Arrival of blind pilot in Darwin delayed
4:00PM Sunday April 22, 2007
DARWIN - The first blind pilot to fly half way around the world has encountered a second set-back, with strong head winds delaying his arrival in Darwin until tomorrow.
Miles Hilton-Barber was expected to reach Australia yesterday, 48 days after setting off on his epic journey from London in a small microlight plane.
But maintenance work on his customised small hang-glider-like aircraft -- which uses speech-output from navigation instruments to steer a course -- pushed his arrival time back a day.
A spokeswoman for the 57-year-old motivational speaker today said strong winds in Indonesia had again delayed the flight.
"There has been some bad head wind so they haven't taken off," she told AAP.
"They, hopefully, aim to do that tomorrow and will arrive in Darwin in the afternoon."
Hilton-Barber's arrival in the steamy tropics will follow the most dangerous leg of his adventure. He will cover the longest distance over water in his journey, from the city of Kupang, on an Indonesian island east of Bali, to the Northern Territory.
The father of three, who has been blind for 25 years, is expected to complete the final leg of his journey to Sydney before the end of the month, when he will soar into the record books as the first sight impaired pilot to clock the 21,722km trip.
He is accompanied at all times on the marathon flight by one of his two co-pilots, who are responsible for speaking to control towers.
So far, he has traversed 18 countries and weathered a windchill factor of minus 25degC while above the Lebanon mountains.
His route follows the same path of the classic London-Sydney 1919 Air Race: travelling across Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East, via Pakistan, India and Burma to Malaysia, Indonesia, Darwin and Sydney.
It is hoped the trip will raise A$2.5 ($2.83) million towards the prevention of blindness in developing countries.
- AAP
Quite interesting I thought. All the best to him. Found this article at the NZ Herald
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/sto ... d=10435555
