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Iowa men will fly around world to bring vaccines to children

Andy Abeyta/The Gazette via AP
Co-pilot John Ockenfels steps up to the wing of the aircraft to join pilot Peter Teahen in the cockpit of his 1978 Piper Lance II aircraft, in Cedar Rapids.

CEDAR RAPIDS — While Peter Teahen and John Ockenfels aren’t Santa, they are flying around the world to give the gift of crucial vaccines to the most vulnerable children.

Their goal is to fly eastward this spring from Cedar Rapids, raising money and awareness around the globe to eradicate polio through Rotary International and a 2-for-1 dollar match from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. With the match in place, Teahen is optimistic $1 million can be raised.

For about seven weeks — March 24 to May 13 — pilot Teahen, 66, of Cedar Rapids, and co-pilot Ockenfels, 67, of Shueyville, will fold into Teahen’s six-cylinder, 300-horsepower single-engine airplane.

Cruising speed of the six-passenger Piper Lance II will be 150 knots, or 171 mph. The plane will burn 16 1/2 gallons of fuel each hour. Besides 94 gallons held in the wings, the seats behind the front row will be removed to make way for a 165-gallon reserve tank, as well as luggage and supplies.

Navigational and communication equipment will be onboard not only for safety’s sake, but also to enable people — including school students — to follow the progress on a five-minute delay.

“You’ll be able to see where we were five minutes ago,” Teahen told The Gazette.

All of this gear will be packed into tight quarters, along with the men, who will sit side-by-side with less room between them than in a car — and with less headroom, too.

They plan to drink just enough to stay hydrated, and eat very few solids, to keep their in-flight, in-place toilet needs to a minimum, relying on disposable, environmentally correct bags in their confined space.

That’s the least of their worries.

The weather is unpredictable that far in advance, and they will be flying over open water and mountains, occasionally through unfriendly skies — taking myriad safety precautions along their estimated 19,601-mile route and 135 in-flight hours.

Their longest flight is nearly 10 hours — about twice the duration Teahen has ever piloted a plane on a trip — from Newfoundland over the Atlantic Ocean, landing on Portugal’s Azores islands March 27.

The Pacific crossing on the way back to the United States will be much shorter, from the northeastern tip of Russia to Nome, Ala.

Any time they’re flying over water, they’ll wear a special kind of wet suit that will keep them warm in case of an emergency water landing. They’ll also have a life raft on board to slide into the water, if need be.

Each day’s flight will end at an airport that allows them to refuel and leave the craft overnight. Finding those airports has been no easy feat, since most outside of the United States close overnight, Teahen said.

Changing time zones also have to be taken into consideration. They had intended to land in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, but that airport will close before their projected arrival. Instead, they will fly from Nagpur, India, into Chittagong, Bangladesh, in mid-April, then continue on to Bangkok, Thailand.

“I’m spending three, four hours a day just on logistics things,” Teahen said.

Handlers in England, Japan and Moscow have been helping them navigate the complexities of landing sites, time zones, fuel transport, visas for 13 countries, customs regulations and flight permits. Other handlers will meet them on the ground, and arrange for any repairs that Ockenfels can’t make.

“That’s the backroom part of what we’re doing,” Teahen said. “The exciting part is what we’re doing in partnership with Rotary.”

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