Meet the Team.
The original flight for life aircrew April 2006.
Tony Parr - Pilot (CFM Streak Shadow: G-BSOR).
Tony has been an electrical
engineer for 15 years now, which comes in handy when the plane goes
wrong...and boy does it go wrong!
He is busy restoring a 1972 MG which Les has still to help finish... He
doesn't know that yet though!
Tony gained a Hot Air Balloon PPL in 2000 and has flown in Spain, Italy
and the States.
Tony "nearly" bought a very nice Cessna 182 , but the bank manager
thought differently! So he opted for a more economic form of flying,
microlights.
Although not part of the challenge, snowboarding is a recently founded
passion for Tony...and juggling between the two is difficult...ahh, its
a hard life!
Les Field - Pilot (Jabiru UL450: G-SIMP).
Les has worked as a
technical consultant for COA Solutions for 10 years.
He is Married to Hayley, and has 2 daughters, Amy aged 6 and Lucy
aged 5.
Les started his flight training for the challenge in September 2003.
Les had to sell his beloved old Jaguar and re-mortgage his house to
fund his training and purchase his Aircraft in June 2004, but he
says "it's one of the best things I've ever done".
Les is looking forward to the UK-2-Africa challenge. "People
don't realise that the temperature drops 2 degrees every 1000 feet,
so flying around Scotland at 6,000 feet was COLD. Asking for fuel
and 2-stroke oil in Morocco may be a struggle but at least I wont
have to wear 3 pairs of socks!" Les is a member of the
Civil Air Patrol .
Dave Blofeld - Navigator (Jabiru UL450: G-SIMP).
Dave has been a self-employed painter and
decorator for over 18 years, and has a 21 year old son Gavin.
Dave was with Craig for nearly 9 years and after seeing first hand all
the care and support provided by so many hospitals, the Marlets hospice
and many others, he thought that the flight for life was an ideal
opportunity to give back much needed financial help.
Dave has completed 15 hours of flying lessons to help out with co-pilot
duties ready for the 2008 Africa trip.
Jacqui Parker - Pilot (Rans S6ES: G-BZNH).
Jacqui is the newest member of the Flight for life team. She is currently undergoing her training with Keith Mitchell and is well on her way to completing.
Jacquie works in a pharmaceutical dispensary and has 2 children with her long term partner Ashley (who will be in charge of filming and camera work on the next flight for life trip). Apart from flying her Rans aircraft, Jacqui's other passion is motorbikes.
Meet the Aircraft.....
G-BSOR: 1990 CFM STREAK SHADOW 532.
Owner/Pilot: Tony Parr.
Designed by David Cook, the first
person to fly the English Channel in a powered hang-glider, the
Shadow first flew in 1983. In 1988 the Streak Shadow was
introduced and having a 28ft wing span and the more powerful
Rotax 532 liquid cooled engine producing 64hp.
'Oscar Romeo' has been fitted with a Garmin Pilot III GPS,
electric start, and a long range fuel tank and has a duration of
over 4 hours.
The rear seat is available for the 2007 UK-2-Africa challenge.
If you want to be part of the team please read the details on
the Africa page.
G-SIMP: 2002 Jabiru UL450. Owner/Pilot: Les Field.
Navigator/Co-Pilot: Dave Blofeld.
The side by side two seat Jabiru has been among the most successful of the new microlight designs. It currently holds the records for the fastest (both over 50 and 100 kilometres circuits), highest flown and the most economical microlight available in Britain. It's also one of the only aircraft to have an engine built buy the same aircraft company specifically for the plane.
Powered by an 85HP 2.2L 4-stroke purpose built alloy engine giving a maximum level speed of 140mph, and it has over 6 hours endurance.
Fuel burn at it's cruise speed of 100 mp/h is only 11 litres.
But, at slower speeds the Jabiru can cover 70 miles (in a perfect straight line) using only 6 litres of fuel. Travelling the same distance by road in a Toyota Prius hybrid car would burn 9.3 litres.
So if you want to save the environment, sell the hybrid fuel car and buy a plane!
The reason for its great performance and low fuel burn is that It's very slippery (low drag), and it's small. The small size is deceptive though. Inside, the Jabirus' cabin is quite long with a voluminous baggage area.
'Mike Papa' has only done 200 hours since new and in 2004 was awarded a commendation for the 'Best Composite aircraft' by the Light Aircraft Association.
If your wondering what's on the dashboard of 'Mike Papa'...?
Top row left right:
Vacuum gauge - engine generated vacuum is use to power some of
the instruments. ASI - Air Speed indicator.
Artificial Horizon. Altimeter. Garmin
296 GPS.
Rev Counter. Oil pressure.
Middle row left right:
Intercom Volume and squelch. Turn co-ordinator. DI - adjustable compass. VSI - vertical speed indicator. Radio. Transponder - sends a radio signal to air traffic control and other aircraft. Rev Counter. Cylinder Head temperature. Oil temperature.
Bottom row left right:
LCD Carburettor air temp. Master switch. Carburettor heat control. Instrument switch. Avionics switch. Fuel Pump switch. Voltage meter. Cabin Heat. Fuses. Choke. Transmit Button.
Below the dashboard you have the Air vents. Fuel shut off valve for the 65 litre tank. Trim leaver. Brakes and finally the main centre mounted Control column.
Mike Papa's flap control leaver is above the pilot.
Mike Papa's GPS (which was purchased especially for the 2008 UK-2Africa challenge) has a feature called Terrain Awareness .
If there is danger of a collision with a mountain, a pop-up windows appears and displays the danger with X's. This could be useful when the guys go over/through the Pyrenees.
Here's a link to how the flight for life teams Jabiru (G-SIMP) is Rigged.
G-BZNH: 2000 Rans S6ES 582 Coyote II.
Owner/Pilot: Jacqui Parker. Navigator: Ashley Winter.
The Rans aircraft company started in 1974 and the Coyote went into production in 1989. Our Aircraft was built by the factory and is the ES model (the latest type) powered by a liquid cooled, oil injected, electric start 65hp Rotax Blue Top 582. 'November Hotel' has a very roomy cabin, a luggage area and has a wing span of over 35Ft. Fully loaded it can easily operate out of a small 300m airstrip. Although the engine produces 25% more power than our old aircraft, it only uses 14lph @ 70mph which means a range of 300 miles. Some Rans aircraft are known to be still flying with over 3000 hours of use. Ours has less than 200 hours on the clock, so it should last a while.
What's on the dashboard of 'November Hotel'...?
Starting from the top left to right,
G-BZNH has an Icom A3 Radio with Comunica intercom, Air Speed Indicator, Vertical Speed Indicator, Altitude Indicator, a Garmin 196 (Primary GPS), and on the far right a Cylinder head temperature gauge.
Bottom row (L-R): Fuel Primer, Water pressure, Rev Counter, Slip ball (balance indicator), Water Temperature, Exhaust gas temperature, a Mio A701 (Backup GPS), another slip ball indicator and a hobs (total engine hours) meter.
The centre consol has the Compass, separate magneto switches and the starter key.
The white tap under the left (pilots) side is the fuel tank selector (November Hotel has 2 x 31 litre tanks in the wings).
The handbrake type lever in the centre works the flaps and just behind this is the trim adjustment wheel.
Both Pilot and passenger have control sticks, rudder peddles, power levers and brakes (operated from the rudder peddles).
The pilots control stick has the Push to Talk switch for the radio.
The Jacqui also keep a sick bag in the glove box. You never know when you'll need it!
Finally the original Flight For Life aircraft....
G-MYGH: 1994 Rans S6ESD 503 Coyote II.
Pilot: Les Field. Navigator: Dave Blofeld.
This is the original Flight For
Life aircraft which was written off in windy conditions in May 2006.
It was replaced by 'November Hotel' (above) prior to the 2006 round
Britain challenge. G-MYGH was powered by a small air cooled Rotax
503 engine and had a pull start. With only a 38lt fuel tank and 16lph @
65mph burn rate, the range was very limited as well. But with it's
custom purple and black stripes and wheel spats, it looked superb.
Whilst putting the aircraft away in May 2006 the wind took hold of the
port wing. lifting it up and bending the frame and leading edge spar.
It's now based in Ince (near Liverpool) and the new owner is intending
to repair it and get it back in the air again.
You can track the team below, using Google latitude.
