![Cape Town-131030-Aviator Tracey Curtis-Taylor will embark on a 7,000 mile solo flight from South Africa to the United Kingdom in a Boeing [NYSE: BA] Stearman open-cockpit biplane beginning Nov. 1, a commemoration of an historic flight done in 1928.The "Cape Town to Goodwood" African Adventure flight celebrates the achievement of Lady Mary Heath, a pioneer of British aviation in the 1920s who was the first pilot, male or female, to make such a journey. Boeing is a supporting sponsor of the adventure flight. Tracey Curtis-Taylor will be flying a refurbished vintage 1942 Boeing Stearman, named the Spirit of Artemis. Reporter: Kieran Legg - Photo: Ross Jansen](https://image-prod.iol.co.za/16x9/1600/Cape-Town-131030-Aviator-Tracey-Curtis-Taylor-will-embark-on-a-7-000-mile-solo-flight-from-South-Africa-to-the-United-Kingdom-in-a-Boeing-NYSE-BA-Stearman-open-cockpit-biplane-beginning-Nov-1-a-commemoration-of-an-historic-flight-done-in-1928-The-andquot-Cape-Town-to-Goodwoodandquot-African-Adventure-flight-celebrates-the-achievement-of-Lady-Mary-Heath-a-pioneer-of-British-aviation-in-the-1920s-who-was-the-first-pilot-male-or-female-to-make-such-a-journey-Boeing-is-a-supporting-sponsor-of-the-adventure-flight-Tracey-Curtis-Taylor-will-be-flying-a-refurbished-vintage-1942-Boeing-Stearman-named-the-Spirit-of-Artemis-Reporter-Kieran-Legg-Photo-Ross-Jansen?source=https://xlibris.public.prod.oc.inl.infomaker.io:8443/opencontent/objects/34207660-aafa-5c1a-922c-f99d029299d9)
London - Intrepid pilot Tracey Curtis-Taylor, who set off from Cape Town for Britain in November, has completed her 12 900km solo flight in a 1940s biplane, but not without almost becoming hypothermic.
The severe European winter weather proved a challenge for Curtis-Taylor during her eight-week adventure to Goodwood in West Sussex, England.
The 51-year-old finally realised her dream of recreating the pioneering 1928 flight of Lady Mary Heath, who made history by becoming the first person to fly solo across Africa.
Curtis-Taylor set off from Cape Town on November 2 in the Spirit of Artemis, a classic 1940s open-cockpit Boeing Stearman biplane, and ended her journey by landing in appalling conditions in Goodwood on New Year’s Eve.
“I came in, in the atrocious weather, with gusts of over 30 knots. Thank goodness it’s on the coast because I couldn’t see Goodwood until I was over it,” she said.
“Weather is always the biggest issue. Getting back across Europe in an open-cockpit plane, battling strong headwinds and crosswinds, I lost 30 percent of my ground speed. You are very vulnerable.”
Curtis-Taylor, who has been flying for more than 30 years and was 16 the first time she flew a plane, passed through some of the most troubled and beautiful parts of the world.
The Spirit of Artemis has a top speed of 152km/h and a maximum altitude of 3 000m, although Curtis-Taylor flew at low levels, including as low as 5m over Lake Natron, Kenya, allowing her to enjoy Africa’s wildlife and dramatic terrain.
She said one of her worst journeys was over Egypt, where she was asked to fly at 3 000m. She became worried she would not make her destination as she was almost going backwards.
She said: “It was getting colder, the plane was getting slower and I was almost running out of fuel, but they would not let me descend.
“I was really anxious and I became almost hypothermic. In the end I didn’t do what they told me because it was too dangerous.
“When I flew over the Mediterranean, I got told to ascend to 5 000m which was impossible because the plane is not made to fly that high and I would have needed oxygen above 3 000m. I was treated like a commercial airliner,” said Curtis-Taylor.
The 40-leg trip also saw Curtis-Taylor fly through Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan and the Republic of Sudan.
In Egypt, she was delayed by a storm with winds of more than 112km/h which delivered snow to Cairo.
Curtis-Taylor, who is British-born but was raised in Canada, had hoped to finish the journey before Christmas but the strong winds across Europe meant she was stuck in Croatia over the festive period waiting for a window of opportunity.
She said she was very happy and relieved to get the Spirit of Artemis back to the UK in one piece.
“Having lived the project so intensively, I never quite imagined the finale.
“I felt completely punch drunk from the experience and desperately short of sleep,” she said.
Her journey is being made into a feature documentary and the editing is expected to be finished by May. – Daily Mail
Flight the height of daring
In an era in which women were expected to be good wives and bear children, Lady Mary Heath took to the skies, setting aviation records.
Heath was the first pilot to fly a small open-cockpit aircraft from Cape Town to London.
Heath calculated the journey would take three weeks to complete. Instead, it lasted three months, from January to May 1928.
In 1926, Lady Heath became the first woman to hold a commercial flying licence in Britain.
She was also the first woman to parachute from an aeroplane and the first woman to get a mechanic’s qualification in the US.
She died aged 44.