CarolAnn Garratt and Carol Foy went around the world in a Mooney, shattered a speed record in doing so and have raised more than $145,000 to fight a fatal disease. Not a bad week’s work. The pilots returned to Orlando, Fla., last Thursday morning, eight days and change after leaving on a westward circumnavigation that took them through just eight fuel and rest stops. In doing so, they more than doubled the average speed of the standing record for their aircraft’s weight class (final calculations are still being done). But Garratt told AVweb in a podcast interview that the most important effect of the Dash for Cash is to raise awareness and money for research into Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), sometimes referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease for the famous baseball player who died from it.
Garratt said she and Foy intended to complete the flight in seven days but opted for an extra night’s rest en route to ensure they stayed sharp at the controls. Along the way, they took two-hour shifts flying while the non-flying pilot rested or handled navigation and communications duties. Despite the long legs, Garratt said there was little time to be bored. “We were busy almost all the time,” she said. The aircraft performed flawlessly and other than some laptop computer problems there were no other technical glitches. The pilots did have to go in search of avgas in Africa after they discovered one of their intended fuel stops didn’t have any.
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Podcast interview with Garratt
