Amelia Earhart “A2” To Fly Historic Equatorial Circumnavigation Of The Globe

By Eric Van Gilder

Pilatus, Jeppesen and the Wings Over the Rockies museum announced Wednesday that they will be sponsoring Amelia Rose Earhart’s flight to circumnavigate the globe following the original Amelia Earhart course as closely as possible. She will be flying a Pilatus PC-12 with some modification to the fuel system to allow them to fly the longest leg of the flight. The new fuel system will give the PC-12 a range of 2,200 nautical miles.

Amelia (pictured, right), who learned to be a pilot 10 years ago, understood that with the name she was given, she had a responsibility to inspire and motivate others. She founded an aviation scholarship program called “Fly with Amelia” to help young girls learn to fly. To prepare for her historic flight, she has been training on the PC-12 at SimCom in Orlando, Florida.

For this flight, her copilot will be Patrick Carter(pictured, left), the founder and CEO of NFLIGHTCAM. Patrick has over 6,000 hours of flight experience and is also a flight instructor.

The flight is currently scheduled to take off in June of 2014. It is expected to take 2 weeks in which they will make 14 stops. They plan to use traditional media, video, and social media to keep everyone updated on their progress as the flight goes on.

Some people take a famous namesake and hide from the world, and others, like Amelia, take the opportunity to pursue her passions and inspire others to follow their dreams. You can watch the progress of her flight preparation and her flight when it takes off at the website link below.

I know I speak for a lot of folks when I wish her the best of luck in this project and look forward to watching the flight as it progresses.

FMI: www.flywithamelia.com