Scott Beaver

A listener, Scott Beaver, wrote to me recently to say how much he’s enjoying listening to the podcast and in his email he mentioned that he was planning to fly around the world at some time in the not too distant future. I’m always keen to hear about how people go about planning for great flying adventures so I invited Scott along to appear on the podcast.

Listen to Episode 46

We started by discussing Scott’s early flying career. He did his PPL training with Multiflight at Leeds Bradford Airport eventually gaining his licence in 2004.
Not long after he gained his PPL he went over to Florida to do some hours building. He remembers paying $50 per hour at London Aviation who were based at Naples Airport. From Naples he did some long distance flights including one particularly memorable trip down to Key West, a trip that I had also done in 2003. He described his experiences of flying over the Keys, using Flight Following and enjoying the scenery of southern Florida.
After his trip to Florida he went over to Nevada for a holiday and whilst there hired a 172 with a glass cockpit for a few days. He took flights out over Las Vegas, the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon.

PA-22

He really enjoys flying in the States and intends to go back to do some more flying soon.
In 2007 he found himself on holiday in Africa and again he tracked down an aircraft to hire. He found a PA22 for rent near Mombassa along with an equally aged pilot. They flew up and down the coast and over a safari park for an unforgettable trip in a classic aircraft.

Flying over Africa

Prior to its closing, Scott hired aircraft from Manchester School of Flying at Manchester Airport. Having gained great experience of flying from a large international airport he has now moved back to Yorkshire and flies out of the superb Sherburn Airport.

Before we got around to discussing his prep for the round the world trip we discussed his current training. He’s studying for his IMC Rating and flying with Peter Jackson at Sherburn. With its uncertain future, Scott is eager to get the IMC Rating before its possible demise due to European regulation.
He described what’s involved in the syllabus for the rating and what sort of flight training is required. An option for the round the world trip is for Scott to go on to get his Instrument Rating and the IMC Rating is a great introduction for that.
Having discussed his past, in terms of aviation, Scott went on to tell us about his dream of flying around the world. Inspired by Polly Vacher, Scott would like to fly around the globe and to raise money for charity. His chosen charity is Make a Wish Foundation, raising money to grant children with life-threatening illnesses their ‘magical wish’.

Still in the early stages of planning he’s got some long distance flights in the pipeline starting with a trip to Le Touquet in France in the next few weeks.

Scott is thinking of using a PA28 as that’s the aircraft that he’s most familiar with but he’s open to offers if a sponsor has an aircraft they’d like to put forward. He seems to have set his heart on doing the trip in a single engined plane just for the challenge of it. I asked Scott whether he’d considered a diesel aircraft due to the greater availability on Jet A1 rather than an Avgas powered aircraft. Whatever fuel he goes with he’s concerned that many previous pilots have reported that they’ve flown their aircraft greatly overweight on their round the world attempt.

Scott would prefer to do the challenge alone and is planning to get his IR. The alternative option is to fly with an instrument rated co-pilot.

We discussed how pilots cope with the huge amount of charts required for the trip and how potential ‘Earthrounders’ cope with all of the planning permissions, clearances and visas. Scott mentioned one company that helps deal with all of the planning side of the flight. They are Overflight, based in West Sussex, UK.
There’s a huge amount of equipment required including clothing, radios, survival equipment, emergency transmitters… the list goes on. If you add up all of the costs, including fuel, accommodation, landing fees, etc., Scott reckons you won’t get much change out of $50,000.
Scott wants to fly what is known as the ‘Classic Route’ From the UK down through Europe to Egypt then across the Middle East, through India and Indonesia to Australia. From there he would fly across the Pacific to the US then over to Greenland and back to the UK via Iceland. That would include around 80-100 hours over water, the longest leg being approx 17 hrs. The total flying hours would amount to 270 with 35 to 40 stops and covering in the region of 27,500 miles.
Info on other round the world pilots can be found at Earthrounders.

Although the trip will be a great adventure, Scott’s overriding aim is to raise money for his chosen charity so we wish him well. We’ll keep you up to date with his progress.