James Pitman – “EAA Airventure Oshkosh 2021 is happening. The Sling 4 high wing prototype has its ATF. And we’re feeling restless. So once again we’re off to Wisconsin!”
If you’re interested in following this year’s Sling pilgrimage to Oshkosh, here’s the lowdown..
The aeroplane is ZU-SHW – Sling’s beautiful new 4 seat, high wing (HW) prototype aircraft – the first of its kind.
The pilots are James (Pitman) and Matt (Cohen). James is an old hand at these trips. For Matt it’s a first. (Though Matt and James have some history of flying adventures together).
James has thousands of hours of Sling flight. Matt is a student pilot waiting for the CAA to issue his aviation medical so he can complete his required solo hours. He also flies a paraglider.
Departure date is 9 July 2021 – which gives the required 14 days out of “red-list” countries before entering the USA (SA is at the top of those!).
The planned route looks like this (though it’s open to such changes as may be required to dodge Covid, storms, unreasonable authorities and the like): JHB – Ondangwa (Namibia) – Accra (Ghana) – Praia (Cape Verde) – Charnocks (Barbados) – Fort Pierce (Florida, USA) – Oshkosh (Wisconsin, USA).
Any useful thoughts or advice, including Covid updates, critical equipment (eg: one dry suit), places to stay, good wishes, virtual love and hugs or messages of support will be much appreciated. Planned for inclusion in the luggage, in addition to the standard clothing, extra fuel and emergency gear, are a titanium Sling Cycles Tagati gravel bike (see www.slingcycles.com) and Matt’s titanium wheelchair, with electric drive.
We invite anyone interested to follow our trip both on this thread and at www.slingaircraft.com, where you will be able to track our progress, as we fly, transmitted by a Garmin Inreach satellite tracker and plotted onto a world map.
We promise to answer questions, post photos, return love and generally just try bring you along with us as much as we can.
James and Matt