Every year UK virtual raises money for a charity through a flying challenge of some description. In the past we have completed a number of 24 hour flying challenges around Europe, so this year we are going for something different. Your challenge is to complete the two Project Sunrise flights operated by Qantas pre pandemic – essentially back to back.
On Friday 5th March 2020 we will be preparing at New York JFK at 7am for an 8am departure for Sydney expecting an arrival time of 03:00am Zulu. Then four hours later we will be preparing our second leg for a once again 8am departure from London Heathrow to Sydney, again with an arrival time of 03:00am Zulu. 40 hours of flying time, with 4 hours sleep in between!
The charity we will be raising money for this year is the Project Wingman Foundation. When the pandemic started they launched a series of VIP lounges in hospitals across the United Kingdom as a place for our brilliant NHS staff to take a break and be treated to free food, drink and amenities. The lounges are staffed by airline workers from pilots to ground staff who for different reasons are not flying right now. The lounges and services offered are all from donations to Project Wingman and now nearing a year of operations they have crowdfunded a double decker bus that will travel around the United Kingdom offering the lounge services onboard to hospitals and care facilities. For further information on the great work Project Wingman have achieved take a look here : https://www.projectwingman.co.uk/
Project Wingman is close to many of our members hearts, with some being volunteers in the past at local hospitals in Liverpool. Our aim at UK virtual is to raise at least £500 through our fundraiser challenge this year. All members are invited to take on the challenge, whether it’s for one of the flight’s or both, member participation is vital for a successful fundraiser. If you cannot attend, a donation would be greatly appreciated to help us achieve our goal of £500 and you can do this via the link below.
Exclusive to UK virtual members will be a prize draw for donations and special profile awards as follows:
- Donations of £10 – £19.99 will attract the Bronze Wingman award and entry into the 2 x 10 Euro SimMarket voucher prize draw
- Donations of £20 – £29.99 will attract the Silver Wingman award and entry into the 2 x 25 Euro SimMarket voucher prize draw
- Donations of £30 – £49.99 will attract the Gold Wingman award and entry into the 1 x 50 Euro SimMarket voucher prize draw
- Donations of £50 + will attract the Platinum Wingman award and entry into the 1 x £100 worth of ORBX products of your choice prize draw
To be entered into the prize draw and attract your member awards please include your Union Number before your name in the your name part shown below, and the prize draw will be taken after the event once all donations are in.
If you are able to donate please do so via this link, if you have any issues please get in contact with the team: gofundme.com/f/project-sunrise-for-project-wingman
We look forward to our UK virtual members joining us for our Project Sunrise challenge, detailed flight plans will be released before the event and I will be personally working on some scenery and Vatsim support for our event.