Frequently Asked Questions From Around the World and AIDS

Q: You are in the air for up to 16 hours. How do you go to the bathroom?
A: That’s actually the most frequently asked question. We are going to tow a port potty. OK-seriously! Two-seat single engine aircraft technology and human waste technology have not evolved much since Wiley Post was the first man to fly around the world with his navigator Gatty in 1931:

Wiley and Gatty had trained themselves to eat light meals because of the fatigue factor on a heavy stomach and the practical problem of not having an available restroom in their cramped quarters. If the call of nature came during one of the long legs of flight, they simply used a wax-coated ice cream carton and tossed it overboard.(from the biography of Wiley Post)
(Actually, we were hoping to get a “Ben and Jerry’s endorsement for this flight….)
All right, all right…. We are carrying what aviators call “piddle packs” and a “Johnny Cup.”

Q: What will you eat?
A: Not very much! We’ll stop every night at an airport and occasionally in a large city like Nairobi, Kenya, we will have opportunities to take regular meals. We’ll take a stash of Cliff bars, dried raisins and nuts. We are taking a backpack water filter to prevent a gastrointestinal upset when a water source is questionable.

Q: How will you communicate?
A: Besides the normal FAA required aircraft radios we will have a satellite telephone to call our wives each day. The satellite telephone has been provided by our generous corporate sponsor, Iridium, the same company that provided the communication system for the recent around the world non-stop flight by Steve Fossett. Additionally, I will have a TREO 650 PDA for emailing to this website.

Q: What Kind of Airplane is The Spirit of Charles Kean?
A: The Spirit of Charles Kean is a 1980 Cessna Turbo 210

Q: How fast will The Spirit of Charles Kean be flying?
A: The aircraft will fly at a speed of 160 knots, or 187mph, with an expectation that prevailing tailwinds will boost us into 200 mph, or better.

Q: What will you say to the orphans when your meet them for the first time?
A: Jambo! (Swahili for HELLO…we've been practicing!)"Wow – did God do a good job on you! You are beautiful!" Secondly, "Can you find your name on the airplane?" Then, “ I wonder which one of you will be President of Kenya one day?”

Q: Really, why are you doing this? Are you guys going through a mid-life crisis?
A: (It does seem a little ‘retro’, doesn’t it – considering we live in a time when a person can fly around the world non-stop in 84 hours in a high tech jet. Wiley Post and his navigator Gatty were the first men to fly around the world in 1931, in an aircraft not very different from this one.)

We are two incredibly blessed guys! In our 6th decade we share much in common. We are Vietnam era veterans who are fortunate to enjoy a terrific physical and financial health; are married to our first trophy wives, and have wonderful children who are successful young adults making important contributions to our world. We have experienced common spiritual leadership: Local leaders like Gary Inrig and Larry Poland of Trinity Evangelical Free Church have exhorted us to love our wives passionately and to raise our children to honor God. We attended several Promise Keepers events together and have been influenced by the teachings of Chuck Swindol, now the President of the Theological Seminary in Dallas.

On the fuselage of The Spirit of Charles Kean is a quote from Scripture Romans 12:13: “If God’s children are in need, you be the one to help them out.”
Innocent children around the world whose parents have died from AIDS are becoming orphans at the increasing rate of 6,300 a day! That is the equivalent (in comparing the recent Indonesian earthquake tragedy) of almost 11 Tsunamis a year. Americans are the most generous people on earth and want to do something about the modern bubonic plague of AIDS. In partnership with The Shepherd's Home and Rotarians in Kenya, members of the Inland Empire Rotary clubs are sending the message that responsible moral behavior can stop AIDS. The flight of The Spirit of Charles Kean is simply the manifest expression of Rotary International: Humanity in Motion. It starts with two guys in a Cessna who believe in Rotary’s other motto: "Service above self".

Q: Will you carry a parachute?
A: No, we can't afford the extra weight, and besides, it not common to carry one in a small aircraft. The glide ratio of our Cessna is about 1.5 to 1000, meaning that we can glide about 15 miles if the propeller stops turning at 10,000 feet!

Q: Will you take survival equipment?
A: Yes, we'll take extra water and emergency supplies, all tied to the raft. In the back where passenger seats normally fit and on top of the 200 gallon extra gasoline tank we will carry a two-man life raft and survival suits, all tied together with our water, flares and emergency supplies to take out of the plane if we are forced to ditch in the water. One of us will always have a line attached from the life raft to our leg to insure the equipment goes with us in a hurry!

Q: The letters on the red stop sign on the fuselage and your shirt says: ABC…D. What does that mean?
A: Those are the letters used in the tremendously successful AIDS Awareness campaign in effect in Uganda and now being adopted worldwide. Over a period of ten years Uganda dropped the HIV/AIDS infection rates of its population from over 30% to under 10%! Make no mistake. There is no medical treatment to prevent AIDS. Therefore, the Uganda message offers hope for the world against the pandemic of AIDS until a medical cure is discovered:

A - ABSTAIN from sex until marriage
B - BE FAITHFUL with a mutually faithful partner while married, or…
C - Carefully and Correctly use a Condom, or (if you ignore ABC...)
D - DEATH

So, think of the Flight of the Spirit of Charles Kean as the modern day version of Paul Revere riding to warn the colonists of impending danger: "The British are coming, the British are coming"! Except in this case, the little Cessna with the AIDS Awareness message on it's fuselage is warning Americans, and the world, that until responsible moral behavior is encouraged, "AIDS is coming! AIDS is coming!" The AIDS infection rate is not declining in the United States. In 2004 it actually doubled within segments of our population. We all have choices. We can choose to be responsible.

Flight Team Member Biographies
Photos from the Flight Team
Who Was Charles Kean?