Popcorn pilots take to sky

Three daredevil pilots will this week set out to fly around the world in a self-built four-seater aircraft.

James Pitman, Mike Blyth and Jean d'Assonville hope to while away the hours by listening to local music and eating popcorn during the expected 28-day journey that starts in Johannesburg .

They will fly in shifts over the Atlantic to the US and then around the world and across Asia to get back home.

Pitman, 42, and Blyth, 56, first made an around-the-world trip in a self-built two-seater, the Sling, two years ago.

Blyth is a businessman and Pitman an attorney who ditched a career in law to pursue his love for adventure and aircraft.

On Thursday, the two, along with D'Assonville, 42, a motorbike racer, will set off on the first leg to the AirVenture show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in the US.

The three have been working on the Sling 4 ARW (Around the World) since February last year. Oddly, the aircraft is being assembled only on Monday, when it is scheduled to fly for the first time, just three days ahead of their journey.

"I'm not that nervous. It's simply a matter of jumping into the plane and going," said D'Assonville this week.

On the first leg of the journey, D'Assonville and Blyth will fly from their base at Tedderfield, south of Johannesburg, to the Pilanesberg, where they will clear customs.

From there, it will be a long haul to Pointe-Noire in the Republic of Congo, where they are scheduled to stop for fuel. Then follows a 24-hour flight to Dakar, Senegal, after which they will cross the Atlantic.

Pitman said he would join them in Oshkosh and, from there, he and D'Assonville would continue the journey, which includes stops in Alaska, Japan, Taiwan and the Maldives.

The three own The Airplane Factory, which manufactures small aircraft.

This will be the first long-haul trip they take in the Sling 4, which took 15 months to design and manufacture.

The small 1 280cc engine, similar to that of a big motorbike, means the cruising speed will be a modest 200km/h, making the trip long and tedious at times.

To battle boredom, they will have movies and music loaded on their iPod.

"We have a 24-hour playlist, including SA music, that we will listen to, and we can even watch movies on it," said Pitman.

D'Assonville said a popcorn machine had been adapted so it could be powered by a cigarette lighter in flight.

"We can watch movies and eat popcorn, which should be fun."

Pitman said the biggest challenge would be the weather and, before each leg, they would receive a detailed report from their base in SA.

But, he added, much of the trip could not be planned in advance and they have to be prepared for any eventualities.

"You honestly have to take it as it comes and as you go ... if there's sudden bad weather, you have to improvise."

Because of the light radio transmitter installed in the aircraft, the pilots will have radio contact only for about the first 40 minutes of their flight and once they approach their destination, meaning long hauls of complete radio silence.

A satellite transponder will send updates of their exact location every six minutes, allowing their friends and family to track their progress on a website.