Chasing the Morning Sun: Flying Solo Round the World in a Homebuilt Aircraft - The Ultimate Adventure [Hardcover]

Very few books/documentaries manage to get across the passion the person has for their dream. This is one of those occasions.

Our main protaginist, Manuel, has a life changing experience that makes him want to do something different, and he decides he wants to fly solo around the world.

The first couple of chapters is just him trying to get the plane, which he has to redesign himself, and the money in place, with the various pitfalls. It can be a bit technical at this point but it is worth persevering for the actual journey around the world. The various countries and experiences he has along the way fills the book, and the pictures included are very good. He even manages to break a few world records along the way.

The only problem I can see about this book is that it may make your life seem slightly ordinary by comparison. Personally I am off to try and find something amazing to do.

This book is a "must read" for anyone interested in aircraft and flying. It would also be of great interest to people who love travel as it provides insights into many places and peoples that the average traveller never sees.

After the author Manuel Queiroz, a Portuguese who has lived in the UK most of his adult life and who is married to Jill an English woman, survives the early stages of cancer he decides to fly round the world in a home built aircraft.

The first part of the book deals with the problems of getting an aircraft and getting sponsorship. Manuel plans to use the flight to raise money for Cancer Research UK. Amazingly this charity refuses to allow him to use their logo unless he tells them how much he will raise for them. That seems a pretty arrogant attitude to me.

Manuel then needs a place to work on the aircraft. Wolverhampton Airport offer him space but once the aircraft is stripped down and all the publicity is over they tell him to go. Not very helpful. I think that I would have been tempted to recognise their "sponsorship" by painting their name round a suitable drain hole under the tail of the aircraft.

The aircraft chosen was a Van's RV6, one of a large range of all metal kit planes made by an American company. This one had been built by someone in Canada. It had a nasty habit of dropping on wing savagely. After the extra tanks had been added to the wings one of them was discovered to have a 3.5 degree twist. Something that modellers will now only too well as such a fault has re-kitted many a model. This meant the wing had to be rebuilt.

The second part of the book covers the flight. While many people may not appreciate the first part as much as I did they will love the second part. Manuel describes the flying and what he sees beautifully and brings it to life for the reader.
The people, the places, the hotels, the treatment by the various staff and other pilots that he meets all form a great part of the whole adventure.

After reading of these places I wanted to know more, the mention of the island of Phonpei with its vast and ancient city built out of huge volcanic stones that do not come from anywhere near the island had me searching the internet and wishing I could go and see them.

The contrast between the utterly laid back approach on the Pacific Islands and the American airfields is great but not unexpected. The way that America is happily geared up to accommodate all aircraft in any area regardless of size, allowing them to fly through dense air traffic with calm and efficient Air Traffic Control and even expects small home built aircraft to do so is in direct contrast to our restrictive practices in this country. However this freedom is contrasted by almost paranoia when it comes to flying in some areas, such as anywhere near the ranch belonging to George Bush.

The story is not without its tense and even frightening moments when weather and instrument failure cause serious problems and those long lone flights over the vast expanses of ocean are always worrying.

The end of the flight is almost an anticlimax but Manuel reflects on everything he learned on the journey and feels that we could all benefit from journeys such as his. I couldn't agree more.

Mention must be made of his wonderfully supportive wife, Jill, who helped him in so many ways and supported him in every way. The world would be a happier place if all couples were as mutually supportive as these two are.

Make no mistake, Manuel Queiroz is amazingly brave because it takes tremendous courage to make long solo flights like this. They are in the same tradition as the flights made in the 20s and 30s by the pioneers. Even though the modern aircraft can be fitted with excellent radios and navigation equipment the weather or a failure of that single engine over the sea can easily prove fatal.

I got this through the Vine Programme and was not really sure what to expect. What I got was a completely straightforward well written record of one mans dream to fly solo around the world in record time.

Manuel was already a pilot of considerable experience prior to embarking on this illness spurred expedition and the love of flying comes through loud and clear. I found the passages dealing with the technical aspects to be more descriptive/emotionally more involved than a lot of the dealings with people he met on his epic journey. This, I suppose, was as a direct result of spending only brief spells of time with others, certainly not long enough to form any real insight into them, unlike the gear.

The style of writing is easy to read and the book is basically a diary of events and costs incurred, easy to digest passages of description about each leg and insights into the considerations that pilots must research prior to setting off into the wild and potentially deadly unknown.

I was a bit disappointed at the lack of photographs, but then again there were only two hands in the plane and these were busy flying the plane.