Two men from Bendigo Victoria, Tim Pryse and Ken Evers recently circumnavigated around the world in an aircraft designed and manufactured in Australia. Setting off from Bendigo on the 8th of May and arriving back today. A world first! All in order to promote awareness of many countries still affected severely by Malaria, especially those that they would be flying through. Plus to raise money for two charities, their goal being set for $1,000,000. And also to celebrate 100 years of aviation in Australia.
The two charities that they chose to support by their mission were AFAP (Australian Foundation for the Peoples of Asia and the Pacific) and MAF. Interesting enough the GA8 Turbo Airvan is the same aircraft that MAF PNG currently have three of in it’s fleet and also used in other MAF programs with the normal aspirated Airvan.
1. GA8 TC Airvan (MAF PNG airvan at Gippsland)
Part of their trip included flying through PNG, you can check out their blog entry on it here. What amazed me was the statistic given to them by the PNG health department of how many people die of Malaria in PNG each year, a figure that I was ignorantly unaware of. How high it is I am not sure (but seems a bit too high, whether this is accurate or not I don’t know).As HIV AIDS is one of or the main focus of prevention and awareness in PNG and living in the Highlands, malaria sort of takes a back seat at times.
2. The Flight Route (8th May to 8th July)
From what I know the guys arrived in Cairns yesterday and returned to Bendigo today. Please check out their website and their story. You can also donate online.
3. Tim Pryse & Ken Evers
Congratulations Tim and Ken!
