Norman Surplus Departs Thailand After Three Month Delay

An adventure sportsman is re-starting his attempt to be the first to fly an gyrocopter around the globe to achieve a world record.  He planned to depart Thailand on Sunday, August 1st, at 0700 local time.

Norman Surplus MT-03

In the first phase of his endeavour, Northern Ireland pilot Norman Surplus faced extreme heat and cold, fuel shortages, exceptional high altitude and traversed forest fires, desert and vast expanses of ocean. He has already flown 8,000 miles through Europe, the Middle East and much of Asia and he faces twice that distance through 12 countries in SE Asia, America and the perils North Atlantic autumn.

If all goes according to plan, Norman, a cancer survivor, will be departing from Thailand Sunday, and will continue to raise awareness and funding for cancer.

Norman Surplus

The next phase of the adventure is expected to take approximately 50 days and it will be crossing SE Asia, North America and the North Atlantic stopping in Malaysia, the Philippines, Japan, Taiwan, the Russian Far East, North America, Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Scotland and home to Northern Ireland. The route covers a distance of about 19,000 miles. Norman's stop in Thailand was complicated and lengthened by bureaucratic, administrative, procedural and logistical delays all contributed to turn a 2 week technical aircraft repair into a 3 month wait.

FMI: www.gyrogoesglobal.com