[ianfallon]

If she diligently recorded the whole adventure with those cameras then they edited it like this I'd be pretty annoyed if I were her.

It's a sad reflection on society that a bit of a singing or dancing competition * can be stretched over endless weeks of prime time, but someone taking on an adventure like this gets cut down to one short programme that covered half of it.

Still enjoyed watching it though

* go on then do the joke ...

[Rusty Spanner]

Yea it was a bit short, but I found it refreshingly to the point, for the most part it went easy on the surperflous waffle and thankfully left out the uninformed narration by some pr@t filmed from a helicopter, which seems almost compulsory these days.

By todays standards, very very good

[CaptChaos]

It is a totally different challenge to Lady Heath's day and the real achievement was getting the trip put together at all with all the restrictions we face these days in flying. Lady Heath in today's H&SE culture would have been pilloried for irresponsible actions but I rather like the fact the first thing she liked to do when arriving was change into a silk ball gown with some stories of doing it in the air (!). Yes it was "made for TV" and there are lots of things to spot but surely it is better see aviation showcased rather than the usual " celebrity" or untalented nonsense stuff.

The Canadian Lanc guys started a recent talk with the words "Turn it round and imagine you had been invited to arrange the trip to another continent". I think most of us would have enjoyed the flying except trying to get through Europe in the winter which was not much fun.

PS Hope Tracey did not confuse right and left again

[AerBabe]

Another chance to meet her and hear her talk about this amazing trip...

[Paul_Sengupta]

I'm at Waltham at the moment and just noticed this on the noticeboard.

Had breakfast with Marj and Iain D, having a cup of tea now with Genghis.

And trying to work at the same time.

[Ragwing]

I was quite looking forward to viewing this prog...found it nowhere near as good as I expected with a very very rushed and hurried ending.

Loved seeing the Stearman though.

[Corsican]

It was a somewhat abrupt end, pretty much cutting out everything after Egypt. I may have missed this but they could have explained how she was navigating - was it SD or just following the chase plane? My 6 year old daughter remarked that it must have been tricky to go so far without a map, given how often my wife gets lost in the car going to the shops! But the point is that the editing could have gone a bit deeper in many of the challenges in what was a great aeronautic adventure and achievement.

My French grandfather used to talk about when Lindburgh landed at Le Bourget in awed tones, which stuck with me. Perhaps the editors were limited to a 1 hour slot on the TV so had to make something that would appeal to the wider masses. Perhaps an extended edit might become available on DVD?

[cockney steve]

I was under the impression that the TV broadcasters had great difficulty filling their hours, -hence all the complaints from viewers about endless repeats and poor -quality dross forming the bulk.

I would , therefore, expect an intelligent program-scheduler, to want to stretch the available material to cover as ling as they could,without compromising quality.
but I know nowt, -no TV! (If it's any good, it will make yewchoob.

[Prepare2Go]

Hi,

We did the support logistics (and indeed I was on the support plane for the duration).

I think the problem is choosing what to use and what to cut. Your other issue is that pilots are happy to watch hours of planes flying about - but the viewing public wants more of the ground action.

Safe flights, Sam.

[Joe Dell]

Found on a table outside a charity shop last week. A mint copy of Jean Batten's 'Alone in the Sky'.
20 pence, and signed by the lady herself. Incredible woman. More guts than me.

[joe-fbs]

You lucky duck.

[Prepare2Go]

I thought it best to clarify a couple of the aspects of Tracey Curtis-Taylor's Spirit of Artemis flight from Cape Town to Goodwood.

She did 44 flights within Africa from Cape Town to Crete in Greece.
On 40 of these flights, she was accompanied by her instructor (20000+ hours, and the same man who (beautifully) rebuilt the aeroplane from scratch).
On two of the solo flights, she asked the C208 to fly slowly in front of her as she was worried she wouldn't find the destination airfield (despite having two moving map GPS in the cockpit).
She had three pilots doing all the flight planning and preparation, filing of flight plans etc. and a full support organisation for all the ground logistics.

In short, perhaps not the 'achievement' she seeks to portray - and certainly nothing compared to Mary Heath's story (or many others).

In 2014 she accepted the prestigious Light Aircraft Association's Bill Woodhams Trophy normally awarded for 'Feats of Navigation'. I consider it unfortunate:

- That her flight was judged the winner for 2014.
- That she was prepared to accept it (as opposed to politely declining).
- That whoever was in 'second place' missed out on what should perhaps have been theirs?

Looking to set the story a little straighter before this goes into the history books...

Safe flights, Sam.

[leiafee]

We did the support logistics (and indeed I was on the support plane for the duration).

In short, perhaps not the 'achievement' she seeks to portray - and certainly nothing compared to Mary Heath's story (or many others).

Crikey, was she late paying her bill or something?

[Pete L]

I wondered that, but decided to take the post positively as a mention of the person who did the rebuild and a good bit of the flying. Is he allowed to tell his story a bit more for one of the mags?

On the other hand, another reasonably inspirational story for womankind - a bit of top blagging even if it wasn't all top flying. (I'd view it as an achievement to have flown a Stearman for even an hour over darkest Africa).

[Prepare2Go]

Hi, all facts 100% correct I'm afraid.

No late bills!

I'm all for self-promotion - but not at the expense of others. "I had it harder than Mary Heath" is somewhat difficult to accept and is a discourtesy to that lady's achievements.

Safe flights, Sam.