The Flight

Four Corners Flight America has three aims:

1. To promote the 501 (c)3 charity Flying Scholarships for the Disabled across America.

2. To set at least 20 new FAI International aviation world speed records in Class C-1b for speed over a recognised course.

3. To promote Rotary International, Rotary eClub 7890 of which pilot Steve Wood is a member, and the EAA Young Eagles program of which Steve is EAA Chapter 288’s Young Eagles coordinator.

Click here to view the route

In 2005 Steve became the first British pilot to fly a homebuilt aircraft around the four corners of the lower 48 states of America. In addition to flying to all four corners he took part in the AirVenture Cup air race from Dayton, OH to Oshkosh, WI and then visited the world’s largest air event - EAA AirVenture. The 2005 flight covered some 10000 miles in 10 days and Steve flew Young Eagles at each of the four corners.

Whilst the route for the 2007 Four Corners Flight America is broadly the same as in 2005, the aim was to get the flight into the aviation record books by attempting:

To land at the towered airports at each of the ‘four corners’ of America, certified by ATC
To set at least 20 new FAI International aviation world speed records (now exceed by 50%!)
To set an aviation world speed record for the shortest city to city distance
To set two international transcontinental aviation world speed records between the Pacific coast of Canada and America and the Atlantic coast of America and Canada

Weather played a major role in determining when the flight was able to take place. The FAI rules state that the flight time is counted from the start of each to the finish of each flight. This means if the flight is delayed midway by weather or mechanical problems the clock is still running until the finish line is reached. The challenge is enhanced further by there being a minimum speed (related to the type of airplane involved) which has to be achieved for a record to count..