PICTURES: Daring gyrocopter bid to cross Atlantic heads out from Wick airport
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Two French aviators touched down at Wick airport as part of their daring, record-breaking bid to cross the Atlantic in a small gyrocopter.
Aurélie Rivière-Surzur and Christophe Gonin are currently partaking in a three-month trip in a gyrocopter, or autogyro, powered by a propeller and a horizontal rotor blade that distinguishes it from other aircraft.
Despite the weather being sunny in Wick, Aurélie and Christoph had to stay an extra day in Caithness due to their next destination in the Faroe islands being fogbound.
“Yesterday it was foggy here but right now we have to wait,” said Aurélie.
“We are sensitive to the clouds, wind and fog. In general, we fly from 3000 feet to 5000 feet and it depends on the wind. We are flying for about three hours.”
They explained how they are making the journey in stages by ‘island hopping’ from the UK to the Faroes and then to Iceland, Greenland and finally to Canada. Aurélie said that it is better to fly higher so that they will have time to work out how to rectify any issue that could see them having to descend.
They have a life raft to utilise if forced to ditch the small aircraft in the Atlantic Ocean and there is no parachute attached to the autogyro.
The two met a local man while dining in Wick and he offered to put them up for the night. “We can’t plan exactly when we will arrive in a place as it depends on the weather, so we don’t book hotels and we may sleep in a tent if necessary,” added Aurélie.
“We want to fly and realise a dream. When you are a good team you are better. When you have a dream you should realise it. Everything is possible. Today everybody is inside and on their cellphone and we want to open our eyes and see the world.”
Christoph says the maximum range of the gyrocopter is 300 miles and each stage of the expedition is around 250 miles which leaves little leeway for navigational errors. “We have to be very careful with the fuel and it would be a big problem if we ran out.” He added that the aircraft is incapable of taking off from the sea if it is forced to ditch.
The two aviators had already flown the autogyro from France and had touched down at various UK airports on the way to Wick. “There have been people who have done this trip in an autogyro but this is the first time with two people on board,” said Christoph.
They stressed that they were not looking for any glory in making the journey and there had been no media fanfare as they set off.
Anyone wishing to follow the adventurers on their trip can check their Facebook page Fly to the North at: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553327631919
At the time of going to press, Aurélie and Christoph had made it to Iceland and were preparing for the next leg of the journey to Greenland.
