Norman is off to Kolkata, India / some notes on his day to day activity

Norman is off to Kolkata, India also known as Calcutta his last stop before leaving India and entering Bangladesh and the Union of Myanmar previously known as Burma. This flight is about half what he flew yesterday and will be just over 140 miles / 225 kilometers. We understand that Indian national media will be there to see him off at Jamshedpur and some international media will be at Kolkata to greet him. Let us see what happens?


One follower asked some questions about some of Norman's day-to-day activity and here is the Q & A.

• Where does he eat and sleep? - Norman eats and sleeps either in regular hotels or as a guest of a host if lucky. Hotels have varied greatly in price and quality as you can imagine.
• Where does he do his laundry? - Laundry which is limited is done at the accommodation.
• What type of fuel does the autogyro use? - It uses normal unleaded (95) or Avgas. There is a full range of information about Gyrox autogyro on the website http://www.gyroxgoesglobal.com/ 
• How are pictures and blog entries etc. done? - Pictures are sent to the back up base by Norman or who ever else took Them. Blog etc. info is usually delivered by phone, text and some times email depending on access to latter or the time Norman has.  It is then written up at our base and posted on the blog, website, Facebook and Twitter.

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Norman is flying to Jamshedpur Airport, Indian today.

Norman is flying to Jamshedpur Airport, India today. This is a distance from Raipur of just over 300 miles / 480 kilometers flying east. Norman will be flying over a mixture of high lush green forest and drier arid low lands. He will once again need to fly high to avoid the intense heat. This means he cannot fully enjoy the close views of the ground usually experienced by lower flying which autogyros excel at.  

As with his other flights through India he may see some localised forest fires. As he flew over them at over 6,000 feet / 2,000 meters in some cases he could clearly see the flames as they leaped high into the sky. At other times the strips of flame reminded him of lava flows. This brought to mined the erupting volcano in Iceland and the trouble travelers are having in Europe - but Norman flies on! Photo below for illustration purposes and not from Norman unfortunately - inflight photography has proved particularly difficult.

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From the Middle East to Middle India

Well it’s been quite a transition in the last week, from the surprisingly rainy Deserts of Saudi Arabia displaying some cloud cover and hence therefore “relatively” cool, to be now faced with the oppressively hot 47 degree Celsius heat of Nagpur and Raipur. At least it is a dry heat with little humidity, unlike later in the summer as the monsoon creeps across the continent.

The weather for flying has been good  - apart from the daily sauna on the ground whilst getting ready! I don’t recall pre flight checks during my early flight training in Cumbria (N.W. England) make any mention of seeking out the nearest spare baggage trolley to keep the fuel in the shade until the very last minute before departure. Photo below of an Indian maintenance crew not sure where to start on this funny little aircraft.

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Norman flies to Raipur / notes from the heart of India

Norman flies further east from Nagpur to Raipur in India. This is a relatively short flight of 174 miles / 280 kilometers which should take him about 2 hours.

Norman has now reached steaming heat as he flies through the heart of tropical India.  The temperature on arrival at Nagpur was a blistering 47.  While he had the relief of sea breezes the previous day there was no such relief yesterday. Norman below, with the Indian crew, looking a little blurred after his long flight to Nagpur.

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Norman immortalized in a newspaper cartoon because of flying ban

Norman has been immortalized in a newspaper (Belfast Telegraph) cartoon today.  As the rest of Europe and beyond is a no fly zone Norman flies on. The cartoon suggests if he was back at home in Northern Ireland he could offer his services to holiday makers wanting to head for the Mediterranean sun. This of course would be at a slower pace, one at a time with some stops in France or Italy - sounds good!

India here Norman comes!

Norman plans to fly to the Republic of India today the world's largest democracy - staggering 1.2 billion people. This leg of his journey could present the greatest challenge as the last attempt to fly an autogyro around the world faltered here. Expedition Global Eagle (logo below) took place in 2004 and was abandoned in the far east of India because of the monsoon generated difficult weather.

Norman's journey through India will be a total of over 1,450 miles / 2,300 kilometers - a challenge in anyones book. He will be traveling in an easterly direction from the cities of Ahmadabaad in the west to Kolkata in the east.  Below are the places Norman plans stops: 

• Ahmadabaad VAAH - 18 Apri
  
• Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Airport VAID - 19 April
• Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Int. Nagpur  VANP - 19 April
• Raipur Airport VARP - 20 April
• Jamshedpur Airport VEJS - 21 April
• Kolkata Airport VECC - 21 April

Obviously this is subject to weather conditions, flight permissions and a myriad of other things. Because of the very hot weather Norman is now departing very early in the morning local time. 


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