FLYING: Andy McKee in his homebuilt aircraft during a taxiing parade at the Oshkosh air show in the US. PHOTO/SUPPLIED
For former Hawke's Bay man Andy McKee the plan was simple - but complicated.
The keen aviator has been living in the UK since 1999 where he works as a computer graphics designer. But he had long wanted to check out the great Oshkosh air show staged annually in Wisconsin in the United States.
So he indeed went there to check it out - although it was how he got there that makes it slightly out of the ordinary.
As his father Ken (a keen aviator for 60 years) said from his Napier home - "his aim was to build a plane and fly to Oshkosh".
Which is what he did after picking up a German Silence Twister kitset aircraft five years ago and getting stuck into putting it together, and finishing last December.
His father was proud of what his 46-year-old son had embarked on.
"It's quite an achievement - he flew about 12,500 nautical miles."
However, knowing his son was somewhere over the seas off Iceland or the North Atlantic in his single seater did produce "a few more grey hairs".
"We hope that's it for the long-distance flights," Ken said.
The one thing he was comfortable with was that the aircraft was "very good".
Earlier this year Ken travelled over to Bedfordshire where his son now lives and being an experienced pilot himself took it up for a flight, and he was impressed.
Ken said his son, who attended Napier Boys' High School, had been keen on flying since he was a boy. And with aircraft always being a family component thanks to his dad's devotion to recreational flying it was only natural he took to the skies, and particularly in an aircraft he built.
The route he took was challenging enough looking at on a map let alone fire the engine up and take to it. Andy's introduction to the journey - allowing about a month to see places and get adequate rest along the way - was almost a case of stepping into the deep end.
"The first leg to Scotland was some of the worst weather for the entire trip but it was as forecast, so not unexpected," Andy said.
"I ended up dodging rain showers most of the way through Scotland."
The next day he set off for Iceland with a stop in the Faroe Islands for fuel, and a rest.
"Vagar in the Faroes has a notorious reputation for bad weather but on the day I arrived it was fine.
"There was still a layer of stratus and some light rain on the approach though this soon cleared after I landed - it's the wind that you need to watch out for here as the windshear on the approaches is legendary as being some of the worst in the world."
He said it was "fun" to fly what is known as the "waterfall approach" because aircraft go over a spectacular waterfall which spills into the sea.
He then took off for Reykjavik in Iceland and it was fairly uneventful as he climbed to 9500 feet above the usual cloud layers.
From there it was over the dark blue seas toward Greenland with the occasional drifting iceberg like a bright white beacon far below.
He then set off for Canada.
"About 50 nautical miles out from the coast the icebergs became an ice sheet that covered the water."
Thoughts about "what to do in the event of a ditching" went through his mind as he looked at what was below.
"Should I go for one of the larger icebergs or try for a landing in one of the slivers of water that remained?"
He heard later that apparently the large iceberg is the better option.
"Although they did not look like they had a smooth uniform surface so it would be a rough landing and would most likely wipe the undercarriage off."
He got his first glimpse of the "rugged and desolate" Canadian coastline a short time later.
"Not a sign of life anywhere and opportunities for forced landings were almost non-existent until further across this peninsula that forms the eastern edge of Frobisher Bay."
Because he had never been to Canada before he wanted to explore some of the cities so headed for Quebec and then on to Toronto.
He crossed the border into the US at Buffalo just near Niagara Falls and had the most "red tape and hassle" of any border crossing on the trip.
The plan had then been to head for New York but that didn't work out so he headed south to visit the Smithsonian museums in Washington DC instead and then set off for Dayton to check out the USAF museum and finally north to Oshkosh from there.
He had achieved his aviation ambition and while at the great air show at Oshkosh he was invited to take part in a taxiing parade of homebuilt aircraft.
And as his dad Ken said, while he was in the US he decided he would go and see some friends who lived across in California - so he flew there as well.
"He left at the end of June and got back home around the end of August - quite a trip," Ken said.
Andy's advice to fellow recreation aviators who dream of doing such a trip is go for it.
"I can wholly recommend it as a great life experience - just be well prepared with your equipment and allow enough time to complete the mission so you can fly in good weather."