AROUND THE WORLD IN 24 DAYS, 4:36:24

ON A TEXAS summer morning June 28, 1994, when the sun was already churning up humid heat for the afternoon, Ron Bower climbed aboard his new Bell 206B-3 JetRanger III and took off. Exactly 24 days, four hours, 36 minutes, and 24 seconds later, he returned. His helicopter, none the worse for wear, had logged 229:22 flight hours and taken Bower safely across some 20,320 nm.
What had Bower been up to? Nothing less than establishing a world record or two for a helicopter flight around the world. If approved by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI), Bower’s flight establishes a general helicopter class record and a record for the EIC helicopter weight class. Approval is expected before year end.
The solo-pilot accomplishment put him into a class of derring-do souls whose ranks are ever thinner as the drudgeries of today thwart us from exploits of fancy. For Bower, the fancy was mixed with firm purpose: to demonstrate the reliability of helicopters - the Bell 206 in particular - and their capabilities, delivered through technology.
The idea of a worldwide flight crept into Bower’s mind in summer 1993 when he and his wife, Peggy, were in Australia and visited helicopter adventurer Dick Smith and his spouse, Pip. Smith baited Bower’s brain with tales of his worldwide solo helicopter flight in 1983 (Smith’s flight, leisurely at 11 months, did not result in an FAI record because he didn’t seek sanctioning.)
"When we went to the Sydney aeronautical museum and I saw Dick’s helicopter there, three things hit me," Bower retells. "First, the technology has changed over the past 12 years related to GPS and communication via satellite. It’s very different from what Smith and Ross Perot Jr. (who established a worldwide helicopter flight record with Jay Colburn in 1982) had to deal with using Omega."
"Also, both Smith and Perot had to hire an ocean-going vessel and preposition it between Japan and the Aleutians for refueling. I could never afford that. But with Russia open, I would have a whole different flight course."
"And the last thing, I had a better flight background - with age and experience - than Dick and Ross did when they flew the trip."
Bower saw the venture as a unique way to promote both the helicopter industry and his company, Austin Jet International, for which he is cofounder and vice president. The idea brewed until one evening last October when Peggy Bower caught him in their library at home, pouring over a world atlas with a flight computer in one had and pasting yellow tags across Russia.
"I told her about the idea," Bower says, "She said ‘I knew you were going to do that since the day you saw Dick’s helicopter in the museum.’"
Peggy’s composed reaction was the product of years of "Bower-trekking." Since 1982 when Austin Jet was formed, Bower had flown over 500 206Bs (the company has sold nearly 300) in 22 countries. Bower’s first "adventure trip," he says, was a 2,950-nm flight between London and Jerusalem in 1991.
Thus preparation for the worldwide trip began in earnest. Aircraft choice was a no brainer. A new Bell 206 was ordered in November from Bell Helicopter Canada, and Textron Financial Corp., of Fort Worth, TX, was ready with the necessary financing.
"I’m very familiar with that aircraft, its systems, operations. Being in the cockpit of a JetRanger is a very, very comfortable spot for me," says Bower, who has a 206B ATP rating.
Bower made no fewer than four trips to the Mirabel, Quebec, production facility to watch, like a protective parent, his new helicopter progress down the line. Meetings with Bell engineering and product-support groups assured the 206 was prepared for the trip.
For example, a weight-reduction campaign meant no soundproofing, carpeting, or nonessential items not required for certification. One special addition was jettisonable doors. Bower felt he couldn’t afford the weight of a flotation system, so quick egress in case of an emergency was all the more important.
So was plenty of range. Bower relied upon the expertise of Harry Robertson, owner of Robertson Aviation, Tempe, AZ, to design an 91-gallons (344-1) auxiliary fuel tank to double the 206'’ range. The tank occupied the 206'’ rear cabin.
"It is all gravity-feed, no fuel-management switching or pump," Bower describes. "It never leaked a drop, and I never had a fuel-system concern."
He also had no concerns about cabin heat. An arctic heater by Air Comm, of Boulder, CO, assured Bower’s toes were toasty during the many hours at latitudes about the Arctic Circle.

Overhauled engine

Bower was a man out to prove a point about JetRanger reliability and he took this a step further when it came to the Allison 250-C20J engine. He opted for an overhauled one.
"I went to Standard Aero. I was impressed by their obvious commitment to quality and I asked them to help with the engine," Bower relates, mentioning that the Canadian firm also tweaked the engine’s fuel efficiency. "After the 206 was certified, we took out the new engine and installed a 1979 250-C20J that Standard Aero had overhauled and assembled."
The 206 then went to Austin Jet, where its interior was completed, and to subsidiary AJ Aerospace for avionics installation. The gear on board was well chosen for the trip. Besides the array of avionics, an important feature was an ergonomic pilot’s seat, which made the 23-plus days of 10-hour flights more comfortable.
Adding to the comfort level were noise-canceling headsets by Bose Corp., Framingham, MA. Bower used them for communicating, as well as for listening to taped books on the built-in cassette/radio.
Ask Bower about trip preparation, and he shuffles through binders on his desk, calling up plans for finances, video, personal equipment, aircraft equipment, routes, training, insurance, etc.
A trip to Bell’s Training Academy in Fort Worth filled in a square to get his JetRanger recurrent training. He also honed his instrument skills on a Frasca International Model 342 simulator.
Then he got dunked. Survival training at Safety Technology and Oilfield Protectors (STOP) in Lafayette, LA, taught step-by-step water survival. The infamous dunker, a cabin-like device, plunges students into water to emulate a ditching and capsize. Raft inflation and boarding, plus how to use the HEEDS (a miniature breathing device that provides a few minutes of air), was part of Bower’s training.
"STOP was very, very good for me in terms of confidence, because I did not have floats on the helicopter and wound up with 15 to 17 hours total of overwater flying, wearing an immersion suit all the while," Bower adds. Concorde AeroSales, of Fort Lauderdale, FL, sponsored the suit, as well as liferaft, lifevest, strobes, ELTs,, and a transmit/receive radio. Bower also had a handheld, battery-operated Garmin International Model 95 GPS.
Valuable preparation also came from an NBAA international operations conference last March that reviewed North Atlantic procedures and flight planning issues. Advice of value included hints on keeping up with time differences - of course, Bower crossed all 24 time zones.
"Also at the conference was the Russian head of flight permits, and Universal Weather, out of Houston, was of significant help by introducing me to him," Bower says. "That was a very important step in my getting flight approval through Russia."
Approval, by the way, didn’t come until Bower was well on his way - en route to Iceland. Besides providing weather reports throughout the flight, Universal Weather also served well as a handler while Bower was in Russia, arranging for fuel and other needs.

The power of technology

As Bower prepared for his flight, he sought out technology to assure success. "I had two tracking systems and it was comforting to know that people knew where I was," he begins.
One was from Newcomb Communications, of Manchester, NH. Using its built-in GPS receiver, it automatically transmitted the aircraft’s lat/lon position to a satellite and then to a ground station for the Western Hemisphere.
"The same function was provided worldwide through COMSAT. For four cents a position report, and they were sent every 10 minutes, a GPS lat/lon fix was transmitted via COMSAT’S Inmarsat-C satellite to Austin Jet," Bower explains.
COMSAT Aeronautical Services, Clarksburg, MD, did this through its new MobilTrak tracking software and its Aero-C satellite communications service. Aero-C uses a tiny terminal built by Thrane & Thrane that has an integrated GPS to send position data.
The terminal also has fax transmit/receive capabilities. Connected to Bower’s laptop computer, it enabled him to send faxes via Inmarsat-C to Austin Jet or to any fax machine.
In what it is believed to be a first, Dick Smith (on yet another worldwide flight) sent a fax from his Sikorsky S-76A flying over Sweden via satellite to Bower’s 206 while over Russia (Smith commented that his two Allisons were "purring" and he trusted that Bower’s one was doing the same.)
Receiving message, such as faxes from well-wishers or realtime weather reports from Universal Weather, was an important highlight for Bower.
While COMSAT and Newcomb eyeballed Bower’s progress, he watched it too - in stereo. His laptop computer displayed his flight plan, using the Flitesoft program by RMS Technology Inc., of Molalla, OR; it’s GPS input was received from the Bendix/King KLN-90 GPS on the panel. In planning the trip, Bower relied heavily on Flitesoft to optimize his routes, he says.
To his left, Bower used a Teldix GmbH Copilot moving map display, provided b Heli Excellence, of Eugene, OR. Aeronautical charts or even street maps are inserted into the Copilot, which uses GPS input (from its own Trimble CV 6) to generate two hairlines on a clear overlay to show aircraft position.
Bower also had high praise for Shadin’s new DigiData fuel flow/airdata system that uses GPS or Loran-C input to deliver new features.
"It not only gives fuel burn to determine optimum fuel management, but also has an airdata system that measures - separate from the aircraft systems - airspeed, temp, and vertical speed. It’s tied into the heading system and can calculate true airspeed and also wind automatically," Bower describes. "I could go to different altitudes and determine the optimum fuel burn."
Of encouraging note, Bower had "no electronic or avionics hardware difficulties during the trip. Everything worked. The reliability factor is way up in terms of modern hardware."

Time to go

The night before departure, Bower was ready to launch. "I felt like I had done an adequate job in planning. I was very familiar with the route, and had spent hours over the many feet of maps."
A large group of well-wishers cheered Bower the next morning as he strode to his 206B, lifted off, and performed a flyby before heading out.
The first few days were festive. Bower’s initial stop was at College Station, TX, to visit his parents and brothers. Then he flew to Fort Rucker, for a chat with the first Class of Army pilots training on Bell’s TH-67.
After an overnight in Fort Lauderdale, he scurried up the U.S. southeast coast. At times, a reporter (R&W included) accompanied him. FAI rules allowed a passenger on certain legs, and Bower was glad to share the excitement.
A late-afternoon shower in Washington, DC, on day two held him up a bit. But a double rainbow, spanning the capital skyline east to west, seemed a good omen as Bower took off, skirting storms as he headed to Canada and beyond.
The rainbow also served as a foretelling that weather would prove to be Bower’s greatest challenge. The east coast cells were just a warm-up for the North Atlantic crossing.
"The arctic weather was far, far worse than anticipated. The ceiling and visibility were greatly reduced - not just for a little while, but maybe for hours," Bower relates in tones that impart a new level of respect for Mother Nature.
"Getting down lower and lower over arctic waters is not good. I was very thankful for the heater and the radar altimeter. At times, I set it at 50 feet."
Bower’s trip altitudes ranged from 50 feet over the arctic waters to as high as 9,500 feet. Because the route was a low-elevation one, flight typically was between 1,000 to 2,000 feet. Average speed was about 100 knots.
The foul weather persisted between Canada and Ireland, shadowing Bower during the five-day crossing. It added unneeded stress to his longest overwater leg, a four-hour flight between Greenland and Iceland. No diversions were available, and the water was a deadly frigid temperature.
"GPS was critical to knowing exactly where I was, and with the Teldix map, even if its aeronautical chart was only showing blue water, I still could see I was on course and making progress. I was delighted to get to the continent of Europe and get out of that weather."
Weather through Europe and Russia was good, "shirtsleeve, except in Russia, where I wore a coat to keep the mosquitoes off," he recalls, joking that Russian mosquitoes were so large, they had N numbers.
Flying over familiar ground in Europe was therapeutic. After a 50-hour routine maintenance inspection on his 206 at Alan Mann Helicopters in Fairoaks, England, Bower capital-hopped through Western Europe.
The 206 left Austin Jet with a 100-hour inspection and required only the 50-hour at Alan Mann, a 200-hour at Ostermans Aero in Jarfalla, Sweden, and a 50-hour at Era Aviation in Anchorage, AK. "For the remainder of the flight, there was zero maintenance - the ship started every time, never a chip light, everything functioned," Bower boasts.
As he traversed Europe, the trip became more demanding. Communication workload was higher, and Bower relied more on the moving maps to avoid much of Europe’s controlled airspace. In one message home, Bower wryly wrote "There is more controlled airspace in France than the whole USA."
"Anytime I went from one country to another, I had to have international flight plan, with position reports required," he says.
"The European airports also have a very frustrating fee structure and the bureaucracy to go with it. It was like a scavenger hunt paying all the fees and doing the paperwork when you landed. In Europe, my ground time was out to an hour and a half. You just have to accept its their system and fit into it."
The pace of the trip was also grueling. Bower averaged 10 flight hours a day (one day he traversed 1,200nm) with only one day with no flying - in Korf, Russia, when weather closed the Siberian airport.
"It was like running a marathon race and asking the runner what he saw along the way. It was a very demanding task. On a typical day, I’d get a very early start and fly all day. I never had lunch at a table, sometimes I didn’t have supper because I’d arrive late and restaurants were closed."
Bower lost 15 pounds (6.8 kg) during the adventure, but kept up his energy by resorting to a stash of health foods, candy, and crackers on board.
"I had to adopt a mental attitude of just looking point-to-point, as if the flight was a series of short trips. I was never fearful or exasperated," he relates. "And I was never bored. Weather was often an issue and I was busy with navigation and flight planning. I also enjoyed the company I had, particularly my Russian escort."

Mother Russia

His name was Mikhail Kladov and his accompaniment, as translator, was part of the agreement to allow Bower to fly the first Western helicopter across Russia. Bower flew into St. Petersburg to pick up his escort for the seven-day trip across the expansive country and bid him goodbye at Providenyia, near the Bering Straits. By the trip’s end,, the two had developed a good friendship.
Russia undoubtedly made the biggest impression on Bower. Its 11 time zones taxed his ability to keep time, its aviation system’s bureaucracy and restrictions discouraged him, but the Russians’ courage in face of economic plight touched his heart.
"The people are in a grave situation. I’m fearful they will not be able to sustain. They were very nice to me and gave to met out of their lack of abundance.
"In Korf, there was a little girl four years old whose father was a Mil Mi-8 helicopter pilot. He came over and helped me with some map planning for an alternate route one afternoon."
"That evening, I walked to the helicopter to send a satellite message, and another Russian invited me to his home. It turned out the helicopter pilot lived in the same building and he invited me over for a very nice dinner. His little girl, Olia, walked into the room, I a clean dress and with a big smile, came up to me and said in English, ‘Hello, Uncle Ron.’
"It just brought tears to my eyes thinking of the desperate situation the people are in while they try to make democracy work," he says.
Bower acknowledges that the trip’s low point was in Russia, with its bureaucratic procedures. Russia doesn’t have general aviation, and Bower says the system didn’t know how to accommodate his flight. At a Moscow airport, he paid a total of $1,200 in fees.
"In Russia, and other countries to lesser extent, I missed the freedom we enjoy in aviation in America. The sky is open, and we have plenty of facilities to accommodate fliers. It is a tremendous amount of freedom compared to the bureaucratic situation elsewhere."
Despite the bureaucratic delays, Bower never had difficulty getting quality fuel, refueling at 81 stops out of 85 landings. He could have made all but about 15 to 20 legs on the 206’s standard 91-gallon (344-1) fuel supply, and any other leg with about 150 gallons (5701).
He felt the quality of Russian fuel was better than that in the United States. Prices ranged trip-wide from 80 cents a gallon to the "worst rip-off case" of $5 a gallon in Alaska.
The crossing to Alaska put Bower back into bad weather - fog, rain, and 200-foot altitudes. But once out of Sitka, he had clear skies for a dash south along the Pacific coast and U.S. Southwest for the final three days. On July 22, Bower landed at Bell in Fort Worth at 1:22:20 p.m. CDT to greet hundreds of fans.
Looking back, Bower is pleased with how the trip went. "I could have shaved a day off if not stuck in Korf, but I probably needed that rest to make it the remainder of the way. I could have eliminated some of the stops, but I would not have had a base of contact within those countries."
"At the beginning, I said anyone could do it, but I’m more guarded now. You would need more training for the arctic weather, but any good pilot could still do the trip."
"I don’t know how I could have made it any better; I just felt like it was a blessed trip. I accomplished all my goals. Like I’ve said many times, you plan your work and work your plan."

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