Around the world….and back in 50 days

It is an epic adventure which sound like something from a Hollywood blockbuster film.

An ambitious round-the-world flight for two Leeds lecturers and a leading cardiologist will take them over the Iraq war zone, across 2,000 miles of African deserts ande soaring above remote Indian jungles.

They will travel 40,000 miles over 50 days and pass over scores of countries.

The flight is being orchestrated by aviation students from Leeds University.

The seven-week trip will see Kevin Rowell and Geoff McPhail, both flying lecturers on Leeds University's aviation technology and pilot studies degree, take to the skies.

They will be co-pilots for Dr Nigel Wheeldon's Flight for Hearts, a round-the-world trip, to raise awareness and cash for sudden adult death syndrome and cardiomyopathy charities.

Lecturer and pilot Mr Rowell said: "Some of the areas we are passing will certainly be dangerous.

"The problem is if we get into difficulties and have to stop in a remote spote in the middle of nowhere or in a dangerous area.

"We will be flying one day on, one day off. It will be hard going. We will go over Iraq at one point, Afghanistan and over 2,000 miles of deserts and to the other extreme, remote jungle in India."

The route takes them east through Europe, Africa and the Middle East, then on through Asia to Australia, and the same in reverse.

Following this the flight departs for the US, hopping across the North Atlantic stopping in Iceland, Green land and Canada on the way, before returning on the same route.

They will fly in an eight-seater Cessna 421 twin-engine Golden Eagle plane.

A team of 12 third-year aviation students have formed a flight operations team, based in a room at the university, with fight tracking facilities.

Students Matthew Coles, 21 and Chris Kowalkowski, 22, Daniel Haliwell, 21, all of Hyde Park, have helped with planning logistics.

Matthew, who has just graduated from the course , said: "We have been booking airport landings and designing the route."

Students Phillipa Hardy, 21 and Katie Salmons, 20, both of Hyde Park, have helped organise media coverage and sponsorship.

Dr Wheeldon, who leads the Regional Genetic Heart Disease Service will be joined by his wife, sister Way Yee Wheeldon, on board as an assistant.

He said: "This is a dreadful condition that takes young lives, shatters dreams and destroys families.

"The condition typically afflicts young adults and children that have been completely well and free of any known problems."

The three charities to benefit are: the Cardiomyopathy Association; Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) and Sudden Adult Death Trust (SAD).

The team is looking for a corporate sponsor which could mean having their name on the side of the plane.

They leave Doncaster's Robin Hood Airport on July 30.

For more details or to sponsor the event see the website at http://www.flight-forhearts.org or see

http://www.justgiving.com/fllightforhearts