My round the world trip in plane with one engine (From Worcester News)

My round the world trip in plane with one engine

12:39pm Monday 5th September 2011 in Mike Pryce

IF you ever decide to fly Queiroz Airways, a word of warning.

Several actually. Firstly, there’s not much room on board, you might just find enough to squash next to the pilot. Secondly, you could be a long time, 39-day around the world flights are a speciality.

And thirdly, the man at the controls has more ambition than common sense.

Although cancel that third one, because when Manuel Queiroz decided to fly solo around the Earth’s circumference, he did plenty of logistical planning.

His previous longest flight had been four hours. Now he was proposing to fly around the world in stages of up to 17 hours or 2,500 miles non stop, much of the time over open water. Which is roughly the distance between Worcestershire and Newfoundland,Canada.

When he told his friends, most thought he was barmy. Or as put it: “A few questioned my sanity, among other things.”

If you are going to make an expansive gesture, you might as well make it in an expansive place and Manuel certainly chose one of the most dangerous places known to man to announce that he had decided to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. As the cruise ship tossed and rolled in the foaming waters off Cape Horn, he turned to the assembled company and said: “I am going to fly solo round the world.” Most of them probably thought he’d hit his head on something.

However, it was no passing fancy.

He said: “Sailing past that lonely and weathered piece of land was an extraordinary experience that I found both spiritually challenging and inspirational. Its very presence gave me the push needed to turn long-held aspirations into reality.”

Manuel, who although born in Portugal has been a naturalised Briton for a long time and now lives at Pirton, near Pershore, did realise his dream and has written a book about his experience. Chasing the Morning Sun (Grub Street, £20) details the trials and tribulations, not only of the journey, but of what led up to it and what followed. For those who might get carried away with the gung-ho spirit of the adventure itself, the before and after could make thoughtful reading.

You learn that people will promise things and then not deliver and that your buccaneering desires can affect those around you more than you ever know. Manuel’s wife Jill was a tower of strength to him throughout the project, always there, always supportive.

He said: “It was only afterwards when she read the book and cried at some of the memories it brought back, I realised just what she had been through.”

A husband high in the sky over the oceans of the world for hours at a time with very limited prospect of rescue if things went wrong, can hardly have led to a calm time at home. Having said that his preparation could not have been more precise. For while Manuel was, up until then, no great flyer, he had a considerable background in mechanical engineering and knew what kept machines going.

He came to England in his mid-20s (he’s now in his mid-60s) to study on a mechanical engineering course at Aston University, Birmingham, with an eye on working in the motor racing industry.

He said: “I loved motor sport and considered England its home.”

While that ultimate dream didn’t materialise, he managed to get the next best thing and joined one of the Midlands top dealerships as a mechanic/technician working on Ferrari and Rolls Royce cars. Later he set up his own business in Halesowen, West Midlands, restoring and renovating the same marques. Mechanically speaking, it was only a relatively short hop to working on aircraft engines. Indeed Rolls Royce do make power units for planes.

So when the publicity says Manuel flew 27,000 miles around the world in a “home-built plane”, the image isn’t quite right. True he did buy a suitable light aircraft, completely stripped it down and then re-build it, but the result wasn’t some Heath Robinson effort held together by bits of wood and lengths of string.

This was a proper job done by an expert. It did him proud too, not missing a heartbeat all the way. Which was just as well, because the plane only had one engine. If that went, curtains followed and with that information you can fully understand his wife Jill’s justifiable worry.

Manuel, however, was having the time of his life.

He said: “I saw Crete covered in snow and sticking out of the Mediterranean, an active volcano in the middle of the desert in Saudi Arabia, I sampled Texan hospitality and saw the slums of Manila. Most of all, I never tired of the sight of the sunrise.”

Manuel hopes his book will inspire others to pursue their dreams. He said: “People shouldn’t be like hamsters stuck in their cages, afraid to put their heads above the parapet. I want them to feel they can do what they want, not just do what they do.”

So locker covers closed, seatbelts fastened and cabin staff ready for take-off.

It’s Queiroz Airways for the flight of a lifetime.