Couple’s Around-the-World Adventure Ends Where it Started

September 12, 2011 — Home sweet home. While most Americans remembered those who died in the terrorist attacks on the 10th anniversary of 9-11, Patrick Elliott and his wife, Linda Walker, of Surrey, England, came home. And what a homecoming it was. The couple arrived back in France, completing a 365-day around-the-world trip that had taken 18 months to plan. The couple took off in their Long-EZ on September 11, 2010, never intending to fly around the world. “We said we’d see how far we can get,” Linda said in a July interview while in Oshkosh for EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2011. They flew eastbound with avgas determining their stops. They visited Italy, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain. They touched down in the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and, finally, Australia. Then they flew back to Indonesia and stopped in Taiwan before their EZ was dismantled for its trip across the Pacific to Vancouver, British Columbia. (They ended up shipping it because Japanese authorities would not permit them to land without a particular certificate that is not granted to homebuilt aircraft.) Once reassembled, the couple took off for Alberta, Canada, crossing into the United States in late June. Next, they were off to Canada, Greenland, Iceland, and the United Kingdom, before arriving back in France where they started exactly one year later. They have seen a lot of sights since starting their trip - the Egyptian pyramids, the Taj Mahal, the Sydney Bridge, the towering cliffs in Thailand, and the Rocky Mountains of the United States, to name a few. But they said what they would remember most about the trip is the people they met. “People have been very helpful and friendly,” Patrick said while at AirVenture. “Each place we’ve gone has been different, but what has impressed us is the welcome the airplane has received. That will be the biding memory of our trip.” Their final flight of the trip was uneventful, although the weather wasn’t what they had hoped for. Despite a healthy crosswind, they arrived at Dunsfold on schedule, and on landing, were surprised by the welcoming committee that assembled to meet them. “Family and friends had come out in force to see us complete our journey and, for obvious reasons, emotions ran high as we shut down the engine for the final time,” Linda wrote in their travel blog. “It was hard to believe that our year-long adventure had been completed on schedule, and we had returned home safe and sound!”		Patrick Elliott and Linda Walker pose with friends in front of their Long-EZ in Manston, Kent. The couple completed their around-the-world trip on September 11, exactly one year after they first started. Photo credit: Elliott travel blog Patrick Elliott and his wife, Linda Walker, visited EAA AirVenture Oshkosh in July on their around-the-world journey. EAA Photo credit: Andrew Zaback

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