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Record-setting pilot makes stop in Kansas en route to fly-in By Donna Sullivan, take alternative action. He explained. “So it was good. Editor made the decision to put the We both had something to A piece of aviation aircraft in a container and gain from it, so we teamed history flew through Kan- ship it across the Pacific. up.” sas last week as Irishman It landed in McMinnville, After flying across Rus- Norman Surplus, the first Oregon, just south of Port- sia, the pilots came across person to circumnavigate land. The Evergreen Avi- the Bering Strait and the globe in an autogyro ation and Space Museum, crossed into Nome, Alaska aircraft, landed in Junction which houses the Spruce and spent another week or City, then stayed the night Goose, the aircraft once so flying down. “At that at the home of fellow pilot owned by Howard Hughes, point I had flown around Mark Sodamann and his allowed him to reassem- and physically gotten back wife Fran near Wakefield. ble the aircraft and put it to the same place again,” Surplus, having recently on display. At that point it Surplus said. He and Ketch- completed the flight around was the farthest flown gyro ell parted ways as planned, the world, was on his way plane in history, and they and Ketchell continued on to a fly-in at Oshkosh, Wis- positioned it under the tail in an attempt to set a speed consin. The stop in Kansas of the Spruce Goose for the record around the world. was necessitated by Hurri- public to see. In the spring To obtain the required dis- cane Barry, which forced of 2015, he flew the aircraft tance, he will criss-cross all Surplus to alter his route from McMinnville to Port- of the lower 48 states in the which would have taken land, Maine, a transconti- next six weeks or so. him across Louisiana and nental flight. From there he Surplus had been the into Mississippi. “This sort flew into Canada and across first to cross the Atlantic of flight is very ‘Make it to Greenland, Iceland, the in an autogyro, and when up as you go along,’” Sur- Farrow Islands and finally Ketchell arrives in Maine plus said. “It feels a bit Scotland. “And that’s how at the end of this leg of the like being the baton in a you get across the Atlan- journey, he will hopefully relay race, sort of passed tic, using the world’s larg- be the second. The duo was from one set of people to est stepping stones,” he the first to ever cross the another set of people about quipped. He arrived back in Bering Sea in an autogyro. two hundred miles away, Northern Ireland on August Following the fly-in in then another set and anoth- 11, 2015. “At that point I Wisconsin, Surplus says er. Sometimes it works like thought I’d finished,” he his aircraft might go into that, and it’s great when it said. “I’d flown around the a museum stateside for the does.” world, all but Russia and winter or he will put it into The inspiration for the that wasn’t really my fault.” another container and ship journey came in 2003 as But finished he was not. it back to the U.K. “People then 40-year-old Surplus About a year later, a ask if I will do the Atlan- lay recovering from surgery young man named James tic again and I say well, for advanced bowel cancer. Ketchell approached Sur- I pushed my luck once, I Doctors had given him a plus about helping him don’t need to do it again.” 40 percent chance of living launch a similar journey Once back in Ireland, he 18 months. While watching around the world in an au- will work on putting the daytime television, he saw togyro and Surplus agreed. finishing touches on a book a program in which they After Ketchell spent three he is writing about the ex- were restoring an old gy- years learning to fly and perience. rocopter that had been sit- obtaining his aircraft, He likened the open ting in a barn. “I remember sponsorship and every- cockpit aircraft to a flying thinking, “If I get through thing else, they believed motorbike, very physically this whole cancer episode, he would be ready to go demanding and mentally then maybe that is some- the following spring. But draining. And while he flew thing I would like to have a about two months before over some of the most exot- go at.” Six grueling months Autogyros enjoyed a heyday of popularity in the 1930s before helicopters came he was to embark, it was ic places on earth, there was of high-dose chemotherapy on the scene. The first aircraft to land on the White House lawn was an autogyro learned that Pakistan had little time for sightseeing. followed. “Thankfully that and Amelia Earhart flew one to a record-setting 18,000 feet. According to Sur- closed their borders to all But there was still magic seemed to do the trick and I plus, larger numbers of factory-built machines have come on the market in the light aircraft, so he would along the way. Like the started to recover,” he said. last 15-20 years which are more stable and reliable. One of their best features is no longer be able to follow night a thunderstorm forced Once he was up to it, he they burn about a third of the fuel as similar-sized helicopters while having similar the route Surplus had taken. he and Ketchell to land on began learning how to fly. advantages and capabilities. Photo by Mark Sodamann “In the meantime, Russia the Alaska Highway as they of aircraft has ever flown March, 2010 from Northern had a very long flight up to “Part of the reason for had come in from the cold,” headed toward Whitehorse. around the world. To find a Ireland, flew down through Okinawa, Japan. North of this flight was to raise Surplus said. They had a A family from Pennsyl- missing part of history like England, across the Chan- Japan he was ready to go funds for bowel cancer re- handler from Moscow who vania vacationing in their that in this day in age was nel and eventually flew 400 into Russia and believed he search,” he said. “But also could organize the flight so motor home stopped to quite amazing.” One other miles across the Mediterra- had their approval. Once to send a message out to they could come in from chat about the autogyros. pilot, Barry Jones from the nean, the first autogyro to there, he learned there were people who might be find- Europe and fly right across When it looked as though U.K. attempted it in 2004, fly across it. The journey all new people in charge ing themselves in that dark Russia, which would take they would have to leave and got as far as India be- included flying up the Nile and he had to reapply. But position today, newly diag- seventeen flights over the the planes overnight, the fore being stopped by a River, across the Red Sea permission to enter their nosed. Because at that very course of about a month, family gave them a ride monsoon. and over the desert in Saudi airspace never came. For moment, everything looks crossing seven time zones into Whitehorse, refresh- Surplus began his flight Arabia. It took ten weeks three and a half years he dark and bleak. So it’s to and covering five and a half ing the weary pilots with around the world in 2010, to fly to Thailand from the was stuck in Japan waiting send out a message of hope, thousand nautical miles. popcorn and hot chocolate. expecting it to take about U.K., and there he ditched for the Russians to give because I was in that very “He was quite a low-hours “It was just a really lovely four months. Instead, he fi- the aircraft in a lake and their permission for him to same position and ten years pilot and it would be a good moment,” Surplus reflect- nally completed it at the was stuck for three months fly. Each summer he went to later, you might be off fly- way for him to get a soft ed. “You couldn’t have pre- end of this June. He knew waiting on repairs. Once Japan hoping to restart his ing around the world.” introduction into the whole dicted that or you couldn’t going in that one of the he was airworthy again, he journey, to no avail. When “It’s amazing when you flight working with me, and have tried to organize it. It biggest hurdles would be flew one degree north of the Russia annexed Crimea and think that the first autogyro it would also mean that I just happened. And a lot of getting through Russia. “At Equator just north of Sin- diplomacy between Europe flew in 1923, and the Wright would be able to get back to things happen like that. It’s that time they were mak- gapore, then turned north- and Russia dissolved, Sur- brothers flew in 1903. In all McMinnville and finish my part of the adventure.” ing positive noises and we wards, always flying east plus knew it was time to that time, none of that type circumnavigation,” Surplus thought it seemed possi- around the world. From ble,” he said.

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