: Today 09:13

We did it!! The new unofficial world record is 115 miles per hour, smashing the old record of 54.6 mph, which has stood for 20 years. The National Aeronautic Association in Washington DC has all the paperwork and will be approving the US record claim. They will then send the information to the Federation International Aeronautique in France who will award the World Record. This could take up to 90 days.

After five days on the ground, we have recovered and are feeling pretty good. Carol lost 7 pounds during the flight and CarolAnn lost five pounds. We were looking pretty drawn and tired upon arrival in Orlando. And what a finish it was, in a race with a storm front.

We were making safe decisions the whole time. We decided to keep going until we got to the storm front or Orlando. If we made Orlando, we land. If the storm got there first, we turn around and land at Ft. Pierce. We had three hours of fuel left and lots of possibilities.

We are amazed at how many people lost sleep following our track. We are so glad you all enjoyed the trip with the SPOT tracker and the written updates. Although this objective is met, our main objective, to raise donations for ALS research, is far behind. In order to reach our goal we need you to spread the word to friends to make a donation to the important research being done at ALS TDI in Cambridge, Mass. You can do so by clicking on "Click here to forward this email to a friend" below. We sincerely thank everyone who has donated and bid on auction items. With the checks that were just mailed in, the total is over $153,000!

What’s next? A speaking tour and a book. Everything has been documented and we have a cockpit voice recorder of all the Air Traffic Control communications which we will turn into a CD. The book will be out in March with all the details of this exciting adventure. We will also be making a video CD of the whole trip, takeoffs, landings, and in-flight commentary.

CarolAnn will be traveling up the east coast late June, through PA, OH, IN to Oshkosh by late July. Continuing on to CO, ID, WA in August and California in September. Then she will take the southern route home to FL in October. A list of presentations with dates and locations of presentations already scheduled are listed on the media page of our website. Click Here to view a list of presentations. If your flying club or EAA chapter is interested, please contact CarolAnn directly, ca.garratt@att.net. Carol will be speaking in TX and as she travels also. She can be contacted at CFoyFly@msn.com.

You can order the books directly from CarolAnn, ALS, or Amazon for $25 including shipping.

Flight Stats

ImageTotal flight hours: 158 hours
Total time takeoff to landing: 8 days 12 hours 20 minutes
70% time flying; 30% on ground, refuel, maintenance, sleep
18 hours sleep on the ground, remainder in the plane
Average speed: 115 miles per hour
Rough gallons of avgas: 1250 gallons (to be refined)
Oil: one oil change plus 14 quarts added
Crossed 18 countries, landed in 5 countries outside US.

More Pictures will be Up Soon, Click Here to View our Albums!
Special Thank You to the Ground Crew

Although two women sat in the cockpit for 224 hours, it took a whole team to beat the record.

The ground crews deserve major recognition and credit; without their help, we would have been stranded in Niamey, Niger with no avgas. Flemming in Switzerland, Bill in Virginia, and Norm in Thailand watched our every move 24 hours a day. They had a TracPlus tracking system that told them when we took off and they advised us of winds, weather, fuel and everything we needed to know during our flight legs. Wes was hooked up with the ground crew and coordinating our flight logs to keep the website updated for all our followers.

The “permit guy,” Bo, from Denmark, Bo Therkildsen, worked all night to get us a landing permit in Burkina Faso, when there was no avgas in Niger. He also spent months ahead of the trip getting the other permits for the flight.

Universal Weather supported us 24 hours a day with three people, Jerri, Suzanne, and Paula sending us information and connecting us with the weather people each time we called. They prepared the handling and refueling ahead of time and insured that everything went smoothly.

Obviously the mechanic preparing the plane and engine deserves special recognition. A huge thank you to Arthur Miller for a fault free flight.

A special thanks also to the media coverage and coordinators, Meghan from Fusion PR, Dave and Chris who coordinated media in Orlando and Debey, Gary and Kevin who published video of our takeoff and arrivals in Orlando, San Diego and Guam. We also appreciate all the newspaper and radio coverage received at home and around the world.

$12,000 Raised During the Flight - Donate Now to Help Get to $1 Million

ImageThe world flight may have reached an end but the quest to raise $1 million for ALS research, has just begun. In order to reach this goal we need you to spread the word to friends to make a donation to the important research being done at ALS TDI in Cambridge, Mass. ALS TDI is the worlds largest research institute devoted solely to ALS. CarolAnn and Carol have chosen to create hope for a cure through aviation. Please donate today to support The Dash!

Click Here to Donate Now!
Special Thank you to our Sponsors

Iridium provided a sim card for the satellite phone so we could get in touch with school kids during the flight.

SPOT for providing our tracking device and eBay auction item.

Scheyden who was an imagination level sponsor, also provided us with precision eye wear for the flight. Visit this site to buy exclusive Dash sunglasses from Scheyden. Proceeds benefit ALS TDI.

Thank you to Ken Melanson’s Quest for a Cure, Starport, and Chip and Jan Gulden, three of our Innovation Level Sponsors; and to all of our product sponsors.


New Dash Guestbook!

ImageDue to an incredible amount of comments and questions we have decided to create a guestbook on www.alsworldflight.com! Please feel free to congratulate the pilots, ask questions, or post comments about the upcoming presentations. Your support is appreciated and we look forward to staying in touch in the future.

Click Here to Post a Message

Thank you for following us along on our journey, your support was critical to our successful flight and will be critical in meeting our $1 Million goal. Please continue to raise awareness, spread the word, and donate to this important cause.

Sincerely,
CarolAnn Garratt and Carol Foy

ALS Therapy Development Institute
Dash for a Cure
215 First Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142
phone: 617.441.7209
email:afavicchio@als.net
web: www.als.net
Click to expand...
 
That's incredible. Great job on their part.
 
Grant and I just finished listening to Carol Ann speak at the North Central Section Ninety-Nines dinner this evening. She is a phenomenal speaker - felt my adrenaline go up just listening to her tales of the 2008 flight! I am in awe of her drive and passion for her cause.

Purchased books about the 2003 and 2008 flights, Carol Ann was kind enough to autograph - will circulate on the POA library as soon as we're done!

Leslie
 
This is the kind of thread-resurrection I love... thanks, Leslie!
 
Oh, and she's in the midst of planning another round-the-world trip. This one will be eastbound too, and will not be going for a record. Instead, she'll be taking quite a while and stopping to get to know some of the people along the way. It'll be solo, like her first trip.

Unfortunately, corporations were really stingy with the donations for the last trip. To date, she's only received about $252K in donations out of the $1mm goal. All proceeds from her book sales go to support research into ALS. If you want to purchase the book or video or learn more about the flight, see http://www.alsworldflight.com.
 
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