RWS 18 – Around the world solo in 17 days with Simon Oliphant-Hope

Around the world record helicopter simon oliphant hope
Simon Oliphant-Hope next to the MD500 that broke the around the world record in 2004.

A box full of maps, a sat phone, a support crew of 1 in a British hangar, full tanks and off you hop for an around the world record flight in an MD500 helicopter – that’s what Simon Oliphant-Hope did.

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00:45 Thanks for your feedback
01:30 Aaron and Lorena Knapp photo
02:00 Listener shoutout
02:50 Simon intro and Eastern Atlantic Helicopters
06:05 Moving from property to helicopters
07:10 Early helicopter work and starting a company
08:44 Getting a CFI rating
09:50 Idea to fly around the world
10:30 Planning the world record attempt
11:20 Rules for a world record
12:56 Average speed calculated first lift off / last touch down
14:00 Daily routine
16:10 Solo and support crew, getting through Russia
17:50 MD500 as the attempt aircraft
20:26 First attempt in 2001 and 9/11
23:33 Carrying maps and pre-attempt planning
26:00 Home base support crew and comms
27:11 Orthopaedic cushion from Ron Bower(previous record holder)
29:41 Going west bound challenges, Ross Perot Jnr, Dick Smith
31:30 Film flying and James Bond
32:30 Tips for young pilots
34:39 Route map
34:50 Marketing tip – trainmorepilots.com
36:00 Merry Christmas to you
36:30 World helicopter day

Links from this week’s episode:
Simon’s company Eastern Atlantic Helicopters

Flight path for 2004 around the world record flight.
Flight path for 2004 around the world record flight.

Around the world helicopter flight with Simon oliphant hope

In this video Simon also talks about his around the world flight (30sec advert at the beginning)
[leadplayer_vid id=”5494C417C4BC3″]

In 2013 a russian team flew around the world in 44 days with 2 Robinson helicopters – this puts Simon’s achievement (solo and 17 days) into perspective:
[leadplayer_vid id=”5494C3592FCB5″]



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