Lone Cessna 172 Conquers The World

Peter Norvill is a commercial pilot with over 5,000 hours experience and is married with an eleven year old son. His family is very supportive and prior to departing on the circumnavigation of the world Peter told me that he was “looking forward to the flight being the most exciting adventure of his life”. An ‘adventure’ he certainly did experience. He was so busy during the early part of the record attempt that it was 17 May before he had time to dispatch a thorough report to his sponsoring company, Mobil Oil. After leaving the Australian coast at Darwin, he battled storm conditions and had to try various altitudes, both under and over the weather to arrive safely in Bali. Then on the way to Singapore, he encountered strong headwinds, which delayed and further fatigued him. Leaving Singapore for Colombo in Sri Lanka on Friday the 13th Peter struck very strong headwinds which extended his planned twelve hour leg to a gruelling sixteen and a half hours!

Two hours out of Colombo, Peter’s single engined Cessna XP Hawk aeroplane suddenly lost power after torrential rain ‘dissolved’ the air filter and ‘poured’ it into his fuel system. Fearing a ditching, he hastily contacted Colombo Air Traffic Control by radio and they responded by scrambling a fixed-wing and two rotary-winged military aircraft to assist him. He was guided to their military base, where he made a safe landing and spent the night in a restricted area as their ‘guest’ in an unlocked jail cell. The following day, he took off for Colombo and then flew on to Bombay. This leg of his journey again saw him battling very tiring headwinds. But if he thought he could rest at Bombay Airport, he was indeed mistaken. In the inimitable Indian way, where the red tape and paperwork almost equals the weigt)t of your aeroplane, Peter was forced to do almost eight hours paperwork on his arrival. Later on, leaving Bombay saw him sit down to another ninety minutes pen pushing just to get out of the place. Fortunately the leg from Bombay to Bahrain was good weather wise and Peter completed the sector in twelve and three quarter hours.

The water of the troubled Persian Gulf had Peter more than a little concerned and while some hundred and fifty nautical miles east of Bahrain, he flew over a smouldering ship, with a second vessel nearby, attempting to take on survivors of an attack.

A little calm settled on the troubled Australian flier for the next few days. Wednesday morning, 25th May, saw Peter successfully completing his solo crossing of the Atlantic from Lisbon, Portugal, via Santa Maria in the Azores, St John’s in Newfoundland and arriving in Montreal, Canada. Flight time Lisbon to Santa Maria was eight hours. The remaining sectors to North America were flown uneventfully.

Eager to get the record flight ‘over and done with’, he sacrificed his planned days off, unless he had technical problems which forced him to remain on the ground. Whilst airborne, on long sectors, he was keeping himself awake and occupied checking equipment, taking photographs, writing up a log of his flight and putting his pensive thoughts down on a small tape recorder. He certainly had plenty of time to think.

Thursday 2nd June, Peter Norvill became airborne in his Cessna XP Hawk aircraft from Monterey in California to begin the longest single leg of his history making flight. Twenty-two hours and five minutes after his takeoff, he lined up with the runway at Hilo, in the Hawaiian Islands.

Planning to use Christmas Island as a set down and refuelling point, he had some worrying moments when he could not get any answers to his continued requests to the Island for confirmation of his fuel being ready for him and the beacon lights he had requested to make his landing possible. As a result, he had to delay his departure until the 4th of June.

Then some real technical troubles smacked our hero in the eye. Departing Hilo, Hawaii, his aeroplane’s vacuum pump failed, leaving him without vital instruments and automatic pilot. His compass was in error also and had he not become aware of this fact, he may have missed the Christmas Island beacon lights by more than 300 nautical miles.

By the 6th of June, Peter arrived in American Samoa. He really loved the place, and its people, and has vowed to return there.

The 6th was the day Peter never ‘saw’, as it was then that he crossed the International Dateline. He arrived in Nadi, Fiji, for a welcome reunion with his wife, Sue. In Nadi, the XP Hawk underwent a service, prior to being flown on the last two over water legs of the journey.

Peter flew from Nadi to Noumea and at dawn on Thursday, 9th June, departed Noumea for his final overwater leg to Eagle Farm Airport, Brisbane, Australia and a hero’s welcome from family, friends, admirers and the media. Well done Peter!

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