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Around the world at 80

Promote your company or product in print and on television while supporting a good cause

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Around the world at 80

Around the world at 80

Around the world at 80

Around the world at 80

Around the world at 80

Promote your company or product in print and on television while supporting a good cause

Promote your company or product in print and on television while supporting a good cause

Promote your company or product in print and on television while supporting a good cause

Promote your company or product in print and on television while supporting a good cause

James Jones
James Jones
James Jones
James Jones
1 Campaign |
Sandbach, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
$190 USD $190 USD 2 backers
0% of $31,586 Fixed Goal Fixed Goal
Overview
I am fundraising in aid of The Alzheimers Society who are engaged in support and research into dementia. Their work is desperately important and affects us all, very few families will escape the effects of this debilitating complaint. In exchange for a donation I will place your company or product logo on the aircraft. This is a realistic benefit while you support a good cause.

A remarkable journey.

In late 2018, I intend to make a remarkable journey when I fly myself around the world. I will be joined by my wife who will be the navigator. The flight will be remarkable because we will be in our eighties.

At eighty years old, an age when most octogenarians are absorbed with sedentary activities or pursuits we will be doing something unusual for a good cause. We intend to use a Cessna Skylane which is a single engine light aircraft with a range of a thousand miles,

The Skylane is a four seater but the space where the rear seats are usually located will be taken up by the safety equipment which includes a dingy and survival suits. These items are mandatory when crossing oceans, which on this flight includes more than two thousand miles of the Atlantic, fortunately there will be refuelling stops at Greenland and Iceland.

Around the world flight. 

The cramped conditions of a light aircraft cockpit which is smaller than a car and being buffeted by the weather are not to everybody’s liking. Less than three around the world flights are made each year, that’s two hundred and twenty-five since the first successful flight in 1931, eighty-five years ago.

 

I have taken more than a year to plan the route, organise permissions to enter the airspace of some countries and avoid the problems caused by the present political climate. Once airborne we will have the weather to deal with, this can include severe winds, storms, fog, rain, snow, ice, dust and possibly some volcanic activity.

Why are you making this flight?

We became aware of dementia many years ago but it took a family member to focus our attention. She was a normal grandma in every sense of the word but suddenly deteriorated without being aware of her condition. This is one of the problems with dementia, the patients look normal; consequently they tend to get ignored.

The facts make shocking reading, statistically one third of all over sixty year olds will suffer from dementia. The medical services simply cannot afford the high cost of the support that they need, yet we cannot afford, morally or monetarily to ignore them.

Many will become bed bound in hospital and that affects every one of us. Dementia is the biggest killer, more than cancer and heart disease combined.

Can dementia be cured?

No, there isn’t a cure but research has shown that the onset of the complaint can be delayed. The aim is to completely prevent anybody being affected by dementia. The Alzheimers Society is at the forefront of this research and needs our support, their research benefits sufferers worldwide. Our aim is to raise a significant six figure sum to help them.

Currently a new sufferer is identified every three minutes and are already having a devastating effect on our health services which has millions of sufferers to deal with.

It should be remembered that it is not only the sufferer that is affected but their entire family.

Who are we?

We are Dot and Jim Jones and we are great grandparents, I qualified as a private pilot some years ago. We are experienced travellers who are totally self-reliant having travelled around the world several times by using commercial flights and made a circumnavigation in a motorhome. That journey, unassisted, took over seven years and visited fifty three countries. We are now applying the adventurer’s spirit that made that journey possible to this circumnavigation in a light aircraft. Over the years we have been involved in international motorsport at competitor and organisational level and ran successful ‘factory’ teams. We have both published books; mine are thrillers under the ‘non de plume’ of Marcus Hulse, while Dot used her own name for travel offerings. Jointly we have contributed to motorsport magazines in the USA, Australia and Britain. In that role Dot used her photographic skills to good effect especially in a book about the Dakar Rally that was a joint publication.

How will this fundraiser be different?

We realised that a different approach was needed from small local fundraising which requires hundreds of events to raise funds. It’s not possible to have a local event and raise one hundred thousand pounds. Larger fundraising activities have to be based on a remarkable event that is well publicised. We decided that an ‘around the world flight’ was the ideal event. More importantly it would be an obvious case of the elderly helping the elderly. We made the decision to go ahead in the full knowledge that we were committing ourselves to a lot of hardship and personal expense. That would start with the flight organisation; we allowed two years for that. The fight itself will take forty days, possibly longer, which represents a lot of discomfort and danger which most people of any age would avoid.

Associate your company name or logo with the flight.

Our original intention was to seek donors to fund the project and when we looked at the aircraft we realised we had a valuable asset. The fuselage is almost six metres in length and more than two metres tall. Finding donors to fill that space is a daunting task especially while we are dealing with the details of the flight.  The answer was to engage the services of a professional advertising agency. They suggested that we should standardise the size of the logos and offer two sizes. It was agreed that the logos would be placed on the aircraft free of charge, in return for making a donation. The modest donation is tax deductible for most companies.

This is a unique opportunity, placing your company or product name on an aircraft that is flying around the world and will be featured in a documentary hasn't been an option until now.

The drawing shown here illustrates the layout of the logos on the aircraft; the grid is only for our guidance.

It is important to realise that there is a choice of sizes; the larger ones are on the fin and along the sides of the fuselage. The smaller ones are also on the sides and are more interesting for smaller business ventures or individuals who have lost a relative or friend to dementia. Their position is shown by the yellow stripes. We will produce artwork if a donor does not have any thing that is suitable.

Early birds, don't miss this.

The best place for your logo is possibly on the front of the aircraft. This location is frequently photographed and to be sure of one of these places an early decision is necessary . On the drawing above the front is defined as 'Zone A', that is in front of the red line. 'Zone B' covers the area behind the red line. An early choice can be made when selecting your donation. Space is limited for Zone A.

Will you be fundraising yourselves?

Partly, but many companies use advertising agencies and expect to work with similar professionals. That was the reason for choosing The Silk Partnership which is better equipped to do this. We decided that we needed to separate the various aspects of the funding in order to protect the interests of our donors. With this in mind we separated the bulk of the flight costs into a package for this crowdfunding website. 

Crowd funding with Indiegogo.

This is an acclaimed crowd funding website which offers close control of fundraisers. One of their conditions is that funding is only released when the target figure is achieved. This means that donors know that their funding is only released when the fundraiser has sufficient funds to proceed. By isolating the cost of the flight we comply with this requirement, at that point we hand over the general fundraising to the Silk Partnership who will raise the funds for the charity. The donors that the Silk Partnership are in contact with will know that the flight is already funded. That is the close control that donors need.

Documentary.

We will be producing a two part documentary for broadcast television. Several broadcasters who specialise in this sort of material, including C4, have expressed an interest. It is a unique subject and such a documentary has not been made before. It is usual for filming, both on the ground and from above, to show some interesting sections in unusual locations. This documentary will give viewers a record of the complete flight. Viewers will be immersed in the splendour of the landscape and the drama in the aircraft. They will share the experiences of the crew as they cope with weather changes and air traffic control problems. On the ground they will understand the frustration of dealing with officialdom and technical issues.

While all the channels we contacted were keen their criteria was a problem, they would require a cameraman, a soundman and their equipment in the aircraft. There isn’t enough space for this and the weight limit for the aircraft would be exceeded. After taking advice the decision was taken to make the documentary content ourselves then use professionals to produce the actual programme from the inflight, ground, departure and arrival footage.

 We have solved the filming problems by carrying the cameras on the aircraft, five in total. One under each wing which are remotely controlled from inside the aircraft to film from directly overhead and in front of the aircraft. Both these cameras can film the side of the aircraft and we will use this facility to include every logo in the documentary on more than one occasion. Two cameras inside the aircraft will cover the pilot’s activity, something the broadcasters are keen on. Finally a hand held camera to take footage at every refuelling and overnight stop. Corrugated iron hangers with a backdrop of snow covered mountains in rural Alaska or sand dunes in the Mongolian wilderness will be the norm.  The data from all these sources will form the documentary which will be produced by Movement & Light’ a specialist producer. One of their principals was BBC trained twenty-five years ago and has worked on Airline, Homes under the Hammer, Hollyoaks and Brookside amongst others. The documentary will include pre-flight footage showing training and preparation.

A visual experience.

The flight will cover terrain not previously seen in normal ‘travel’ programmes. We will be spoilt for choice when selecting material for the documentary. For example the Russian Pacific coast can be seen in all its glory as opposed to stills taken on the ground. Hundreds of vessels stranded in the dried out Aral Sea cannot be filmed at all as the depth of mud prevents them being approached.

This is a great opportunity

Making a donation to this project is important but the returns have to be taken into consideration. Your logo on the aircraft will be seen by people in all the countries along the route. We will be engaging with local media and if your company is not commercially active in that country your logo will be associated with other donors on the aircraft that are well known there and at home. All the logos on the aircraft are arranged so that they can be clearly seen by anybody, with or without a camera, who is standing nearby at the forty or more places where we land. The documentary film is an added dimension, it will be in two parts and the donor’s logos will be clearly seen at every opportunity.

Logo sizes

There are two sizes of logos, there is a ‘stripe’ of 300 x 300 mm. logos which runs the length of the aircraft on both sides, a donor can have their logo on one or both sides. There will be some 300 x 300 mm logos on the fin but this space is at a premium.

The smaller logo has been designed for companies that want to be involved but the 300 x 300 mm logo is outside their budget. These logos measure 100 x 100 mm and run in a line above and below the larger ones, your donation secures space on one side of the aircraft.

These logos can be joined in a line if that shape suits your company’s graphic, this means you can have any length in multiples of 100 mm; so for example, a 500 x 100 mm. is possible.

The smaller logo will not only appeal to those companies who wish to control their budget but to individuals who wish to commemorate a relative or friend who lost the struggle with dementia. In all cases if you do not have suitable artwork we will produce it for you.

What is the documentary called?

The flight is already known as ‘Around the World at 80'and there isn’t any reason why the documentary can’t use the same name. The final decision will be made by the broadcaster. The name is taken with a nod to Jules Verne who wrote a famous novel in 1873 entitled Around the World in Eighty Days. This was the story of a fictional character who accepted a challenge while drinking in a London gentlemen’s club. Circumnavigation wasn’t new; ships had been doing it since the sixteenth century, but taking years. The challenge was to complete the journey in eighty days. Phileas Fogg won the bet using road, rail and sea transport. It took another fifty-eight years before Wiley Post an American pilot made the first aerial circumnavigation in an aircraft. He took less than eight days, we will take about forty. There are rules that have to be complied with, same pilots, same aircraft, same starting and finishing point and the aircraft cannot be transhipped across the oceans.

The budget.

Income & expenditure

Ground breaking story

Traditionally world travellers have, throughout the centuries, been older men. Think of the African and North American explorers, think of Stanley, Bird, Rhodes, Lewis and Carol. You are possibly saying ‘who?’ They opened up the great wilderness areas, now the discoveries are left to much younger men and women, often freshly out of university. Circumnavigation in an aircraft is the same, two years ago a young Australian, Lachlan Smart completed a flight on his own, and he was nineteen years old. This is a situation that we readily accept and there is no reason why we shouldn’t, the young are taking over. We even need them to explain smart phones and the internet. There is a possibility that if you are over sixty years of age you will be classed as ‘too old’. We are challenging that by flying around the world in a ‘complex’ aircraft in our eighties. We need your support to raise money for dementia research.

What are you doing this summer grandma?

This is an amazing story of two eighty year olds who have lead a full and interesting life but are not ready to stop doing great things. We have been married for more than fifty years, have brought up our family and have grandchildren and a great grandson. We have visited more than seventy countries and would be the first to admit that we know very little about the world cultures outside the frequently visited tourist places.

We accept that there are risks in any long distance flight of this type. Many of us would think that making an emergency landing in the sea is the worst outcome. But if you are forced to ‘ditch’ onto ice, snow, loose rock, desert or into a mountain valley the outcome is the same. Even a flat smooth plain without any inhabitants for hundreds of miles is not a good solution. Fortunately the facts show that the risks are very low.

We look forward to seeing things that few others have and to landing at remote airfields and meeting the locals and sharing those moments with the viewers of our documentary. But we must not forget that the driving force behind this venture is to raise funds for dementia research. That is the purpose of the flight; the documentary is to drive home that message. The finances for the flight and the documentary, as already explained, are not connected. The documentary allows the donors who support the flight see a return for their generosity.

Why do you need to make this flight now?

Because the world is changing, cultural differences are disappearing. You can buy a burger from any of the western outlets in most towns and cities of the world. In wild parts of the Sahara you find children with football club tee shirts and they have never seen a football match. There was a time, not long ago, when British tourists only had to travel to a village in central France and see rows of shops that were unrecognisable. Now many small towns in France have the same shops as every other European town. Many of the countries that we will visit will go the same way, it is called globalisation. How long before villages, for example, in Mongolia or Armenia have the very same line up of shops as we have? The viewing public are passionately interested in foreign places and their cultures, the range of documentaries shown on television clearly show this but those films are limited to a relatively small area at a time. This documentary will cover a much wider selection of cultures, a slice of the state of the earth at that time.

Even waiting ten years will be too long, rural Turkmenistan for example is entirely different to rural Turkey, yet many of us will think of Turkey as being totally different to our own rural areas. Fishing villages on the east coast of Russia are different to towns on the west coast of Alaska despite being only hundreds of miles apart

  Our Alzheimer's Society fundraiser registration number is 3370492

DONATING IS EASY.

PLEASE HELP US REACH OUR TARGET.

Award notes (guidance)

* IMMEDIATE REWARDS

         When you donate we will automatically do the following.

  • List you on our website.
  • Send you, by email, a poster that you can print either A4 or A3, you can print extra copies for your friends or family if you wish.
  • Keep you informed of our progress. Starting from one week before we leave we will email a brief daily report. This will tell you where we are, how our day went and you can check our location on your poster. Of course we might find ourselves without an internet connection at some locations.

** PROMOTIONAL PACK

  • We will send you a promotional pack of Around the world at 80 and Alzheimers Society items. You will receive this pack prior to our take off.

*** TAKE-OFF PARTY INVITE

  • Join us at Liverpool John Lennon Airport, meet the pilots, take photographs, sit in the aircraft and meet other donors. You are responsible for your travel and (if any) accommodation costs.

**** LOGO ON THE AIRCRAFT

  • Choose in 'Select a perk' panel on the right which donation you wish to make and we will produce your logo, either 100mm or 300mm square and place it on ONE side of the aircraft. You can decide if you wish to have your logo on both sides and we will liase with you regarding the content.

Please tell all your friends about ‘Around the world at 80’, perhaps they would like to get involved or you can give them a copy of the poster.

Looking for more information? Check the project FAQ
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Choose your Perk

Donation without a logo

Currency Conversion $63 USD
£50 GBP
Immediate awards. inc poster and daily update. Your name on our website. We acknowledge your donation
Included Items
  • Immediate rewards
  • 'Thank you' on our website
0 claimed

Donation without a logo

Currency Conversion $126 USD
£100 GBP
Immediate awards inc. poster & daily update Promotional item pack 'Thank you on our website.
Included Items
  • Immediate rewards
  • Promotional item pack
  • 'Thank you' on our website
0 claimed

Donation with a nose logo.

Currency Conversion $632 USD
£500 GBP
Immediate awards inc. poster and daily update 100mm x 100mm, logo on the nose on one side of the aircraft. (Zone A) Invite to the 'Take of party' at Liverpool Airport. Thank you on our website
Included Items
  • Immediate rewards
  • Take-off party invite.
  • 100x100mm logo on aircraft
  • 'Thank you' on our website
0 out of 40 of claimed

Donation with a fuselage logo

Currency Conversion $632 USD
£500 GBP
Immediate awards. inc poster and daily update 100mm x 100mm, logo on the fuselage on one side of the aircraft. (Zone B). Invite to the 'Take off party' at Liverpool John Lennon Airport 'Thank you' on our website
Included Items
  • Immediate rewards
  • Take-off party invite.
  • 100x100mm logo on aircraft
  • 'Thank you' on our website
0 out of 240 of claimed

Donation with a nose logo

Currency Conversion $3,159 USD
£2,500 GBP
Immediate rewards. inc poster and daily update. 300mm x 300mm logo on the nose on one side of plane. (Zone A) Invite to take-off party. Promotional item pack 'Thank you' on our website
Included Items
  • Immediate rewards
  • Promotional item pack
  • Take-off party invite.
  • 300x300mm logo on aircraft
  • 'Thank you' on our website
0 out of 16 of claimed

Donation with a fusalage logo

Currency Conversion $3,159 USD
£2,500 GBP
Immediate rewards. inc poster and daily updates 300mm x 300mm logo on the fuselage on one side of plane. (Zone B) Invite to take-off party. Promotional pack 'Thank you' on our website
Included Items
  • Immediate rewards
  • Promotional item pack
  • Take-off party invite.
  • 300x300mm logo on aircraft
  • 'Thank you' on our website
0 out of 94 of claimed
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