Tracey Curtis-Taylor: 'Bird in a biplane' lands in Sydney after 13,000-mile solo trip from Britain to Australia

Inspired by Amy Johnson, Tracey Curtis-Taylor steps out of the cockpit after 13,000 miles

Tracey Curtis-Taylor lands in Sydney (PA)

Self-titled “bird in a biplane” Tracey Curtis-Taylor landed her 1942 Boeing Stearman at Sydney’s international airport at 7.54am UK time on 9 January after a 13,000-mile solo trip from Britain to Australia.

Ms Curtis-Taylor, who told waiting reporters she needed “a drink”, left Farnborough in Hampshire on 1 October.

The three-month adventure was inspired by Amy Johnson, who became the first woman to fly solo between England and Australia in 1930.

Like her, Ms Curtis-Taylor made the trip in an open cockpit and navigated using basic instruments, which are now period pieces.

“End of huge adventure, thank you everyone who supported me,” the 53-year-old wrote on Facebook, marking the completion of a flight which crossed 23 countries and gave her the “best view in the world” from her biplane, Spirit of Artemis.

Many people took to social media to offer their congratulations, with one person saying that the sight of Ms Curtis-Taylor touching down in Sydney made them “just well up with vicarious pride over what you’ve done. You are an amazing woman.”

The route of Tracey Curtis-Taylor's solo trip from Britain to Australia

Ms Curtis-Taylor, who lives in London, admitted she had not yet managed to process the adventure. “I would like to sit down with a large drink and rest and reflect on what I have gone through. It’s been an astonishing experience – heaven and hell.”

“I just take my hat off to what [Johnson] pushed herself to, right on the limits of endurance. She was on the verge of nervous exhaustion when she finished. It’s an astonishing survival story, all done by a slip of a girl at the age of 26 with little flying experience,” said Ms Curtis-Taylor.

“This generation needs to know what the pioneers achieved and how they resolved to break the records.”

Ms Curtis-Taylor’s achievement is being seen as a source of inspiration for others. Kanchana Gamage, founder of the Aviatrix Project, an initiative which encourages women and girlsto fly, said: “What she is showing is not necessarily [just] about aviation, it’s about perseverance. It’s that sense of adventure, really.

“It’s showing that you can do exciting things. Tracey doesn’t have a commercial licence; she doesn’t have an instrument rating. She’s a private pilot … she’s had a lot of challenges and difficulties to get to where she is, but she’s managed it,”

Jane Priston, founder of the Amy Johnson Herne Bay Project, said: “I know Tracey feels very passionately that she wanted to promote aviation as a career for women and girls, which is interestingly the reason Amy took on the flight herself in 1930.

“She has taken Amy’s legacy, built on it and inspired the whole world really.”

Ms Curtis-Taylor, who flew from Cape Town to Goodwood, West Sussex, in 2013 inspired by Lady Mary Heath’s flight in 1928, called flying “addictive”.

Her next trip? A solo flight across the US later this year.