Noted British aviatrix Tracy Curtis-Taylor's journey from Britain to Australia as a homage to the 1930 aerial odyssey of pioneering pilot Amy Johnson is being filmed for a documentary by her crew that is tailing her on a small vintage plane.
"Three of us are riding this 1960 vintage Pilatus Porter PC6 and capturing the extraordinary experiences of this expedition, literally the highs and the lows and emotional moments on camera," Tracey's co-crew member Matthew Weinwright told PTI here.
Inspired by her compatriot's "strong determination" and "fathomless bravery", the 53-year-old British pilot is following in the slipstreams of Johnson's historic trip, in a restored open-cockpit 1942 Boeing Stearman, christened 'Spirit of Artemis'.
Calling herself a 'bird in a bi-plane', Tracey started her journey on October 1 from Farnborough Airport in Hampshire in the UK and landed in Delhi on November 23.
Yesterday, she met with women pilots of the IAF at the base here, an experience that left the Indian aviators overwhelmed with joy and jubilation.
Matthew, the cameraman, tried to capture Tracey's historic moment in this northern part of India and the entire scene of raptures, as both male and female pilots lined up to cheer her as she took to the skies, her ground-to-air ascent, filmed in run-time, as the documentary crew tailed her right behind mid-air, much to everyone's amusement.
And if Tracey carries on her back years of flying experience with her retracing of Lady Mary Heath's 1928 trip from South Africa to Britain a few years ago, Matthew has worked on film shot in the Arctic, dense jungles and arid deserts.
"Everytime, something amazing happens, which happens almost everytime, since people are getting drawn everywhere she is landing, given the historical context and the vintage Boeing plane she is flying, but I have to run around with a 30 kg lugged on my back," he says with a smile.
The film has been commissioned by Tracey herself, who intends to release it sometime in next Summers.
Besides, Matthew, who also doubles up as a co-pilot, there is Austrian Ewald Gritsch and Swiss Markus Loeschenkohl onboard the Pilatus.
Her tribute journey almost replicates the one taken by Johnson from Croydon to Darwin 85 years ago, and her entire route spans 14,000 miles over 23 countries with 50 refuelling stops.
The British aviator, however, said there were many challenges and many more await further down the route.
Her first stop in India was Ahmedabad earlier this month, followed by Jaipur, before reaching Delhi. Hindon Air Base in neighbouring UP is nearly 30 km from the national capital.
Talking about her challenges en route to destination,
Tracey said, "There wasn't the red tape and bureaucracy in 1930s that I had to face while traversing through different air spaces. While Johnson, flew through Syria, Iran and Iraq, I couldn't, so I flew over the Mediterranean and Saudi Arabia and face dust storms and other obstructions," she added.
She is scheduled to reach Sydney sometime early January next year.
"This is my first visit to India and I am thrilled about it, whatever I have seen so far, mostly from up there...Given, the Indo-British connection of several centuries, and our joint aviation history, I consider this an exciting part of entire journey," she said.
Tracey is currently staying in Delhi before leaving for her next stop Agra tomorrow, a defence official said.
"India is the centrepiece of my journey, and also geographically the heart of the space that I would be traversing, so, I have reached half-way through almost," Tracey said.
"After Delhi, I will fly over Agra and then Varanasi and Kolkata would be my last stop in India, before I move toward Burma (Myanmar). I want to see Taj Mahal and the Ganges from my biplane," she said.
During this entire trip, she would also meet as many school children and women as possible and seek to inspire them with her experiences.
"As filmmakers, we try to be detached and shoot it objectively but sometimes it becomes very difficult to do so and we do get drawn into the whole emotional whirlpool that this trip often triggers," Matthew added.
Incidentally, an award-winning documentary feature film entitled 'Teh Aviatrix' was made on Tracey's Africa flight and the Lady Heath's story and this was screened by BBC4 in March.
