A Canadian team won the Crete2Cape Vintage Air Rally, which took place in November 2016 and saw teams of planes recreate the 1920s aviation pioneer route across Africa, from Crete to Cape Town.

A Canadian team won the Crete2Cape Vintage Air Rally, which took place in November 2016 and saw teams of planes recreate the 1920s aviation pioneer route across Africa, from Crete to Cape Town.
Photo Credit: Beatrice De Smet

Adventurous Canadians sought for vintage aircraft rally across the Americas

Are you an adventurous person with good communications skills and high tolerance for risk, noisy environments and above-average ability to improvise your way out of trouble?

Then you might want to get in touch with Sam Rutherford.

The British adventurer, pilot and air rally organizer is looking for a few good Canucks to join his next endeavour.

Vintage Air Rally Ushuaia2USA is an air rally featuring a group of vintage aircraft – planes dating back to the early 20th century and a helicopter – flying from the southernmost tip of Argentina across South and Central America to Lakeland, Florida.

“I’m very keen to find a Canadian team,” Rutherford said in a phone interview with Radio Canada International. “I’m on a lookout for interesting, adventurous, exciting, and curious Canadians who want to put a team together with a vintage airplane and do what is probably going to be the experience of the lifetime.”

Click to listen to the full interview with Sam Rutherford:

In fact, a Canadian team won the previous Crete2Cape rally, which took place in November 2016 and saw teams of planes recreate the 1920s aviation pioneer route across Africa, from Crete to Cape Town, he said.

So what does it take to qualify for the team?

“Fundamentally, it’s probably a good sense of imagination and a good sense of humour,” said Rutherford, who is a former British Army helicopter pilot. “We don’t have any fixed requirements neither on the people – you don’t even have to be a pilot, for example – or on the aircraft: it does not necessarily have to be of particular age or particular type.”

The rally organizers are looking for interesting people and storied aircraft, he said.

“So, although generally most of the aircraft are going to be vintage biplanes, if somebody turns up with a Spitfire or a Mustang, or a Lancaster bomber, then they will have a very good chance of being accepted on the rally, because that’s a very interesting and exciting aircraft,” Rutherford said.

Participants of the Vintage Air Rally compete in aircraft that were designed and created in early or mid-1900s.
Participants of the Vintage Air Rally compete in aircraft that were designed and created in early or mid-1900s. © Beatrice De Smet

And it’s completely free.

“It will cost you nothing,” Rutherford said. “We will collect your aircraft from wherever you are in the world and ship to Ushuaia, we’ll collect you and your pilot or co-pilot and fly you commercially to Ushuaia.”

During the rally, organizers will take care of fueling the aircraft, feed the aircrew, organize hotels and accommodations, process all of the paperwork, including permits and visas, Rutherford said.

At the end of the rally, after a big party in Florida, they will ship the aircraft back to their original destinations and fly all the crews home as well, he said.

Rally organizers get financial support from corporate sponsors to be able to pay for all that extravaganza, Rutherford said.

Weather permitting, the Vintage Air Rally Ushuaia2USA will take off from Ushuaia, the southernmost tip of Argentina, on March 1, 2018. Over the following 42 days, the 14,800-kilometre journey will cover 19 countries, touching down in treacherous terrains such as the windswept expanse of Patagonia, the peaks of the Andes, the swamplands of Paraguay and the jungles of Peru, Rutherford said.

UPDATE:

Rally organizers contacted Radio Canada International on Jan. 5, 2018 to inform that the start of the Rally has been moved from the March 1, 2018 to Nov. 1, 2018 with the rally ending on Dec. 14, 2018.

The Rally will also take in the wilds of the Amazon rainforest, fly low down the spectacular Panama Canal and over the volcanoes of El Salvador, he said.

“The open cockpit biplanes are a different level again because of course you’re completely exposed to the elements,” Rutherford said. “You can start your flight all nice and clean but then during it there is the noise, the dust, the smells, the heat, the oil being sprayed out of the engine in front of you. It’s a very visceral experience: everything is there and you’re in it.”

Given the variety of aircraft participating in the rally – there will be 15 teams in all – the winners are determined not by speed but by precision of the flying, Rutherford said.

“They have to leave at a precise time, hit certain points along each leg at certain times and land within a time window as well,” he said.

However, arguably the more important prize is the “Spirit of the Rally” trophy, which is awarded following a secret vote amongst the teams, he said.

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