Freedom Flight

Chronicles the round-the-world microlight expedition that killed two pilots.

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This book chronicles the round-the-world microlight expedition that killed two pilots. The story was sensational and hit the news with its mishaps and 'tragedies', but the record-breaking flight was an incredible way to travel the world: slowly flying across it with sufficient height to get a good view; sufficient proximity to see the way people live - the daily touchdowns meant contact with people from every culture and walk of life. To most people, flying a microlight aircraft is an end in itself: the thrill of taking off in the simplest of flying machines and soaring over the landscape with the wind in their face is all they are after. For others, this is merely the beginning. To them, the microlight is the means to a far greater adventure. They know that nothing compares to seeing the world from above. Or, as Leonardo Da Vinci put it, 'Once you have tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.' 'Before we set off, at the end of 2003, to fly around the world in the smallest aircrafts by the longest route possible, Alan and I were often asked, "Why are you doing this?"
We tried to answer in the best way we could but never quite communicated the reason clearly. Circumstances forced me to ask these questions of myself for thousands of lonely kilometres and even now, after completing a 64 000-kilometre flight around the world, I still don't have an easy answer. You will need to travel your own road to understand why.'