EAA Sport Aviation - August 2009

TRANS-WORLD FLIGHT: By the Numbers

158 hours flown

4 hours IMC, in clouds

81 hours at night

46 hours on the ground: 28 refueling and maintenance 18 hours sleeping in hotel

20,400 nautical miles

1185 gallons of avgas

Almost $20,000 total cost Over $5,000 for permits

Most expensive avgas in Djibouti, $710/55 gal. drum = $12.91 per gallon

25 country permits obtained

26 PowerBar Crunch bars eaten, a few vanilla unscathed; all chocolate consumed

During EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2008, Foy and Garratt staged a “sit in,” of sorts. It started as a media stunt, but ended up as an excellent prep test. The two women sat in the Mooney together for 24 hours, doing everything they’d need to do during the actual flight. Doctors gave them leg exercises to help prevent deep vein thrombosis and advised them to take baby aspirin a week in advance of the trip, as well as during the flight.

Ground support fulfilled a vital role in the flight’s successful outcome. “We had ground support 24 hours a day—they were all over the world, including the United States, Thailand, Switzerland, and Denmark. All of them had everybody’s contact information, and each of the ground crew were picked based on their experience around the world and their knowledge,” Garratt elaborates. “All ground crew knew our decision points for the three long legs, so if circumstances existed for us to deviate from our original plan, everyone had that information.”

In-flight communications were facilitated by two items—a satellite phone and HF radio, the latter of which was required by air traffic control. “I had the Iridium satellite phone so I could talk to my ground crew at any time,” explains Garratt, “and we were able to talk to kids in school while we were at different points around the world. We prearranged that with the teachers, and the

Carol Foy, left, and CarolAnn receiving U.S. and World Record from NAA Director Art Greenfield at the National Aeronautics Association banquet following accreditation of the flight by NAA.

kids were also able to track us on the website. Talking to the kids was one of the highlights of the trip—they loved it, and that was a lot of fun for all of us!”

The “Dash”

If you’re wondering why their flight was christened “Dash for a Cure,” for one, it was a quick trip. Yet, there’s another reason that the moniker is apt, and it ties in with Linda Ellis’ poem entitled “The Dash” ( www.TheDashMovie.com/linda), which is reprinted in the front of Garratt’s second book, Upon Silver Wings II—World-Record Adventure. The poem eloquently refers to “the dash” that appears between the birth and death dates on a tombstone, subtly symbolizing one’s lifetime—and Ellis gently prods us to make the most of our own dash.

Garratt is making her dash count for others who have been impacted by ALS. Her eyes easily reveal the depth of her earnest, compelling drive to make a difference in the field of ALS research by promoting awareness and raising funds. She is continuing to carry the message about her ALS world flights to aviation audiences and tries to schedule at least three presentations a week. To that end, she has committed the next two years to giving presentations about the ALS World Flight to various aviation organizations throughout the United States.

This year, her speaking tour will take her from Florida up the East Coast, across the upper Midwest, down across California, and eastward through Arizona, New Mexico, before returning to Ocala. Afterward, it’s a distinct possibility that she will once again set the challenge of flying her Mooney around the world. And, with a nod to the future, she smiles and says, “I’m going to build a 90-percent-scale, replica Spitfire. That’s the only warbird that I really enjoy, and it has beautiful, gorgeous lines!”

Foy also has an important message to convey, with which Garratt agrees. They both want to inspire kids by letting them know that they can do almost anything they want to do, just by taking the necessary steps and continuing to move forward, even when a project seems overwhelming. Through dedicated persistence and thorough planning, lofty goals can become tangible accomplishments—as evidenced by Garratt and Foy’s “Dash for a Cure” world-record-setting flight.