[JYO] local pilot Gus McLeod begins journey pole to pole

FYI -
Gus took part in the 2003 PlanePull at Dulles Airport and PULLED on  the 
LeesburgPilots team!
Ed
- - -
Attempt to make history takes off in Md.
Man hopes to be the first to fly from pole to pole in a  single-engine plane; 
'Scared to death' but 'psyched'; Pilot estimates the trip  will take two 
months


Associated  Press

December 30, 2003

COLLEGE PARK - Gus McLeod wiped frost off  the wings of his small airplane 
and departed yesterday with hopes of becoming  the first person to fly over the 
North and South Poles in a single-engine  plane.

His wife, Mary, and more than 100 friends and well-wishers came to  see the 
Gaithersburg pilot take off into a bright sunny sky.

The  49-year-old businessman and amateur aviator said he was "scared to 
death" but  "psyched up" for the voyage, which he estimates will be about 
28,000 
miles. "I  can't wait until this is over," he said before taking off from the 
College Park  Airport and swinging around to buzz the airfield.

McLeod made history  three years ago when he became the first pilot to fly to 
the North Pole in an  open-cockpit plane.

He planned this pole-to-pole trip to coincide with  the 100th anniversary of 
powered flight. His plane is equipped with a modernized  version of the Wright 
brothers' canard-wing design. The one-of-a-kind prototype,  with a pusher 
proeller, is a Velocity aircraft modified by the Korea Aerospace  Research 
Institute to accommodate extra fuel tanks and electronic equipment the  trip 
requires.

McLeod said he was making the journey to show that amateur  aviators can 
still break new ground in aviation. The black aviator also said he  was making 
the 
trip in honor of the Tuskegee Airmen, the famed black fliers of  World War 
II, and some members of Tuskegee Airmen Inc. came to see him  off.

"We wanted to give him all the support we possibly could," said Sam  
O'Dennis, 77, of the group's Chicago chapter.

Retired Air Force Brig.  Gen. Wilma Vaught, president of the Women in 
Military Service Memorial  Foundation, said she came to wish McLeod well, 
saying the 
trip was a way of  paying tribute to pioneers in flight.

"I applaud him for having the  courage to do it," Vaught said.

McLeod has relatively little experience  with the new plane. He had 
originally planned to fly a Beech 18, but last  winter, that plane was hit by a 
snowplow while parked a _Baltimore-Washington  International Airport_ 
(http://entertainment.sunspot.net/top/1,1419,p-artsl
ife-visitorsguide-X!PlaceDetail-448,00.html) .

McLeod thought he had repaired the damage, but  while flying this past 
spring, he found that the plane's instruments no longer  worked and he had to 
make 
an emergency landing at BWI. As a result, he decided  not to use the plane for 
the polar expedition.

"He had to scramble to  find another plane," said Josh Brooks, his spokesman.

After a stop in  Florida for extra fuel tanks, McLeod plans to fly along the 
eastern coast of  South America, making stops in Belem, Brazil, Rio de Janeiro 
and Ushuaia,  Argentina.

He is hoping to buy extra fuel that was stored for another  aviator near the 
U.S.-New Zealand McMurdo-Scott base in Antarctica. If he can,  he plans to fly 
on to New Zealand before going up through the middle of the  Pacific Ocean, 
through the Fiji Islands, to Hawaii, up to Alaska and back down  to the East 
Coast.

If he can't get the fuel near McMurdo, he plans to fly  over to Africa and 
over Europe en route to the North Pole.

McLeod isn't  the first to try the pole-to-pole trip this month. Britih pilot 
Polly Vacher  gave up after having problems with strong winds and delays in 
getting fuel in  Antarctica. Also this month, a man and woman had to be rescued 
after crashing a  helicopter while trying to make the pole-to-pole flight.

McLeod estimates  that the trip will take about two months, flying every day 
for between eight and  10 hours. One leg at the South Pole will require 27 
hours of straight flying,  McLeod said.

Brooks said McLeod wanted to use the flight as a way to  communicate the 
enduring allure of aviation.

"He wants people to realize  that there's real magic to flying," Brooks said.

Sun staff writer David  Kohn contributed to this article.

Copyright © 2003, _The  Baltimore Sun_ (http://www.sunspot.net/)

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