This Indian mother-daughter duo is making history by flying around the world in a tiny microlight aircraft

The first time Audrey Maben took to the skies she was only 15 and a member of the National Cadet Corps’ Air Wing. Today at 41, she and her 18-year-old daughter Amy are putting the finishing touches to a plan that will take them round the globe, across 40,000kms and 21 countries over 90 days in a two-seater Sinus 912 light sports aircraft.

The duo will take off from New Delhi in early April and make 54 stops on their way to creating history as the first women to circumnavigate the globe in a light aircraft. Called WE! Expedition, a sort of an acronym for Women Empower, Maben’s goal is to strike a first for women the world over. She thinks taking to the sky is a powerful symbol of the freedom she envisions for women in India and elsewhere. “I want to see women travel alone by bikes and cars without a sense of fear or guilt,” she says. And she hopes this flight will play a role in that. She is trying to draw attention to her WE! Udaan Foundation and raise money for young women around the country to have the opportunity to enrol in flight school and play a bigger role in the country’s aviation landscape.

While this is certainly not her first rodeo – Maben set a national record by flying 2,400km from Bengaluru to Nagpur and back solo on a microlight – this particular trip will push her skills to another level. “I have been ably supported by the Jharkhand State Flying Institute for my motor glider rating and training and Expedition mentor Capt Rahul Monga who holds the world record for fastest circumnavigation in a micro light,” she says. But she understands that this will be a test of her endurance as an aviator as well. “I am also training physically and mentally in addition to the work I am putting in to planning to navigate the world.”

All this in a little aircraft that is roughly a sixth of the size of an Airbus 330. The Sinus 912 motorglider, dubbed Mahi, is currently being screwed together by Aerosource, a Bengaluru-based aviation consultancy. With a wingspan of 15m, the aircraft is power by a frugal 80hp engine that is very fuel efficient. For inspiration, Maben looks to her heroes, aviators Amelia Earhart and Amy Johnson. For everything else, like planning logistics and routes, an organisation called Aerotech Aviation is chipping in.

The duo are flying light on this trip. “The aircraft is fully loaded so I am only carrying a change of clothes, some water and a few bars of chocolate on each leg. Also, my maps and a hand-held GPS that I never fly without,” she says.

Read more at https://www.cntraveller.in/story/indian-mother-daughter-duo-making-history-flying-around-world/

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