Norman prepares for France / notes on trip to SE England

Norman is in Kent, England now preparing to fly to France leaving at approx. 10.30 am (GMT). He will be heading across the English channel via the White Cliffs of Dover. The day looks good as viability is about 10 miles (17 kilometers) with broken cloud at about 2,000 feet (600 meters). There is a slight head wind so he is expected to reach Le Touquet Airport at about 1PM (CET). He will be flying in formation down to the English coastline with four other autogyros - a nice sight if anyone can catch it. (Photo belwo of Norman preparing to leave Long Mynd, Shropshire, England)

He had an interesting flight down from our technical base RotorSport UK Ltd in Shropshire, England yesterday afternoon as it was "quite murky" with light rain. Not the best weather for autogyro flying.  He flew over his sisters house south of Luton near London, who had a visible good luck message mark out in her garden. A nice personal touch!


He was jointed by by fellow autogyro pilot John Butler and both escaped the heavy rain by the skin of their teeth. As they landed in Kent a sudden squall blew up and they struggled to get their autogyros under cover. But as quickly as it came the rain departed in 10 minutes.


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France here we come!

Some people have asked why Norman and Gyrox is still in the UK. We have a technical base RotorSport UK Ltd in Shropshire where the autogyro was getting some final technical adjustments because  of the extraordinary demands of the journey.  This was already planned for.

Norman and Gyrox are now heading for Kent for an overnight. On Friday March 26th it will be flying across the White Cliffs of Dover accompanied by another autogyro acting as camera platform.  

Then to France where it is expected in Le Touquet airport on Friday (depending on weather conditions) then three other stops. The stop offs in Sarlat Domme and Béziers-Vias Saturday and finally Toulon-Hyères airport Sunday before heading down across Italy on Monday.

To get an insight to what lies ahead for Norman the photo above was taken of him flying over France last year. 


For more information check out our website  http://www.gyroxgoesglobal.com/  If you want to give us feedback, comment or contribute in any way use the comment box below or become a Facebook friend,

Norman drops in before flying off!

Norman Surplus got of to a flying start today in his attempt to go around the globe in an autogyro. He dropped into Larne, N. Ireland, his starting point on his global adventure, where he was enthusiastically greeted by hundreds of local people and school children.

According to the Irish Times He arrived with the cheers of hundreds of well-wishers behind him. After high-fives with many banner-waving youngsters, Mr Surplus said emotional goodbyes to his wife Celia and young children Felix and Petra before climbing on board. (Richard McMeekin) Irish Times 23 March 2010  

Norman is now at RotorSport UK Ltd in Shropshire, England where he is getting final adjustments to the autogyro completed.  He will then fly to the south east of the UK to Kent before departing on the next leg of the journey to France in Friday.

Temporary problem with SPOT tracking 

Remember you can track him across the globe with SPOT at the moment it inaccurately has him in the North West of England.  This will be re-set and will reflect his actual position later today.  

For more information check out website  http://www.gyroxgoesglobal.com/  If you want to give us feedback, comment or contribute in any way use the comment box below or become a Facebook friend.

Autogyro global circumnavigation website live

The website, which is the single source of all information about Norman Surplus's record attempt autogyro flight around the world, is now live.  It has links to: 

• Video
• Photos
• Podcasts / audio 
• Lots of background information

Here is the link http://www.gyroxgoesglobal.com/

Media coverage expected for the 'off' tomorrow

For people in the UK and Ireland watch GMTV from 6am and Sky News from 11am tomorrow (22 March 2010) for the latest on the Gyrox autogyro around the world. Also keep an eye on the papers!

Launch date - March 22nd 2010

Launch date has now been confirmed as 22nd March at 1100 hrs (GMT) from Larne Borough Council Sandy Bay Playing Fields near the seafront and Leisure Centre Larne, N. Ireland.

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Happy St. Patricks Day

Happy St. Patricks day to one and all - would have been quite a reasonable day for departure weather wise breeze from the west would have pushed me over the Irish sea quite nicely but anyway preparations continue towards Monday...

Heading home after Duxford

This is a typical view that a Gyro pilot gets as they fly west over the UK into the setting sun. This picture was taken as I flew along the SW coast of Scotland heading back to Larne, N. Ireland after the expedition launch event at Imperial War Museum Duxford, Cambridgeshire, England.

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GYROX in the workshop

Part of the upgrading work for GYROX will shortly involve changing the "wishbone" suspension (undercarriage) for a stronger version - this will enable the Maximum Take Off Weight (MTOW) to increase from 450kg to 500kg - a very useful additional 50 kg payload...a new main rotor will also be fitted at this time and will be then test flown to fine balance the blades relative to the aircraft (to reduce stick vibration to a minimum). All this work is being undertaken at the Rotorsport UK HQ "down the hill" from Long Mynd Gliding  club in Shropshire. This work will only take place after the CAA has deemed the MTOW upgrade as being an approved modification.

For more information go to Gyrox Goes Global Facebook.

New departure date will be confirmed tomorrow

Following the last information given I will confirm the new departure date tomorrow (Monday 15th March 2010). Most likely to be from Larne in a weeks time, Monday 22nd at about 11.00 hrs (subject to weather). I will still have to confirm Sandy Bay venue with Larne Borough Council as unfortunately this was referred to in the Times as "fact" on the front page when I had really said that I "hoped" to use Sandy Bay, Larne N. Ireland subject to permission...

For more information go to Gyrox Goes Global Facebook.