Take off, eh? Helicopter father-son team begins global odyssey
Bob and Steve Dengler embark on 39,000-km trip around world to celebrate Canadian history and support charities.

TheStar.com, YorkRegion.com and InsideHalton.com
July 1, 2017
Steven Dengler

For a year and a half, my father, Bob, and I have been planning and organizing a journey we call the C150 Global Odyssey. It’s the first Canadian circumnavigation of the globe by helicopter — and the world record first ever father/son aerial circumnavigation.

Starting July 1, Canada Day, we will fly a Canadian Bell 429 helicopter more than 39,000 kilometres around the world, making over 100 stops in 14 countries, including every provincial and territorial capital in Canada. Along the way we will be joined by notable Canadians such as astronaut Dave Williams, hockey great Guy Lafleur and renowned photojournalist Peter Bregg.

Our record-setting adventure celebrates the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation. We will visit numerous Canadian landmarks and historic sites, commemorating milestones from Canada’s first 150 years — and looking forward to what we’ll accomplish, together, in the next 150.

We established C150 Global Odyssey as a Canadian not-for-profit to raise money and awareness for two wonderful charities: True Patriot Love, supporting Canadian veterans and their families, and Southlake Foundation, supporting one of Canada’s leading health-care facilities.

 

We start in Vaughan and our first stop is the Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa, where a grand send-off is planned! From there we fly east along the St. Lawrence to Newfoundland, north along the coast of Labrador to Iqaluit, east through Greenland and Iceland and the Faroe Islands to the U.K., then through Europe and into Russia. A full third of our trip is through Russia! We return to North America via Alaska, and then zigzag in Canada to visit as many places as possible. We finish up back in Vaughan, taking 35-40 days in total.

We’ll be flying to some of the most far-flung and beautiful places in Canada, and drinking deeply from its diverse beauty: urban skylines, Arctic seas, windswept fiords, vast plains, towering mountains. We’ll be connecting with fellow Canadians in communities large and small all over this wonderful country. And as we travel outside Canada, we’ll be ambassadors for Canada’s history and culture.

Honeywell has provided their amazing (and Canadian-made) Aspire 200 satellite data system for our expedition, so even in the most remote places, we will share our journey with fellow Canadians in real-time. You can follow us online at “c150go” on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

We hope you will join us on this historic journey! We can’t wait to share it with you.