The team in the air.

To combine the adventure of flying with a charitable purpose was the initial objective for the project ‘Spirit of Davos’, “a flight for a global idea”. The scientist, Prof. Dr. med. Stephan Perren, a HAM himself, HB9QS, can look back on 50 years of flying experience. It was, therefore, no surprise that a man like him had dreamt of circumnavigating the globe in a single engine airplane.

Walensee / Switzerland

For 30 years, Stephan Perren has been the director of research and development at the International AO Foundation. The focus of the centre, located in Davos, Switzerland, is the treatment of fractured bones. The interdisciplinary team is working hard to develop new improved surgical methods and to teach them to trauma surgeons around the world

Bali's padi fields

An important subject in Stephan’s research has always been osteoporosis, an illness that causes increasing problems in elderly people worldwide. Their bones become fragile and simple falls can lead to severe injuries. Generally people are not aware that fractures in elderly people can have much more serious consequences than just decreasing mobility. Some of the more obvious problems for those confined to bed and those with restricted movement are, shallower breathing, circulation that hardly gets into action and weakening muscles. In this way a broken bone can finally lead to life threatening cardiovascular and respiratory complications. Also the surgical stabilization in osteoporotic bone is difficult, because screws can rupture from the fragile material more easily than from a young and healthy bone.

Foothollshima

Stephan dedicated his flight around the world to the fight against osteoporosis. He wanted to bring the problem to the attention of as many people as possible and also collect donations to be able to work even harder on research for better treatments. He definitely picked a good moment as the WHO and the UN announced the “decade of bones and joints”. Stephan managed to attract the World Economic Forum as a sponsor for his plan. The organisation proved to be very helpful in finding an interested and benevolent audience for his lectures all over the world. His son, the architect Nicolas Perren, who has over 20 years of flying experience was going to be his partner on this very special trip.

above the clouds

On the day of September 27th 2005 father and son started from Zürich, Switzerland in a single engine four seater Moony "HB-DGL" with destination Istanbul.  The Moony has a range of 3000 km with a cruising speed of approximately 300km/h.

Sand and dunes.

For Stephan, the HAM, a project like this without a Pactor modem was unimaginable. The Moony "HB-DGL" has been equipped with the well-tried ICOM -706MKIIG SSB radio and a PTC-IIusb. Due to restrictions in weight, it was not possible to take heavy batteries on the little plane, thus making transmission only possible with the engine running. For the antenna, Stephan found a simple solution. With a little electrical motor one can drive out a long wire from the rear of the aircraft, which is then used as a towed antenna. For best results in SWR, one only has to adjust the length of the antenna.

HB9HAI at Weissfluhgipfel/Switzerland

In Davos / Switzerland, on the Weissfluhgipfel, Stephan installed a SCS PTCII Mailbox with Rhode & Schwarz XK3100L Transceiver using a marine vertical whip antenna This can be used for communication depending on propagation. The frequencies of  HB9HAI for the interested HAM, which are scanned every 5 seconds are as follows:

Frequencies HB9HAI (USB) setting=mark frequency

During the flight, the pilots regularly gave position reports via Winlink with the Pactor modem. Unfortunately, they were facing problems of interference between their notebook and the high frequency radiation in the aircraft. Consequently the planned automatic set up was not possible. They had to enter the positions manually and send them with the next connection. However, the PTCIIusb proved to be absolutely reliable even under the oxygen-deprived conditions at high altitudes.

Himalaya

The trip took father and son via Istanbul, Ahmedabad, Kathmandu, Calcutta, Pattaya, Singapore, Timor, Darwin, Alice Springs to Sydney, to mention only a few of their stops.


Myanmar

They flew across deserts in the Middle East, glanced at the snow covered peaks of the Himalayas, discovered the green paddi fields in Bali and spotted lonely islands in the gulf of Thailand. On each leg they travelled distances between 300 and 2500 kilometres and spent a couple days in each destination.

Sihanrange

Of course, Stephan’s lectures in front of various organisations about osteoporosis and its treatment, were the priority, but they always found some time so get to know the country and its people.

finally the two pilots approach Sydney

On November 3rd, 2005 the two pilots finally spotted the Sydney skyline, which will be for the moment their temporary destination.

Stephan and Nicolas after landing in Sydney

Since they left Switzerland they have covered a total flying distance of around 25.000 kilometres. Proud of their achievement, father and son shook hands and promised to continue their trip in May 2006. The Moony "HB-DGL" is waiting for them in Australia. They have a few problems to resolve before the next leg. One of which is to find the solution to the automatic position reporting. The team from SCS are pleased to be providing their professional help.

Anyone who may be curious about these two adventurous pilots and their unique trip around the world, can read the logbook of their journey on the www. Log on to www.spirit-of-davos.ch where you will find many photographs and much background information on aviation, amateur radio and osteoporosis.

Von Nathalie Müller, KD7SVT
April 2006, Chagos, 05:21°S 72:12°E