Get FinancingAustralian Adventurer & Tech Entrepreneur Successfully Flies Single-Engine Helicopter From Australia To New Zealand
This post is courtesy of a third-party contributor.
John-Paul (JP) Thorbjornsen will today complete what is believed to be the first ever single-engine helicopter flight from Australia to New Zealand. Landing in Auckland this afternoon, the 36-year old adventurer and tech entrepreneur from the Northern Territory took two days to complete the dangerous 3,000km trip, refuelling on Lord Howe and Norfolk islands along the way. For a single-engine helicopter, this is an enormously challenging task – covering a vast body of extremely cold water with unabating Antarctic winds that create unpredictable airstreams and whip swells up to 15m high, as well as difficult respiratory conditions. Not many people want to attempt it because of the distances, weather, and potentially deadly risks involved.
JP is a former Australian Airforce fighter pilot, and believes he has the necessary sea survival and island survival skills, as well as thousands of hours of over-water flying required to successfully complete this feat. ‘My approach is: plan to succeed but expect to fail,’ he says. ‘I’ve put in steps in every part of the journey to arrive in New Zealand, but I’ve already mentally rehearsed ending up in the ocean and I know what to do if that happens,’ JP says.
While this journey has previously been completed in a small airplane, helicopters are slower and have shorter ranges, so require refuelling more often. The chosen helicopter is the state-of-the-art Airbus ACH130, specially the Aston Martin edition. While the risks of this journey may be life-threatening, JP says he believes he can manage risk well. ‘I like exploring the world around me, and while flying a helicopter to New Zealand requires many difficult problems to be solved, I won’t let the challenges stop me,’ he says. ‘I like solving hard problems, and I want to prove it can be done.’
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Time/Location: Departure
- Sydney Kingsford Smith Heli Terminal (execujet) on 7 May
- Refuel stops on Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island and Auckland
- Arrival: in Auckland on Wednesday 8 May