Record Flight Finally Comes To An End
Beleaguered Australian aviation adventurer Jon Johanson is
finally back in New Zealand, after his record flight over the South Pole found
him stranded at the joint US-New Zealand base in the
Antarctica.
Johanson (above), who left Invercargill en route to Argentina
December 7th, ran into serious headwinds after flying over the
South Pole in his homebuilt RV4. Concerned about fuel, he landed at
the McMurdo-Scott Base and instantly found himself at the center of
an international dispute over his trip.
Scornful of his attempt to overfly the pole without SAR support
and without enough fuel, neither New Zealand nor the US would fuel
him up for the continuation of his flight once he landed at the
base. Instead, Antarctica New Zealand offered him a scheduled
flight to Christchurch and a chance to ship his aircraft home on a
boat. Johanson said no.
Enter Polly Vacher
(right), a British adventurer also attempting to circumnavigate the
globe on a polar route. Just as Johanson was leaving New Zealand,
she cancelled her flight, citing poor weather and uncertainties
about her fuel supply. She did, however, send fuel ahead to
Scott-McMurdo. With no use for the avgas, she generously donated
that stash to Johanson.
Which left him free to leave, except for one thing: weather.
"Obviously we don't want him to leave until there is a good
weather forecast for him, at the moment there is a nasty weather
system passing underneath New Zealand which of course means it's in
his tracks," spokeswoman Sue Ball said, speaking with the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation. "So we have to wait until
that's gone through before he can then come up from McMurdo."
New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff and his Australian
counterpart, Alexander Downer, met over the weekend to discuss the
Johanson issue, among others. Downer said he was "pleased that a
solution has been found to the problem. "I appreciate that the New
Zealanders are prepared to facilitate the departure of Jon Johanson
and his plane."
Goff welcomed Vacher's gesture, calling it an "appropriate
solution."
Johanson finally beat the weather home, barely, and arrived
at Invercargill Airport in the south of the South Island at
about 2.55pm local time, or 1255 AEDT. "He's safely landed and he's
just going through the border control checks," according to
Invercargill Airport Ops Mgr Eric Forsyth.
ANN Note To Ms. Vacher: You were a hero to us
before... but doubly so now. We shoulda known it would take a great
aviator to come to the aid of another...