CBN first heard about the Cape to Cape project when one of our Rotarian friends, Leif Sundqvist, visited us from Skellefteä. He described an adventure that our children would love to be part of – and they are going to be. Children from Red Hill informal settlement will welcome the pilot of a Moth (early biplane) when it touches down at Stellenbosch airfield on Saturday 24th October.
Here is an extract from the Cape to Cape website – for more on this fascinating adventure, visit http://capetocape.net/
Beginning in September 2015, Swedish pilot Johan Wiklund will fly a 1935 De Havilland 60 Moth biplane from Stockholm Barkarby Airport to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. This modern-day challenge echoes the pioneering flight of another Swede, Gösta Andrée, who flew a Moth from Stockholm’s Barkarby airfield to Cape Town, South Africa, in 1929.
The first phase of the adventure actually already started in July this year, when Johan took off from North Cape in Norway.
At the time, Andrée’s journey was an unprecedented feat – a lone aviator flying an open-cockpit plane over the vast deserts and jungles of the African continent, equipped with the most rudimentary of navigational instruments: a map and a compass. Johan Wiklund will repeat Andrée’s adventure, flying a similar aircraft and following the 1929 route as closely as possible. He’ll also use the same navigational tools, and even a copy of Andrée’s flying costume.
Johan Wiklund wants to prove that it is still possible. Using the same technology used by his compatriot Gösta André in 1935. This is an adventure where just one single man in an old technology biplane, despite a previously experienced crash, dares the elements of nature, to explore untapped parts of Europe and Africa from the sky and ground. To get the ultimate perspective.
Some of the funding raised through crowd-sourcing for CapetoCape will go to CBN through the Rotary Skellefteä project: ‘Make Reading Cool’
