Project 55775 woman, 5 men, 7 days to build, 7 days to fly   At the end of February 2011 the Sling 5577 project was launched where 5 men and 5 women built a Sling in 7 days. Mike & James then left in April 2011 to deliver this uniquely created Sling to Poland in

The Sling 7 day build is getting along fabulously. Photos below show the team members and the developments to late afternoon on the second day (Sunday). All bets are still on for 7 days, if not 6. Team members are – Men : Mike Blyth, Jean d'Assonville, James Pitman, Gareth Bosch, Vince NtuliWomen: Nomfundo Xulu, Charmaine Blyth, Bronwyn

One problem with building an airplane in 7 days is that there's not a whole lot of time left over to report developments to the rest of the world. Anyhow, we're now 5 days down (it's 08h30 on Thursday morning) and our baby is really beginning to look like something that may actually fly quite

What a week – the highs and lows just didn't stop! By yesterday morning, Friday 3 March 2011, the final day, the team was beginning to get quite serious cabin fever and a strange “Big Brother” sensation was beginning to descend upon everyone. Nevertheless, all pulled their weight on the final straight (though some more

The final touches are being put on ZU-SOL just 10 hours before take-off for Europe. She looks beautiful in her new paint job, has 4 25 liter additional ferry fuel tanks fitted and is just being subjected to a final inspection. This is what things look like at 18h30. Here are a couple of shots

What a long day, week, month (and five years!). Getting to Lilongwe today was more than just a one day flight, it was the culmination of all the hard effort leading to the flight. The seven day Sling was successfully assembled in seven days only because of the extent of the dedicated development work, testing

Another perfect day in Africa! Finally, having left the airfield at 20h30 we're settled into Cassie's place, “the Sugar Bowl” in Langata, Nairobi. We've decided to report on the day backwards, since things have definitely got better and better as the hours have passed! So here goes – Just finished up a feast of rare

We tried to get an early start by racing to Wilson airport before the sun rose only discover that we had left our all important backup Garmin 495 behind … Right now we are on the apron at Khartoum International airport waiting for our “agent” by the name of Ayatollah to organize 200 litres of

We are now in Alexandria after landing at Borg Al Arab airport which is the local military airport. We mistakenly thought that the airport at Alexandria was closed for repairs. Luckily we are not in trouble – actually everyone is very hospitable and helpful. Now we have to mission through to get out of here

Getting out of Egypt was as we expected – a bit of a nightmare. One bit of advice I can give everyone – do not fly a private aircraft into Sudan or Egypt. I am sure there are other countries in the world which are “small private aircraft unfriendly” but in my opinion those 2