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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
In this video Simon also talks about his around the world flight (30sec advert at the beginning)
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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:
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