By Rod Douglas 

Curiosity is a wonderful thing. It guides your attention to that which most interests you. Inevitably they are the things you’re most invested in. You’ve all experienced it. Pregnant women find their world suddenly full of other pregnant women. You buy a new car and suddenly you’re a trend setter because you’re seeing them all around you.

So, surprise surprise. It’s happened to me.

You see, from when my wife Michelle and I started our family 11 years ago, we had a deal. We’d both been travellers and we realised that having a big family would curtail our travel for a while. So the agreement was that sometime, before they all grew up, we’d take a year and go and live in another country and absorb another culture as a family. Then in November I spent a wonderful morning test flying the TBM850. The cogs in my mind started turning. What if? Imagine, that year, not one country, but many. What if we were to combine the year of becoming an international family with our great love of flying?

So, after my family and I sat down for our annual planning day, we decided we’d do it. 2013: two parents, five children, a PC12 and a circumnavigation of the world. We wondered whether we might actually be the first family to ever circumnavigate in a single-engine aircraft? We wondered if would actually be possible (you should see the way my wife packs)? Would the gaps be too big? The questions started. So we dedicated the third Sunday of every month to be World Trip Sunday. Everyone was excited, if a little nervous.

So imagine my delight (I would have been surprised, but I know that once a goal is set everything you need usually appears) when I discovered one tiny item in the media which mentioned that a man named Ian Runge had flown around the world in a TBM700. So, a couple of phone calls later, and I’d found Ian’s mobile number and, in quick time, lunch was organised in a rather delightful Brisbane restaurant.

Ian is a tall silver haired man who moves deliberately and has the demeanour of a man who was once in a hurry but who now knows better. There are a couple of things that you can absolutely assume about a man who has flown himself around the world in a turbine single. One, he’s got some money. Two, he has some time available to him. Three, he still likes a decent-sized challenge. So, as we sat down to chat, I knew that this was going to be a great lunch.

Ian and his wife Sue departed Brisbane for their world adventure on 20th August 2007. Over the next couple of months I will introduce you to them and share with you their grand adventure.

And so our conversation started. Ian is the Chairman of Runge Ltd, a major player in the mining services sector. They provide the intellectual nous that actually figures out how to do the mining for the mining companies. With a strong suite of software solutions, Runge is a worldwide company with 300 staff in 15 offices. Now, I particularly want to point out that he is the Chairman. Ian retired from executive responsibility in 1992 at the age of 40.

And he is a pilot. There are lots of different types of pilots out there. I always find it interesting to discover the subtle differences. We all fly aircraft. It’s simply that different types of flying turn different people on. Ian is first and foremost an engineer. He loves to plan and then execute the plan superbly. So his passion is executing IFR flights with precision. He’s never been one to wander out to the training area just to faf about. He likes using aircraft for ‘going places and doing things differently’. He likes to travel and spends lots of time looking for good reasons to get on and do just that. But I get ahead of myself. How does one get the experience (and the courage up) to firstly fly a turbine single and, secondly, to fly it around the world?

Ian found himself constantly travelling to mine sites for work in the  late ‘80’s and discovered that, while a new mine is being built, the mine owner and builders would always provide a good air service but once the mine was operating getting there became much harder. One day he hitched a lift in a Mooney with a mate to make a trip out to a site and realised that flying himself could change his life. Long trips simply became much shorter.

And so he began the process of learning to fly. He quickly progress through to his private license and, as happens for many people who use an aircraft as a business tool, quickly discovered the limitations of VFR flying when you absolutely have to be there. The next step was to upgrade to an IFR rating.

I wonder how many aircraft owners have bought their first aircraft after having a significant incident in a rented aircraft and deciding ‘never again’. It’s a story I hear over and over again. In Ian’s case it was a rented Baron. He’d upgraded his competence further with the acquisition of a twin rating and on the second flight in the Baron selected gear down to only receive two green. The left main hadn’t come down. Nothing he could do would resolve the issue and fortunately there were no bruises apart from a little pride.

After a suitably detailed period of research he came to the conclusion that twins were actually statistically no safer than singles and Ian ordered himself a brand new Mooney 252 after a 1988 visit to Mooney’s Kerrville factory. Interestingly, the seed for Ian’s world trip was planted in that visit, when, at the factory he saw the trade show fuselage mock up of the TBM700. It began his ‘love affair’ with the idea of theTBM. I well remember the stir that the TBM promise created. 300kts, 30,000ft, six passengers, 1,300 nm. And they delivered.

Ian actually ended up taking delivery of a used Mooney 231. The Australian Mooney distributor back then was George Adams and he got himself into a little business strife. Being ever pragmatic, Ian took the 231 off his hands rather than lose his deposit on the 252 and became an aircraft owner. As with lots of driven people, he used the Mooney as a business tool, and would regularly fly in during the morning, work a full day and fly back home at night. The Mooney saw Ian through until he retired in 1992. He’d put 500 hours on the machine and it served him superbly well. After he retired he decided to sell the Mooney ‘because I didn’t have a reason to fly’. Ian is one of the many pilots who believe that ‘if you’re going to fly, fly often and fly well’.

He started his retirement by doing a PhD in Economics at George Mason University, Virginia. And his flying almost stopped. In fact, in the next 12 years he flew a total of 15 hours.  But, as anyone who once flew knows, flying is like one of those mysterious viruses that never goes away. Sometimes it might lay dormant until something suddenly sets it off. For Ian that happened in 2005 when he realised that he wanted to fly again. With the time, money and desire driving him the search for the right TBM began.

After much research, Ian settled on an aircraft that was actually already in the country.  With 815 hours total time, Kilo Foxtrot Tango, a 1993 TBM700A, was owned by George Kepper at Executive Airlines in Melbourne. In 2005 there was no factory representation for the TBM, and George managed to convince Ian that he could actually do a better job of looking after his aircraft than EADS Socata could of a brand new machine. How times change. In a few short years the factory has invested in Australia through their appointment of Mark Diaz and the ranks of TBM owners is swelling appropriately.

Ian’s original plan was to ‘own it, fly it, explore with it, discover international airspace’ and then prepare for a world trip in 2010. Once bought, he needed to get checked out and up to speed in the aircraft. This required the completion of both turbine and pressurisation endorsements.  

After a 12 year hiatus it took Ian about 15 hours in a 172 to get his flying up to standard and then earn his Command Instrument Rating recurrency. Next it was time to get checked out in the TBM. When I flew the TBM 850 several months ago I was amazed at how similar it was to fly in the circuit to the SR22 I most regularly fly. The speeds are similar on all legs and the handling is crisp. Even with the nice handling of the TBM, it’s a fair step up from a 12 year break and 15 hours in a 172. It’s a credit to the TBM (and Ian’s flying skills) that Ian was able to get his insurance signed off after 15 hours in the machine and to be signed off for solo after 30 hours.

Next it was time to build lots of experience before the 2010 world trip. Life stepped in. One challenge, one opportunity. In 2006, during his aviation medical, Ian discovered that he had type II diabetes. It took him three months of committed work with diet and exercise to get his medical back. Then, in early 2007, when a new home they were building was delayed, it became clear that there was a decent hole in the diary in late in 2007, so they decided to go.

So, with the planets lining up, it was time to start planning. Ian gave himself six months to work through the planning for the trip and to ensure that he was fully prepared and could safely complete the trip. When he started the preparation, one of the warnings he gave to Sue was that ‘some of the experiences we might have may well be far better in the retelling than in the experiencing’. With the courage that any wife of an entrepreneur must have, she smiled and on they went.

Now as I said earlier, Ian is an engineer who loves the precision of a flight well planned and delightfully flown. This trip was no different. His first task was to identify the route, aircraft capability and risks. Amazingly his first attempt at building a flight plan was done using his Garmin 530 simulator on the laptop at home! It was quickly obvious that the aircraft was more than capable of the route that Ian envisaged.

The first step was to build the general direction. West across Australia to Mt Tom Price to visit the grand kids before going international. North into Bali as a simple hop to start the international experience. One of the few areas of real concern that Ian had was the whole issue of international flying. What didn’t he know because he’d simply never done it? To create a margin of safety, Ian engaged the deeply experienced Margrit Waltz who is one of the most experienced ferry pilots in the TBM world. With over 600 Atlantic crossings, Ian felt he would be in good hands in learning the international ropes. Ian arranged for Margrit to meet them in Bali and to stay with them as they headed north through the Philippines, Japan and Russia and finally across to the US.

The route meant that from Russia they needed to cross the arctic circle to Alaska and onto the west coast of Canada before a couple of stopovers in the US. Back up the East coast of the States and back into Canada to prepare for the Atlantic crossing and the long arctic hop across to Greenland. Now their life was to become a little more civilised, as they strolled down into the UK, France and Spain before an oh so delightful sojourn through Sardinia across to Italy and down into the Greek Islands. Naturally, for a man with Ian’s proclivity for excellence, a visit to the EADS Socata factory in Tarbes was a necessity and some advanced training with the factory instructors.

The next challenge was to cross the Middle East. Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Omar would allow avoidance of the world trouble spots of Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan but it would require a long overwater hop to India. Down the south western coast of the sub continent through to Sri Lanka. From Columbo to Medan in Indonesia was to be the longest overwater flight with no land between and at 1194 nm, it was near six hours at economy cruise.

From Medan it was an easy hop home with stops in Bali, Darwin, Mt Isa and finally back to Brisbane. Total expected time of between 110 and 140 hours.

So how long does all this take? As you’ve previously read, I figured a year would be a good appropriate jaunt. However, Ian decided that the time available was to be two months and so that’s what they did. Around the world in eight weeks.

With preliminary flight planning done, the next step was to start filling in all the details. Ian settled on Jeppsen Flightstar as the appropriate flight planning software  and, after much research, settled on AirOps International to organise flight plan lodgments, overfly permits and slot times. While more complete services were available, Ian decided that having the trip experience of Margrit aboard meant that he would rather learn the ropes than simply delegate the whole process, and he made a particular point of paying directly for all ground handling services. AirOps support was critical through Asia, Africa and the Middle East but, for the most part in the US and Europe, Ian was able to arrange ground handling and flight planning without much issue.

One area where planning and preparation was not likely to help was dealing with accents that were bound to create at least a few challenges. While English is the language of pilots, it’s pretty clear that the level of competence varies significantly. I notice that, as from March 2008, all pilots flying internationally will require a Level 6 language proficiency which will undoubtedly, over time, ensure that ICAO states standards will improve.

Another significant area of work was to acquire and prepare the safety equipment needed to make the trip in a single engine aircraft. Obviously for over water flights a life raft and life jackets would be required and Ian selected a six person enclosed raft which came complete with a survival kit which included supplies, a water maker, flares and first aid kit. In addition were personal 406 MHz ELT’s (emergency locator beacons) plus a hand held VHF transceiver.

Because of the requirement to transit the Arctic regions, Ian wisely carried thermal immersion suits which were a critical safety item. While many pilots choose to wear their immersion suits during the flight, with two pilots about Ian’s view was that they were probably ok just having them at hand. Add a sat phone for constant communication and the required HF for overwater flights and the package was coming together nicely.

So, with the plan complete, the next step was to start flying.

Next month… Departure Brisbane.