The Oshkosh community has now been waiting three years for the beauty of the Sling High Wing to grace its skies and exhibition spaces. This year IT IS GOING TO HAPPEN.
- No less than THREE Sling High Wing aircraft are flying from Johannesburg to Oshkosh. They are:
- ZU-SHW – The factory ‘Development Prototype’ Sling High Wing, piloted by yours truly, James Pitman, and his mate, Matt Cohen;
- N 915 HW – The first Sling High Wing delivered to a customer, in kit form, and assembled by its American owner, Linda Sollars, here in Johannesburg. N915HW will be piloted by Linda and Mike Blyth;
- N 669 JP – The first Sling High Wing Taildragger delivered to a customer, again in kit form, assembled by its Namibian (New Zealand, American?) owner, JP “The Candourist” Schulze, also here in Johannesburg, and piloted by JP and his Australian mate, William;
- Expected departure date is Sunday 17 July 2022;
- The route Iooks like this - JHB - Luanda (Angola) - Accra (Ghana) - Praia (Cape Verde) - Seawell (Barbados) - Turks and Caicos (Bahamas) - Fort Lauderdale (Florida, USA) - Oshkosh (Wisconsin, USA)
- Route choice and timing takes into account objectives of speed, convenience and of course pilot pleasure!
- Mike and I are quite old hands at these long flying journeys. Matt Cohen is a competent but new’ish PPL pilot, Linda is an ATP who flies in the US for Jet Blue, and JP is a veteran of many long, hard flying and camping journeys, including a global circumnavigation in a Cessna 210 (see “Beyond Borders” on Discovery Plus or Amazon Prime for the movie!);
- ZU-SHW will be modified to allow for hands only flying – Matt lost the use of his legs in a motorcycle accident some years ago;
- The aircraft will essentially fly the trip in a loose formation of three;
- We plan to fly all legs during DAYLIGHT hours this time around (phew!) – as you get older you also become more risk averse (and of course your beauty sleep becomes a greater priority!);
- The two JP’s will each be taking along a Sling Tagati gravel bicycle for local transport – no person should spend sustained periods away from their bike!;
- Last year’s journey was snookered by the Covid Delta Variant which raised its head in South Africa just weeks before departure. While you can’t cover every eventuality, this year we’re covering every exit we’re reasonably able to in the planning process. Of course, with adventures of these proportions you do, nevertheless, always require just a hint of luck;
We invite everyone to follow our trip by tracking our progress as we go – each airplane will have an IndigoDUO Hybrid Satellite Tracking and Messaging Device from IndigoSat, which will plot onto a world map live, and which will be found on this page once installed, tested and live! Each pilot will also carry a Garmin InReach device on their body just in case a rescue at sea becomes necessary!
As before, we promise to post photos, stories, return love and generally just try bring the world along with us as much as we can. JP has and will also be posting content (VLOGS!) on a daily basis – being so much younger and more competent than me, there’s generally more to see in his posts – check that out too on his Instagram page or on his YouTube channel.
LEG NO | DATE | FROM | TO | DISTANCE (nm) |
| 1 | Sunday, 17 July 2022 | Lanseria (FALA) | Luanda, Angola (FLNU) | 1,321 |
| 2 | Tuesday, 19 July 2022 | Luanda, Angola (FLNU) | Accra Int'l, Ghana (DGAA) | 1,179 |
| 3 | Thursday, 21 July 2022 | Accra Int'l, Ghana (DGAA) | Nelson Mandela Int'l, Praia, Cape Verde (GVNP) | 1,663 |
| 4 | Saturday, 23 July 2022 | Nelson Mandela Int'l, Praia, Cape Verde (GVNP) | Grantley Adams Int'l, Barbados (TBPB) | 2,101 |
| 5 | Sunday, 24 July 2022 | Grantley Adams Int'l, Barbados (TBPB) | Nassau Int'l, Bahamas (MYNN) | 1,245 |
| 6 | Tuesday, 26 July 2022 | Nassau Int'l, Bahamas (MYNN) | Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (KFXE) | 250 |
| 7 | Tuesday, 26 July 2022 | Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (KFXE) | Bowman Field, Kentucky (KLOU) | 774 |
| 8 | Wednesday, 27 July 2022 | Bowman Field, Kentucky (KLOU) | Oshkosh, Wisconsin (KOSH) | 369 |
| 8,902 |
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