9 Dec 1971 to 8 Jan 1972
The First
100-HP Single Engine
England to Hong Kong Long Distance
Cross-Country Flight in History
At 11:20 P.M., 8 Jan 1972 the Chin Brothers Dominic Io Chong Chin and Francis Yiu Cheong Chin completed their 30-day flying ordeal from England to Hong Kong with night flying and landed safely on Runway 31 of the Kai Tak International Airport. The Chin Brothers made the first single engine England to Hong Kong flight in a 100-HP Beagle Pup B121 Series 2-seat mini plane with only basic flight instrument, a 30-nautical miles range R/T and VOR with neither glideslope nor
beacon marker in 30 days with 30 refuel stops for avgas and some mogas along the way.
Francis and Dominic
To show you the size of the Beagle Pup G-AWEC when compared with a fuel truck Jan 1972
Dominic and Francis, with only 61 hours and 55:05 hours respectively in their logbooks, have covered some 18,239 miles and flown through the Syrian Desert, the Israeli-Arab War, the Indian-Pakistan War, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War receiving amazingly hospitality and friendship all along the way. They experienced an oil cooler gasket leakage and at one point ran out of fuel 10 miles out of Bangkok International Airport after a 12.5-hour range record flight for the Beagle Pup B 121 from Calcutta. They crossed Mount Victoria in the Arakan Yoma Mountain Range at 10,016 feet with the aircraft ceiling only certified at 10,000 feet, and spent 8.6 hours and 8.5 hours flying over ocean from Borneo to Manila and Manila to Hong Kong respectively with only 2 standard life-jackets.
Their story was published in the newspapers in Hong Kong, South East Asia, Europe and England during the first 2 weeks of January 1972. Readers' Digest published their story as a special feature titled "The Adventure of the Echo Charlie" in Feb 1973 and 1974 in Chinese, English, French, German, Finish, Swedish, Spanish and Japanese. The Hong Kong Aviation Club has copies in the Chinese and English edition. (Click HERE for a copy of the Readers Digest.)
The aircraft Beagle Pup G-AWEC was flown by the Chin Brothers under the registration VR-HGT in Hong Kong and was later donated to the Hong Kong Aviation Club in 1983 and it was later
donated by the Chin Brothers for use by the
Air Scouts and the Air Cadet as a teaching aid for aviation education training. It
had undergone a complete refurbishment by four volunteer engineers with the help
of Francis Chin to restore to its original colour and insignia.
A snapshot of the all smiling Dominic, Francis and Echo Charlie by a reporter en route in Singapore International Airport on 3 Jan 1972.
The most difficult part of the trip was flown !
The first and second historical photo taken by reporters of the Government Information Services upon arrival at the Hong Kong Kai Tak International Airport at 11:20p.m., 8/1/1972.
