Prodita Sabarini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A blind aviator traveling from London to Sydney landed his mircolight aircraft at Halim Perdanakusuma airport in East Jakarta, on Sunday.
As the Pegasus Mainair GT 450 came to a stop at the airport, 58-year-old British pilot Miles Hilton-Barber roared "Tiger!"
Sweating from the heat, the silver-haired Hilton-Barber and his co-pilot, Richard Meredith Hardy, climbed out of the plane they had flown in from Palembang, South Sumatra.
"Fantastic, fantastic," the pilot said as he walked toward the airport building, holding Hardy's elbow.
Indonesia is the 18th country the two have set foot in during their 20,000 kilometers journey.
They have been flying since March 7. The journey has taken them from England to France, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, the Middle Eastern, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Malaysia and now Indonesia.
Extreme heat, turbulence above the desert in Saudi Arabia, snowstorms and ice crystals on their wings above the mountains between Lebanon and Jordan are summed up in one simple quote by Hilton-Barber: "The flight has been very exciting."
After Jakarta, the two will fly to Surabaya in East Java, Bima in West Nusa Tenggara, and Kupang in West Timor.
They will then continue to Darwin before their final stop in Sydney, Australia.
Their journey, called "Microlight Adventure", aims to raise US$1 million to combat avoidable blindness. This fund-raising trip is part of Standard-Chartered Bank's "Seeing is Believing" program.
Hilton-Barber said every dollar he raised would be matched by the bank.
Currently, there are 37 million blind people around the world, 90 percent of them living in developing countries. Some 75 percent of cases of blindness are avoidable.
"The reason I'm doing this is not to become the first blind man to fly from London to Sydney, but to give sight to thousands of people that are loosing sight from avoidable blindness.
"Even though I have permanently lost my eyesight, with this journey I feel like Father Christmas flying across developing countries. It's like throwing parcels of sight to thousands of people," Hilton-Barber said.
He also said he wanted to send a message to people with this journey. "Don't let anyone say to you that you cannot reach your dreams. The only limit in our lives is within ourselves."
Becoming a pilot had been Hilton-Barber's childhood dream but doctors crashed the dream when at the age of 21, he was told he was losing his eyesight.
At the age of 30, as a result of a degenerative genetic illness, Hilton-Barber lost his eyesight.
Surviving depression, he was inspired by his older brother, Jeffrey, who also lost his sight. His brother was the first blind man to sail solo from Africa to Australia.
"Now, I'm living my dreams."
Hilton-Barber said he learned to fly four years ago. He said he uses a revolutionary speech instrument attached to his thigh that relays to him all the information he needs to fly.
He said his co-pilot, Hardy, acts as the seeing pilot onboard. Hardy is a famous microlight pilot who has flown a small aircraft above Mount Everest.
Prior to taking up flying, Hilton-Barber embarked on various adventures, such as climbing Africa's highest mountain, Kilimanjaro, and Europe's highest mountain, Mt. Blanc.
He has run marathons in China and Siberia, crossed the entire Qatar Desert non-stop in 78 hours without sleep and has completed more than 40 skydiving jumps to date.
Hilton-Barber said his next adventure would be to set the record for the fastest flight by a blind person.
"The previous record was 167 miles per hour. I want to set a record of 200 miles per hour."
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