He landed in Jeddah on Wednesday having flown from Luxor in Egypt. A member of a flying club in York in the north of England, he hopes to raise funds for a local organization that airlifts accident victims and other patients to hospitals when needed. He left the UK on April 28.
“For the last three weeks, I have been flying a Microlight myself since I left London three weeks ago. My mission is to raise funds for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, which is not government-funded. It operates on donations,” Sykes told Arab News on Friday night. The journey from Jeddah to Riyadh had taken five and a half hours. He was due to fly out of the capital to Al-Qasumah early on Saturday morning and then down to Bahrain.
Sykes flies his Microlight, a small and light aircraft at a maximum of 10,000 feet (3,048 meters).
Asked what had inspired him to undertake the project, he said, “I want to help save life. I had two friends who needed treatment but could not be brought to the hospital fast. Unfortunately, one of them passed away. The other one is still around.”
He said that he hoped for donations from the Kingdom and had been overwhelmed by the warm welcome accorded to him by Saudis. He was particularly grateful for the help from Shaukat Ragheb, from Saudi Arabian Airlines, who had been his host in the capital. “But what fascinated me most,” he said, “were the camels in the desert.”
A paraplegic since 1993 when he was paralyzed as a result of a motorcycle crash, Sykes is also commemorating the 80th anniversary of the UK-to-Australia flight by Amy Johnson, the first woman to fly solo to Australia. After Bahrain, he heads to Dubai then Muscat. From there, he will proceed to Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and, finally, Australia.
“Please wish me good luck for a good cause. I thank God for enabling me to undertake this project despite my being a paraplegic,” he said in parting.
Details of his trip and his flight tracked can be found on http://www.soloflightglobal.com/
