In 2016 Peter Wilson helicoptered solo through 23 different countries to complete a journey around Africa of about 16,600nm in 73 days. In 2017, joined by a co-pilot Matthew Gallagher, he traveled eastwards round the world, through 42 countries in 121 days covering about 32,000 miles.
Peter’s Three Journeys Round project is all about charity; raising the profile of ‘a better planet through sustainable development’ and fundraising for Save the Children and Motivation International. (MI provides mobility solutions for disabled people in the developing world.)
The ability to prepare draft Flight Plans the night before and then activate them by phone in the morning worked very well
Peter filed flight plans using Rocket Route, through Europe down to Granada and then back home from Sitia. The ability to prepare draft Flight Plans the night before and then activate them by phone in the morning worked very well, though obviously depending on permissions, exact timings and weather. In Africa itself, all his planning was done manually using various ICAO-like paper formats, insisted upon locally. Further, often the internet was unavailable.
For the journey round the world Peter and Matthew used RocketRoute extensively during the planning phase. With over 110 draft hops in RocketRoute, it was easy to look at the weather ahead using the data packs and even easier to make adjustments to accommodate local controller rules and local routing advice, airport by airport. Although they were not always in range of good broadband they still found it easy to file Flight Plans for the morning hop and then advance, delay or cancel and refile Flight Plans for the second hop using the mobile phone network. This worked in some of the remotes places on Earth.
With a team of two either pilot could do the filing, with alerts being received by the other pilot and the handling team in Egypt. Sending a copy of the Flight Plan and GAR information to local officials was simple, often achieved while refuelling on the Apron. There were very few places that couldn’t receive the RocketRoute Flight Plan due to lack of internet connectivity. So while Flight Planning wasn’t entirely paperless, it was almost so, and that saved hours upon hours of precious time every week.
The RocketRoute app and 24/7 Support made Flight Planning and Filing easy for this record-breaking team. Often the 'winds at different levels' information was used to plan the least headwind altitudes. The helicopter was using VFR, but IFR filing and routing was sometimes required, for example in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Russia. The team used the IFR routing module a lot, even when filing VFR - it tends to make controllers confident that pilots are in full control. On the other hand, countries like the USA and Canada are much more VFR friendly, so there the Flight Plans were more for SAR purposes.
Peter is now arranging the final trip of his Three Journeys Round project, which involves flying solo round Latin America. He is already using RocketRoute for planning and fully intends to file all his Flight Plans using RocketRoute.
Peter Wilson flew the first solo flight by a helicopter round Africa (Fédération Aéronautique Internationale World Record #18077 for distance over a recognised course; London to Stellenbosch and return, 2016).
Peter Wilson and Matthew Gallagher flew the first circumnavigation by a helicopter through the equatorial antipodes (Palembang, Indonesia, and Neiva, Colombia). This is an FAI World Record Claim submitted for speed round the world – Eastbound, 2017.
Find out more about the Three Journeys Round project here:- http://www.threejourneysround.com
