2005 marked 25 years since the founding of the Sister State relationship between Victoria State and Aichi Prefecture, of which Nagoya is the capital. Aichi Prefecture was host to the World EXPO 2005 Aichi Japan, and the new Chubu International Airport south of Nagoya commenced operations from early 2005.

The Friendship Flight 2005 project was designed to commemorate these major events.

WHAT WAS FRIENDSHIP FLIGHT 2005?

The main theme to Friendship Flight 2005 was, as the title suggests, enhancing friendship between Australia and Japan. It also encompassed educational children's activities and environmental issues.

Using a light helicopter, the team departed Melbourne February 28, 2005, and flew from Australia to New Guinea, various Indonesian Islands, via the Philippines and Taiwan before arriving home in Japan March 27.

A range of events and functions were planned en route before arriving at our destination, World EXPO 2005 Aichi Japan, just ahead of a special series of events planned by the Australian Pavilion.

The flight created and conducted by Australian born, Nagoya based radio DJ and television personality, Chris Glenn, along with Aichi Prefecture based flight school operator, Takashi Nishimori.

WHY A HELICOPTER?

Although flying a helicopter is by far more difficult than flying a plane, helicopters are generally safer than light fixed wing aircraft, and much more maneuverable. This was an advantage, particularly on such an adventure, as the team were able to land at schools as part of their educational and friendship projects. Further, by using a helicopter they were able to gain a better view of the state of the land, air and sea environment. The challenge and adventure of flying by helicopter created a wave of excitement that made this project attractive to the media.

We also hoped to dispel the 5 main myths about helicopters, being:

1) Helicopters are dangerous
2) If the engine cuts out, you fall out of the sky
3) Helicopters can't fly in strong winds
4) A flight in a helicopter is rougher than in an airplane
5) Helicopter pilots aren't normal

Only No. 5 has been proven correct

SUB PROJECTS

Promoting international friendship, education and environmental issues were the main themes of Friendship Flight 2005, however this project encompassed many other sub-projects, including;

•  Educating children to the importance of caring for the environment
•  Facilitating communication between children of both countries, promoting future friendship through understanding
•  Uniting Australia / Japan concerns along the route
•  Cultivation and Encouragement of following one's dreams
•  Promotion of EXPO 2005

Other projects contained within the Friendship Flight 2005 included the creation of documentary films regarding the flight and the environment.

. The Victorian Government graciously offered to host the Launch event and reception for the Friendship Flight 2005 on Friday, February 25, 2005.

The venue was Government House, Melbourne, hosted by Governor John Landy and by Victoria State Premier, the Honourable Steve Bracks MP. Other Victorian State Ministers and dignitaries, Australia Japan Society members, Friendship Flight 2005 associated sponsors and guests as well as media were part of the 300 strong gathering.

To cap off the reception, the pilots once again fired up the engines and were waved off from the grounds of Government House by "Ground Marshall" Premier Bracks.

PILOT'S REPORT

Wow, what a trip it was, a real adventure.

It took 6 years from my initial idea to completion. From the start I had to consider if the project was feasible. Could a helicopter actually make it? A few weeks of pouring over world maps showed me it was a possibility. The next step was to tie it all together. The 25th anniversary of Aichi and Victoria seemed to tie in nicely. Not long after I'd figured this out, Aichi was awarded the EXPO, another opportunity!!

After figuring out what I would need to make this project become a reality, I started doing basic funding lists, so I knew how much we would need to pull it off. From there I had to think about who to do it with. A few pilots had come to mind before I invited Takashi Nishimori. I sat down to lunch with him one day and scribbling on the back of serviettes, told him of my plan. He laughed at first, but then nodding in agreement, said he'd accompany me!

I had spoken to Japan's largest helicopter company, Aero Asahi in Tokyo. Their company president was formerly president of Toyota Australia, and was interested in the project. He agreed to loan us a helicopter at a break even cost. We had a helicopter, a 1983 French made AS 350, JA9313,. now we had to fund it!

Over the next 3 years we worked on getting publicity and most importantly, sponsors. I had written a list of over 150 potential sponsors, and started working on getting as many as we could. This proved more difficult than I had imagined.

We finally got all the sponsors we needed to make the project happen. First to come on board was gas equipment maker, Rinnai. Then specialty college Jinno Gakuin's CNA, (College of Naka-Nippon Aviation) were next to sign, followed by precision electrical engineering firm, NIMO and finally major sponsor, TOYOTA. A number of smaller companies also purchased advertising space on the outside of our helicopter.

We applied for and received all international flight permission details, some not coming until the final moment. We covered all fuel logistics, routes were confirmed, all the little details that cropped up at the last moment we managed to sort out and we were on our way to Oz.

When we arrived, the helicopter was supposed to have been delivered to a hanger at Essendon Airport, Melbourne, however a customs problem reared, and so customs still had the machine in it's crate sitting at the Melbourne Docks accumulating storage and container fees. When I'd sorted out all the red tape problems, the shipping company then told us that they hadn't booked a truck or crane at the port for loading,...another few days went by,..., we finally got the helicopter 6 days late and the night before TOYOTA Australia President Okada was to come inspect the aircraft, hold a press conference and sign the sponsorship contract.

3 to 4 days of work was then completed in one marathon stretch overnight thanks to the crew from CNA. They had supplied a team of young mechanics to assist in the re-construction and maintenance of our chopper. We got it together, got all the sponsors stickers on gave it a test flight and everything went well from there.

We visited 5 schools in Melbourne and around Victoria, including a special visit to the St Kilda Primary school, and to the Port Phillip Town Hall. The kids at St Kilda were great, they were interested in the flight and the helicopter. I remember as we flew low over the school first for a reconnaissance flight, seeing the red of the students uniforms, with all these little faces beaming up at us, really standing out. Also as we landed on the school's oval, the windows of the council chambers right next door were suddenly filled with city officials and staff craning to get a better look. The smiles on the faces of the kids, and of the council staff as we landed will never be forgotten. It was, to coin a cliché, a magical moment.

Obu City in Aichi had heard about our project and had shown a great deal of enthusiasm. Obu City was more active in the Friendship Flight than it's benefactors, Nagoya City. Obu supplied some fine stickers featuring the Friendship Flight logo, and invited us to fly a helicopter into the middle of the annual festival to further promote the flight. In return for their kindness, we were more than willing to make the extra flight to Obu's sister City, Port Phillip. The fine staff of Obu City have become firm friends, and we remain forever grateful for their support. Later we cleared Australia, flew over the South Western districts of New Guinea and into Iriyan Jaya, landing at Merauke for CIQ. (Customs Immigration and Quarantine) They told us weather conditions were perfect between Merauke and next stop, Timika, however we hit 2 thunder-squalls and extreme head winds which used up all our fuel, forcing us to make an emergency landing on a small patch of sand between thick thick jungle and the sea.

Radio contact could only be made in flight, and so we risked taking off and flying above the only landing spot to be had, the sand bank. We were told a rescue helicopter couldn't be mobilised till the next morning, so we made a small camp fire and prepared to spend a night on the sand. It was then we noticed the sea was coming up rapidly. Again we started the now empty helicopter and hovered it into a position as high up the sand as we could in between the mangroves. While this was done, our camp fire was washed away, and we were forced to flee 3 meters up into the trees as the sea came into the mangrove swamps. After a night in the trees, we came down to a sodden beach, and a helicopter with it's skids 12-15 cm under sand. We hand dug her out, and a few hours later, a rescue heli came with water, fuel, sandwiches and pitted cherries. This has been one of the high-lights of our trip, and this story has been told many times already.

Next night was a night in the Sheraton Hotel Timika,...so different from the Jungle!

The next incident occurred at Sorong, on the most western point of Iriyan Jaya, where a new airport had commenced operations just days before. The old airport, Jeffman, had closed, and the new one wasn't on any charts, GPS or in any flight aid books. As we approached with nothing but a radio direction beacon called a VOR, their VOR equipment went down, and they had to guide us to the airport by air radio. They told us it was 30 miles south of the old airport. Would have helped if they knew their north from south, as they had us circling a vast area south of the city looking for an airport located much further north. When we found it, there were about 300 people,... kids playing soccer, a disco, BBQ's and motor cycle drag races going on ON the runway! You'd think with an aircraft coming in they'd clear the area,...nope, it was a case of "Oh look, a helicopter,..." and keep on partying.

We had gun-toting official looking guys stare us down in the Philippines on entry. When we landed they rolled out a carpet for us, thinking we were getting "royal" treatment, I was surprised to find the carpet had been doused in disinfectant and was a quarantine measure.

We had a few days off, lounging in a 5 star hotel and on the fine beaches of Mactan, Cebu Island before working our way to Manila. From the Philippines capital, we flew north to Laoag. We had a special map, an IFR or Instrument Flight Rules aeronautical map for the next leg, a 500Km flight across the ocean between the Philippines and Taiwan. Takeshi fired the engines while I attended to a last bit of paperwork. As I walked from the humming helicopter, I heard an almighty CRACK, like a large fireworks, turning around, I saw what looked like snowflakes swirling and falling around the helicopter and on the tarmac. Takeshi, feeling the heat, had opened the doors to let the air circulate, and the wind had whipped the IFR map off his lap and up into the spinning rotors which instantly shredded them into tiny flakes.

2 hours later, jet fighters were scrambled to intercept us as we entered Taiwanese airspace. Laoag had "forgotten" to fax our departure details to the Taiwan authorities. From Kaoshoiung in the south, to Taipei in the north, we had such poor flying conditions, we were verbally guided by radar vectoring, with air traffic controllers telling us our heading and altitude by watching a blip on their radar screens.

The Okinawan islands were more beautiful than I had imagined, however more customs red tape greeted us in Japan and caused more headaches, followed by having landing permission at EXPO revoked days before landing (partly due to security revolving around France's Chirac visiting on the same day, partly due, or mostly due to EXPO officials incompetence and fears that helicopters are dangerous) and a mad scramble to secure another landing place. The place we had chosen as a secondary landing place, a heliport just beside the EXPO was also suddenly denied us, as the owner had been caught operating it illegally, and was nervous when he heard the media was coming to see us land.

Our chief co-ordinator, Yuka Kato of PPF had a tough time re-scheduling a landing site and getting the media and sponsors and guests organized. Interestingly, we were able to land at the old Nagoya Airport, and so we found ourselves coming a full circle. We had left Nagoya on the very last international flight out of Nagoya before the new international airport, Centerair commenced operations, thinking we wouldn't be seeing Nagoya Airport again, and yet here we were flying back in! We had over 80 invited guests see us home, we then bussed everybody to the EXPO site where Commissioner Andrew Todd and the Australian Pavilion hosted our official landing reception.

We had battled cyclones, thunder squalls, fuel problems, red tape, exhorbitant landing fees in the most remote of places, strange languages, stranger foods, and more drama than in the last 10 years of Neighbors, but we arrived home safe (?) and sound (??) (not that we were that sound to have started this in the first place) and happy to be home. Another dream has indeed come true. We had flown 12,000Km through 6 different international airspaces, landed at over 40 places over the course of a month in JA9313.

Everything seems to have fallen into place, sometimes at the last moment, but all came through. Friendship Flight 2005 was a success.

Official Website

For more information on this wonderful adventure please visit the official Friendship Flight 2005 website at www.flight2005.com