Hello Ladies and Gentlemen,
All seems to be in place for a departure on Tuesday morning. G-IIXF and I will leave to try and break both Alex Henshaws and Chalkie Stobbarts records from Southend on Tuesday aiming to be back on Friday at 1511 local if you can make it to Southend for the arrival (bring an RV if you can) you are most welcome. I am full of nervous anticipation at the prospect!
I could not have got to this position with out the help of many individuals who have freely given their time and my sponsors who have either donated equipment or money. All these people are from small innovative, “can do” companies or institutions who have been captured by the imagination of this epic adventure, (the Bremont Watch Company run by the English brothers is a prime example) no large blue riband companies have stepped forward despite our best attempts, which I feel is a sad indictment of where Britain is today; saddest of all is that the big players within UK aviation have been particularly notable by their absence, which is perhaps a strong statement about their opinion of UK General Aviation, I think they have forgotten where their commercial pilots come from. To that end this flight will hopefully highlight what we as individuals are able to accomplish despite their lack of interest and it is hoped that the flight will go some way to encourage others in sport aviation to have a go. Let’s show the tenacity that we Brits are renowned for. Enough of the soapbox, but I would ask that you click on the website links on www.capechallenge.com and buy or use our sponsors goods and facilities, they really are on our side.
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g xf4
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g xf17
XF is in absolutely the best condition that I could hope for, in no small measure this is due to Manuel and Will my engineering team, the Garmin avionics equipment is the most modern and up to date available and thanks to Trevor, Gareth, Paul and the team at Garmin, I have probably the most reliable and best equipped RV7 on the planet. My safety equipment comes from Transair thanks to (Tom Moloney) and I am well covered with their PLB and ELT, I was able to plan the flight with the Jepessen Flightstar system that they bought for me, they also supplied me with a myriad of smaller items. The members of the Air Squadron have been incredibly generous with funding, Avionicare made the panel and the loom and RGV helped me fit it. Retro Track and Air built my long range fuel tanks, Indigosat gave me the tracking unit which will allow you all to follow the flight, Tim Davies and Dave Hallsworth designed the website, Tim and Julia Jackson integrated the follow steve site so you are able to watch events unfold live, Aerodynamics are filing and managing the flight, Phoebus Apollo organised fuel (after a few scares!) in Brazzaville and Sam Rutherford from prepare2go organised the Tamanrasset Avgas and will be looking after me in Tamanrasset, Tiaan Kotze and the guys at Signature will be hosting me in Cape Town. Cookie Jalaser of BP SA is giving me 250 litres of fuel in CPT and ATC Lasham 500 litres at Southend. Mike Grey of White Rose Aviation has organised free overflight and landing clearances and Martin Smith of Smith and Howell have insured myself and the aircraft for nothing. Martin Carolan at Severn Valley Sailplanes advised on gap sealing and made some beautiful inlets which gave us 4 knots! and yes we did remove the silly rudder cable fairings which had been stuck on at the wrong incidence, sometimes less is more. Chalkie Stobbart has given me invaluable advice and encouragement, then there is the incredible Martin Barraclough. I am proud to have the number 74 on XF not only because 74 was my first squadron but also because it is the age of my project coordinator.
Martin has been flying for over 50 years now, at one time he owned the original XF that belonged to Alex Henshaw and in fact Tom Storey and he are largely responsible for the aircrafts existence today. Martin has been tireless in obtaining funding and offloading me from the small, large and generally thankless tasks that are required in a project of this magnitude. This has allowed me to get on with making the aeroplane reliable and as fast as possible, without Martin I could not have taken off from Southend…..Fact. Then there is Anna!
Those of you who know my wife will understand what an incredible woman she is; I have seen articles in the past that have thanked a wife or partner for support, but this is different. Anna has riveted, deburred, fluted, wired, filed, tightened, soldered and built parts of the aeroplane while I have been away at work, she has spent time with me in the hangar when it was minus 5.5 and when I have been very grumpy, she has stopped me throwing the towel in on 3 very memorable occasions. It is thanks to her that I will be climbing in to go on Tuesday. She has kept me going for the eight and a half years that it has taken to build XF and get her to this stage. I have her name on the cowling for this reason and because Anna is the name of my God daughter.
So to the record and the plan: I will leave at 5:40 local on Tuesday and fly direct to Tamanrasset for fuel and then to Brazzaville for a further top up then on to Cape Town for a well earned rest before turning around to refuel at the same airfields Northbound aiming to be back at 15:05 on Friday the 3rd. The aircraft is an RV7 2 seat machine designed by Van at Vans Aircraft, he is a wizard. We have modified the aircraft to increase its range and speed, it will go much further than the Mew or Osprey but is a little slower. Thus the plan is based on the fact that stopping is what takes the time. Mind you XF is no slouch and I hope to surprise a few of you with the cruising speed.
I would ask you all to donate what you can to Fly2help which is a small aviation charity through www.capechallenge.com site. Fly2help is an aviation focused charity which helps people less fortunate than ourselves experience the magic of aviation, it’s a great charity set up by pilots to highlight all the benefits that aviation still has to offer.
Finally thanks to you all for your kind support and I hope you enjoy the flight as much as I will and if you want to have a go at a record let me know and I will help you as much as I can, to that end please support Taff Smith in his attempt which should be leaving in the third week of September. We live in exciting times!
Steve
Photos by Lyndon Griffith sharpshotg@btopenworld.com
