By IANS
New Delhi : An Indian Air Force (IAF) micro-light aircraft on a round-the-world flight entered the western hemisphere by crossing the International Date Line (IDL) Thursday morning.
The aircraft had taken off from Anader in Russia and landed at Nome in Alaska after crossing the IDL at about 9.15 a.m. Thursday, thereby gaining one day.
"We have got one more day in our expedition to live it fully," exulted Wing Commander Rahul Monga, who is piloting the micro-light along with Wing Commander Anil Kumar, when contacted over the phone, an IAF release said.
The expedition has been undertaken on the occasion of the IAF platinum jubilee year. It was flagged off June 1 from the Hindon Air Force Station near Delhi. The expedition aims to set a new world record in the 300 kg weight category by completing its 39,000 km journey in about 45 days.
The expedition is, however, a few days behind schedule due to bad weather.
The micro-light has so far flown over Myanmar, Thailand, China and Russia "and in doing so, has covered the most difficult terrain and successfully negotiated bad weather conditions," the release said.
"The weather over China due to the monsoon was particularly bad. The terrain over eastern Russia and freezing Siberia was also successfully crossed.
"The crew and the team at the operations centre (New Delhi) are very confident of catching up and setting the new world record," the release added.
The operations centre is monitoring the expedition through an I-Trax – a satellite tracking system mounted on board the aircraft. The micro-light will undergo scheduled maintenance at Nome as it has completed 80 hours of flying.