An octogenarian aviator duo are following the trail of the very first flight around the world exactly 100 years after it took place but are making at least one side stop: They’re landing at Muskoka Airport in Gravenhurst. Bob Bates and Barry Payne are due to land their single-engine biplane at Muskoka Airport late this afternoon. Their adventure began on June 1, departing Papua New Guinea, tracing the Pacific, Russia, UK, and North Atlantic.
They’re stopping in to visit their friend Bruce Hodge, a Muskoka cottage owner and fellow self-described octogenarian. Hodge founded Toronto-based Goway Travel in 1970 and is both a good friend and business partner of Bob Bates with whom he works closely, operating tours in Papua New Guinea. Bob Bates and Barry Payne are due to land their single-engine biplane at Muskoka Airport today.
The aviators, in which they continually update their status, explain “our flight could end up being the only single engine Round The World flight this year.” And besides “potentially other benchmarks involved,” their website recap says it’s definitely “the only flight closely re-enacting the 1924 flight route.” That first flight round the world, comprised of four Douglas Air Cruisers operated by the U.
S. army Air Service, departed Seattle on April 6, 1924, explained the aviators’ website. They don’t list their individual ages but their website teases that the “combined age of the two crew Bob & Barry is 161 years, and a total of 105 .