www.PSFmagazine.com | November-December 2019 | 35 34 | November-December 2019 | Powered Sport Flying SEE WHAT’S NEWAT SPORT COPTER! 34012 Skyway Dr Scappoose, OR 97056 (503)543-7000 information@sportcopter.com www.sportcopter.com Gyroplane Record Attempt After reaching Europe, Norman was soon back home. Having started fromNorthern Ireland in 2010, Norman had returned there five years later, and although having set several records, including the first flight across the Atlantic in a gyroplane, he hadn’t achieved completely what he had set out to do: fly entirely around the planet. There was that gap between Japan and the US, the span where Norman and Roxy had parted, Roxy riding in the bowels of a ship to the US. Back home, Norman’s life returned to the more normal, and although he still flew Roxy, it was without the heightened adventure of flying together as world travelers. It appeared that his attempt to fly completely around the world in a gyroplane had ended. Sometimes, though, what appears to be an ending actually marks a new beginning. By 2019, political winds had shifted, tension between Europe and Russia had lessened, and the Russian intransigence that had stymied Norman had eased. At that opportune time, another adventurer came along, one of kindred nature to Norman’s and with a similar desire, a young man named Jim Ketchell who had demonstrated his adventurous spirit by rowing across the Atlantic Ocean, climbing Mt. Everest, and bicycling around the world. For his next adventure, Jim wanted to fly around the world in a gyroplane and who better to ask advice of than Norman? Perhaps it was an awakening of the challenge, perhaps the timing, perhaps a unique comradery, perhaps all of this and more that breathed new life into Norman’s quest and resulted in a synchrony between these two like-minded adventurers. Separately, the two flyers, Norman in his MT-03 and Jim in his Magni M-16 gyroplane, crossed Europe to Poland and were allowed to enter Russia. FromMoscow, they flew together to Siberia, and from there, across the Bering Strait to Alaska, turning south down the coast of North America, flying from Alaska into Canada, and from Canada into the lower forty-eight states of the US, through the state of Washington and to Oregon where Norman landed Roxy on June 28, 2019, at McMinnville, the place where he and his gyroplane had rejoined each other four years before. The landing at McMinnville marked the point where Norman had completed traversing all of the earth’s lines of longitude, fromMcMinnville and back, becoming the first person to circumnavigate the globe in a gyroplane, landing at the same place where his first attempt had already ended, the place that marked the unanticipated starting point for a second attempt by the person who was the second to ever attempt the feat, the person who had embraced a second chance at life, embarking on a journey that ultimately took him more than 27,000 miles across the face of the earth, over thirty-two countries, and nine years to complete. Post script: Jim Ketchell, having also crossed the Atlantic, completed his around-the-world gyroplane flight, and subject to validation, is expected to set the first fai-sanctioned world speed record for circumnavigating the globe in a gyroplane. As for Norman, he plans to publish a book about his gyroplane experiences. And what’s in store for Roxy? Perhaps a permanent place at the Experimental Aircraft Association’s museum where she’s lodged now with the 1931 Pitcairn pca Autogiro “Miss Champion” and a 1941 Pitcairn PA-39, or perhaps a return to McMinnville, Oregon’s Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum, or possibly a home at England’s Shuttleworth Museum where Little Nellie is currently displayed.•
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