By : Rory Jeffes

Longing for a bit of adventure on your summer holiday? How about a package deal that offers the monsoon in India, the sizzling summer heat in the Middle East, 1,000 miles of ocean to cross and the Mistral wind in France just to add that final dash of spice. Oh, and why not fly against the prevailing winds?

If you're wondering who would go for a deal like that, the answer is Storm Smith and Rory Jeffes, two brothers in law who decided to spend their summer holiday doing just that. On 8 September they landed their two Quantum 912s at the Farnborough International Show having set off from Bangalore in India on 1 August.

Storm Smith left the Army four years ago having spent much of his life jumping out of Hercules Transport planes at stratospheric heights as leader of a high-altitude parachute trials team.

Discovering the weight-shift experience, he was trained at Eshott airfield by Bill Dent and Steve Clairheugh and remains a club member there. Rory Jeffes read music at Oxford, then trained as a commercial helicopter pilot. Moving back into music as the tour director for a professional orchestra he then founded his own PR company before moving into the voluntary sector as development director for Princes Business Youth Trust. He is currently chief executive of Youth Net, a charity putting together an Internet guide for young people in the UK.

Although he has extensive experience in other flying he only converted to microlights this year, so that they could do this trip together. After training with Graham Slater in Spain early this year he had a total of 23h in weight-shift to brag about when we set off from Bangalore!

The idea of flying from India to UK was something Storm and Rory talked about for a year. In the end they decided they either had to do it or stop talking about it. The project became a reality last December when Titan Watches of India, Dr Martens (it's like walking on air) and the Financial Times agreed to sponsor the costs of the project. A central aim of doing the flight was to raise funds for charity and with Storm living in India it seemed appropriate to aim the support at the subcontinent.

The idea was that as the pilots achieved their dream they passionately wanted to help kids in India do the same, in the knowledge there are thousands whose only dream is to find their next meal. As a results a partnership was created with CRY (Child Relief and You) under the banner 'Free a Dream', under which corporate support was mobilised.

The planning for the project took nine months with the help of a local company in Bangalore called Aviators. The Jeppesen reps in India set about obtaining clearances for the 12 countries to be flown through - India, Pakistan, Oman, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, France and the UK. This is a mind-numbing experience and even as we set off we still did not know whether we would get through Pakistan, Saudi or Israel although each eventually came through the day before we were due at the border.

Equipment used had to cater for a wide variety of climates from the monsoon of India to the summer heat of Saudi. The usual VHF kit was joined by an alarming amount of safety equipment from liferafts to flares and copious quantities of water in case of any 'premature' landings.

Rory also carried a laptop computer and digital camera while Storm carried a satellite telephone and machine spares. These were used to update their website every day () which kept family and friends in touch with progress as well as providing a meeting place for enthusiasts. Finally, and certainly the most used bits of kit, were two GPSs, one Skyforce 11 and one Garmin 195.

It is difficult to categorise the most memorable movement of their flight. Flying through the Indian monsoon they were forced down to 300ft, in rain with 25kt on the nose. Villagers working in the fields looked up with astonishment on their faces while children ran for cover not knowing what was going on.

The border crossing between India and Pakistan was pretty tense given the current stand-off, the military implications of which are clearly visible on the ground. Karachi to Gwadar provided the most desolate and vivid coastline. Incredible rock formations stretched down from the mountains to the sea, creating one of the most inhospitable regions on earth.

As they moved into the Middle East the temperatures increased into the 50s. Rory's ambient temperature gauge actually melted in Saudi and the turbulence was unbelievable. John Fack at Pegasus always says you could hang an elephant off their hangbolt - there were times here when they wondered how big a one, It was almost laughably choppy.

The people of Saudi were the most hospitable, giving free accommodation, fuel and help travelling over the desert. In Jordan the pilots were allowed to use a hangar designed for three 747 jets at Queen Alia International Airport. It was here they received their instructions on the satellite telephone for crossing Israel from the British Air Attache in Tel Aviv.

They read like they were taken straight out of a James Bond movie... 'Depart Jordan at 9am local and proceed west towards and Israeli border. Five miles from the border you are to establish contact with Pluto Control (the Israeli defence network) on frequency xxx.x. If you do not establish contact turn back to Amman or you will be shot down.

'Having established contact continue west for 5 miles at 2,000ft to reporting point Salim. Turn north and climb to 4,000ft and report reaching X-ray. Then descend to 1,500ft and head toward Haifa to cross out into the Mediterranean Sea tracking towards Cyprus. Oh yes, and do not be surprised if you are tracked by a helicopter gunship...'

Landing on 11,000ft runways is also a challenge for the controllers. The threshold can be so far away that the pilots were often asked to report their positions even after they had landed and were taxying in. It was perfectly normal to only begin descending from 1,000ft once you were halfway down the runway!

So into Europe where the flying is less restricted and the weather was very obliging. The dawn flight from Italy to the South of France, routing via Genoa, Monaco and Nice, was incredibly beautiful. The air was cold and still, with the mist clinging to the valleys below. The ability to pose in Cannes was thwarted by a refusal to land but a hasty alternate north of the coast provided a great alternative.

The culmination of the trip was flying in to Farnborough International '98, a first for microlights. In marginal wind conditions they were allowed to do a fly-past down the display line before landing on the main runway. Then it was off to the Rolls Royce hospitality chalet to be met by family, friends, sponsors, and a host of other people who had made the whole project a reality.

The Dream is now complete. They raised over pound 200,000 for CRY India, an amount that can make a real impact in India. The range of flying experiences has certainly made them better, and more careful, pilots. It has also given them a better understanding of the scale of the achievements of Colin Bodill and Brian Milton.