A pair of Octogenarian pilots stopped in Muskoka on Aug. 30 as part of a 100-day-round-the-world journey.
Bob Bates and Barry “Baz” Payne are taking the trip to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first flight around the world. The two departed in a single-engine monoplane from Papua New Guinea on June 1. So far, their excursion has taken them through Japan, Russia, Sweden, the United Kingdom, a handful of islands in the North Atlantic and into Canada. They took off from Happy Valley-Goose Bay in central Labrador on the morning of Aug. 30 and landed at the Muskoka Airport midafternoon.
“The flight to Muskoka was one of the best flights that we have [had] so far,” they said on their blog. “There were no clouds and it was a very smooth flight. It was 900 miles to the south west of Goose Bay and we arrived on schedule at 2:15 p.m.”
The Muskoka landing was orchestrated with Bruce Hodge, a local cottage owner and a longtime friend of Bates. Hodge founded a Toronto-based travel company called Goway Travel and works with Bates to offer tours in Papua New Guinea.
After doing some interviews with local media, the pilots went with Hodge and his wife Claire to their cottage on Lake Rosseau. They all went out for dinner at Windermere House before settling in at the cottage for the night.
“They met us on the apron as we exited the aircraft after landing at Muskoka, and, gave us the best rooms in their cottage,” they said. “They fed us well and gave us many cups of tea. It was really a relaxing couple of days for us, we needed it, and for this we will be eternally grateful to the Hodges.”
Saturday was a no-fly day for them, so they spent the morning catching up on emails and updating their website. After that, they spent the afternoon on Lake Rosseau with the Hodges, exploring the area on a pontoon boat.
Bates and Payne said the Hodges were the perfect hosts for their two-night stay in Muskoka. On Sunday, the two men set out for Plattsburgh, New York on their way across the US to Seattle.
“From there, we will pickup the 1924 route through Alaska, along the Aleutian Islands chain to Kamchatka and complete a full circle back at Kagoshima,” they said. “We aim to arrive back in Mount Hagen on 28th September, the same day the two Douglas Air Cruisers landed back at Seattle in 1924.”
Four Douglas Air Cruisers operated by the US Army Air Service left Seattle on April 6, 1924. Two of the airplanes crashed, leaving one crew to brave the elements in Alaska for six days before finding an abandoned cabin. The other crew was picked up by the US Navy after their plane went down in the North Atlantic.
A cheering crowd greeted the remaining crews in Seattle 175 days after their journey began. Bates and Payne aren’t flying the exact route of the first world-traversing flight, but they are retracing parts of the original flight path.
They also have handcrafted monkeys made by Paynes’ wife Sandra to keep as mascots – a nod to the stuffed spider monkeys carried by the original crews. They each have one with their names on the back, and Bates’ monkey companion can be identified by its bushy eyebrows.
The combined age of the pilots is 161 years, amounting to 105 years of pilot experience. Bates and Payne are both members of the United Flying Octogenarians (UFO), a US-based organization with over 1,800 members. Meeting other pilots like them is part of what drove them to hit the skies for 100 days.
“[Four] of its members are over 100 years old,” they said on their blog. “We hope to meet fellow UFO’s at a number of towns during our flight and encourage pilots to keep their ratings current no matter how old they are.”
To learn more about their journey, visit Bob & Baz’s Flight Blog.
