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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
Tiffany Lo

Two British pilots fly across entire width of Russia in 80mph gyrocopter

Two Britons who launched their round-the-world trip two months ago have managed to fly across Russia in an open-cockpit gyrocopter.

James Ketchell, 37, and Norman Surplus, 56, set off their journey from Britain in late March and flew past Europe.

The gyrocopter travels at 80mph with a range of 800 miles.

In their latest video, James revealed that they have become stuck in Yakutsk, a Russian port city in east Siberia, waiting for better weather .

He said: "So here we're in Yakutsk in Siberia and we haven't moved for a couple of days.

They flew through the terrains to the world's coldest settlement, Magadan (James Ketchell/The Siberian Time)
James shared photos of their aerial view (James Ketchell/The Siberian Time)

"The flying has been very long and [we've been] flying over unforgiving terrain.

"But aside from that it has been quite straightforward. We've had a few days where we've been going through some mountains but those mountains have been very short... and you know we've only been an hour or two max in the mountains."

James Ketchell and Norman Surplus in Magadan (Facebook/The Siberian Times)

However, he said their next two flights are 'quite complicated'.

He explained: "The first flight is 400 nautical miles from here [Yakutsk] and the first 200 of that is flat. It's fairly easy.

"The last 200 is right up into the mountains, now these are proper mountains. Where we're going is 500 miles of mountain flying, that's a hell of a lot.

"We can only go into the mountain when it's perfect weather."

They flew across Europe in the last two months and will head to Alaska (James Ketchell/The Siberian Time)
The gyrocopter travels at 70 knots, with a range of 700 nautical miles (Facebook/east2west news)

On Tuesday, the pair conquered the mountains of east Siberia to reach the Sea of Okhotsk on the Pacific coast.

After six hours of flying in their gyrocopters, they arrived Tomtor, close to Oymyakon, the world's coldest settlement, according to the Siberian Times.

James said on social media: "Really pleased with today's flight, and our decision to wait for a weather window really paid off! A great days flying."

The pair will become the first to fly across the world in gyrocopter (James Ketchell/The Siberian Time)

They stayed overnight and flew to the major Siberian city of Magadan yesterday.

Throughout the journey, they shared photos of the beautiful terrains and mountains as they flew through extreme weather conditions.

Luckily they were welcomed by the locals in different countries.

The adventurers have three stops remain in Russia before crossing the Bering Strait to Alaska.

Their goal is to fly across 13 different countries including France, Lithuania, Russia, Canada and Greenland, before arriving back in England in six months' time.

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