The Aviatrix

Tracey Curtis-Taylor is setting out to fly the length of Africa.

10,000 miles with no modern technology,

just a joystick and pedals.

Tracey will follow the same route as Mary Heath,

the first person to fly solo from Cape Town to England in 1928.

She was in a fur coat. She had her pearls.

She was doing Africa in style.

She was consciously making history and showing that women could do this.

85 years after Mary Heath's African flight,

Tracey will face many of the same challenges.

From the beauty of the wilderness to war-torn countries.

Tracey will also face new challenges -

aviation fuel for her 1920s plane is scarce.

There's more bureaucracy and Tracey wants to do it in less time.

It took Mary Heath over 12 weeks.

Tracey has just seven to reach Europe

before the worst part of the winter.

You're just this tiny speck, moving very slowly.

You are so vulnerable.

I am frightened.

I think, "What am I doing?" I'm more frightened of not doing it.

Ten years from now thinking,

"I wanted to do it but I didn't quite have the courage to do it."

On her arrival back in Britain, Mary Heath was celebrated

as the greatest female pilot in the world

but she died alone, penniless and completely forgotten.

It was a meteoric career and then she disappeared from history.

But she's coming back.

Today, there are still only a few women in the world flying vintage

biplanes. One of the best is Britain's Tracey Curtis-Taylor.

I've always loved the smell of aeroplanes.

I go to airports just to breathe in the kerosene.

All the noise of the engine, the propeller,

they're rattly old things.

Very early on in my flying, I got into flying old aeroplanes.

The women who flew during the '20s

and '30s were a great source of inspiration.

Amy Johnson did the first flight to Australia.

Amelia Earhart flew the Atlantic, the first female to do so.

You know, they are both celebrated and remembered.

But, before all this, there was Mary Heath and, of course,

she's been entirely forgotten.

She starts at Cape Town International Airport.

1-2-9, good morning to you.

Shortly number one and there is traffic departing ahead from echo.

It's one of the busiest in Africa, handling over 200 flights a day.

Today is day one.

And God knows what we're in for, really.

Right.

But I think I'm ready for anything.

The minute you get into one of these aeroplanes, life becomes

very, very immediate.

I don't think of anything else, I'm just there.

Equipment...

Clear prop.

6-3-0 continue the approach. The wind is still 1-8-0-1-5.

I can't see in front of me so I'm looking over the side.

I have to weave and zigzag.

I look like I'm drunk when I'm taxiing.

As Tracey reaches the runway, all other flights are suspended.

The airport has been shut down until she leaves.

November 5-6-200 rolling.

Bye-bye.

Today, Tracey will fly 400 miles along the coast

of the Indian Ocean to Port Elizabeth.

A commercial flight takes 90 minutes.

At her top speed, it will take Tracey almost five hours.

An open cockpit, at low level, it's so beautiful.

You know, the wind is blowing in. You know, it's exciting.

You know, I'm a mile off the coast. 50 feet off the water.

The thrill and exhilaration of it overcomes any sense of prudence.

Mary Heath filed reports on her adventure to newspapers

around the world so an eager public could follow her journey.

She based her book on her reports and the journal she kept.

"Africa will always be the land of thrills and romance and wildlife.

"Fear is a tonic and danger should be something of a stimulant."

It's more than pleasure, it's ecstasy. I love it.

I simply love being in the aeroplane.

As in the 1920s, South Africa is dotted with runways and airports.

They're all well equipped and, at least here, Tracey's

specialist aviation fuel is readily available.

If you can just give me the tank,

I'll go up on the wing and fill it up.

All the fuel is up here in the wing, up on the top here.

Great, thank you.

That'll do it.

Thank you.

Once I leave South Africa I'm really in no-man's-land,

so I'm on my own, much like she was.

And she crashed and was very lucky to survive it.

What happens if I do have an engine failure?

If I survive the crash landing, what happens then?

"I began to feel the pain in the back of the head,

"neck and shoulders which hints at the beginning of sunstroke.

"The pains got worse and black blobs began to dance and flow before me."

Alone in the wilderness, fast losing consciousness,

Mary Heath's plane was hurtling towards the ground.

Tracey, though, does make it to Bulawayo Airport

but she wants to find out more about Mary Heath's crash.

Historian and former RAF pilot Bill Sykes has taken a keen

interest in Mary Heath's flight

and believes he has located the area where she crashed.

Having had a look through all the chronicles, newspapers

and that sort of thing, we find she was an incredibly strong woman.

To be the first person, and especially a woman,

to go from Cape Town to the United Kingdom in 1928

is really something.

Bill takes Tracey on an hour's drive into the bush

to the crash site.

There's lots of thorn bushes and scrub

and it's pretty rugged terrain, isn't it?

I don't think I'd like to put an aeroplane down here.

COW BELLS JINGLE

She was in this sweltering heat, fighting nausea,

fighting consciousness.

If she could just sort of stall the aeroplane on

and then lurch out through the undergrowth,

I mean, she would... You know, you'd survive this.

If I had to put the Stearman down in this,

I'd just about manage it, I think.

She would have been fighting it down. You know, just stick forward,

diving for the ground because she was an aerobatic pilot, a racer.

I think it would've been very natural to jam the stick forward,

get the aeroplane down. You go into automatic.

You do everything that has to be done and I think any pilots,

including me, we've experienced that, where you think afterwards...

You think, "Did I really go through all the checks?

"Did I really do all the right things?"

You look back at it afterwards and you think,

"I don't remember doing that but I did it."

Never had to think about it.

"I came to under some thorn bushes, with three native girls in

"various stages of scanty undress, sitting back on their haunches.

"They had steeped two of my handkerchiefs in milk

"and put them on my head."

I don't think I'd like to wake up and find myself under a thorn bush

being resuscitated but, I suppose, surviving it, that was the thing.

She survived it. She did a pretty good job of it.

I think she did a really good job, yeah.

Rescued by a local tribe, she was taken to Bulawayo to recover.

Anyone who thought she might be put off her adventure

was in for a surprise.

She spent 16 hours asleep in the nursing home and then got up

that morning and flew from the racecourse

to Vic Falls, to Livingstone.

She carried on. She just carried on.

Which I think is also an amazing thing.

She must've had tremendous fortitude.

I mean, any normal person would have given up and said,

"Right, I'll stay in Bulawayo a week because the beer's cold

"and the people are so nice." And it still is.

Mary Heath wasn't the only adventurer in 1928.

Three young men were also attempting to travel

the length of Africa by car.

They planned to meet with Mary at various towns along the route.

Bulawayo's Vintage Car Club has come to the airport

to give Tracey a sendoff.

This is like the cars Mary Heath was tracking as she flew up Africa.

They're stunning. I mean, look at this, British Racing Green.

I would love one of these.

It is very heavy on the steering. Bloody hell, it is!

Oh!

One of the drivers was a journalist called Emil Milan.

Mary and Emil would only meet on a few occasions

but they still enjoyed each other's company.

"I flew very low and dropped a bottle of beer,

"a glass and a message.

"'Godspeed and bon voyage, meet you in Abercorn.'"

I feel there is absolutely no suspension, whatsoever.

I mean, great! This is exactly the same sort of thrill,

old cars and old aeroplanes.

How do I get out? Can you hoot, madam?

Can you hoot?

HORN HOOTS

I reckon she's grand at what she's doing. I wish I could go with her.

But you see, my wife won't let me!

Seven days after leaving Cape Town, Tracey approaches Zambia.

The journey takes her over Zimbabwe National Park

and into the heart of wild Africa.

The Zambezi River marks the border between Zimbabwe

and Zambia. Tracey follows it north to Victoria Falls,

one of the wonders of the world.

This is the heart of Africa. For me, it's just magical.

To fly at tree level, over the elephants, down the valleys...

You know, along the rivers, elephants in the river,

hippos in the river and I am 30 feet above them.

You know...

and then I land.

And I'm moved beyond tears.

It's just to clear any oil.

Perfect.

Bit of rubbish in here.

Ah, I've got my biltong.

I've got my survival blanket, my first aid kit.

My maps.

Tracey's about to take on her longest flight yet.

Having reached the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo,

she'll have to cross the airspace of three countries in just one day

to make it to Tanzania before nightfall.

The Congo is one of the most dangerous countries in the world.