OTTAWA, July 29. /TASS/. Russia’s extreme traveler Sergey Ananov, who last Saturday fell short of his ambitious goal to circumnavigate the globe in a tiny helicopter when he suffered a crash off Canada’s east coast, does not rule out he may make another try at setting the world record.
"It was quite a journey," Ananov told TASS in an interview. "The failure merely shows that the current hardware (light helicopters) is not ready for such trips. It is like getting on a bike and taking a ride, for instance, from Moscow to Yekaterinburg. You will surely have a flat tire ten times on the way and the wheels will go egg-shaped, and so on and so forth. Making another try will be not easy at all. It will require tremendous effort. It’s a far more daunting task than surviving in the Arctic on an ice floe."
Ananov acknowledged that he finds it rather boring to fly the same route again, but in this particular case, even with some likely amendments to be made he will have to follow the same route 85%.
"Another argument against is my relatives and friends, who were very nervous about how I was doing all the time. At this point I am not prepared to dare make them go through it one more time. For the time being. We will wait and see what they say when I am home," Ananov said. He remarked that he would be unable to make another attempt this year anyway, because the window of opportunity for a trans-Atlantic flight would close in August.
"I can merely say that I do not rule out such a possibility in the future. I am very keen to take my plan to a logical outcome and set the record under the Russian flag," Ananov said.
On June 13 Ananov left an airfield near Moscow on board a light helicopter, Robinson 22, in an ambitious attempt to circle the globe. During one of the last legs of the journey, from Canada’s coast to Greenland, he had to make an emergency landing on the water due to technical problems. Then he managed to climb onto a drifting ice floe where he spent more than 30 hours waiting for rescue. A Canadian Coast Guard ship picked him up on Monday and on Tuesday Ananov arrived in Iqaluit.
By the moment of the crash Ananov had made 34,000 kilometres of the expected 38,000 kilometres.