New Year’s Eve 2021. My boyfriend Adam is sat looking at maps, searching for inspiration for a project to try to reinvigorate his passion for flying. He had only flown a handful of hours during each of the preceding years, as various lockdowns restricted the opportunity, and later his enthusiasm, for flying. He was drawn to the ocean and quickly hatched a plan to fly to Greenland (and back!) in a Cherokee.

Some months and many hours of preparation later, Adam came across a sentence buried in a thick set of regulations: “Canada, Denmark and Iceland require that the flight crew and aircraft be IFR rated for trans-oceanic flight, regardless of the altitude to be flown”. With no instrument rating, and survival gear already on order, we needed a new plan fast. That same day he came across an e-mail about the Dawn to Dusk Competition. The rules were simple; flights may start and finish from any place in the world, and must have a minimum of 4 hours airborne time between the hours of dawn and dusk. All that he needed to do was come up with a theme and a challenging goal. Defying Dawn to Dusk was born.

Our objectives were three-fold:

1. Depart the UK for Norway and fly far enough north to avoid dusk until we return to the UK.

2. Fly around the North Cape – the point where the Norwegian Sea (part of the Atlantic Ocean) meets the Barents Sea (part of the Arctic Ocean). 

3. Fly at local midnight under the midnight sun, thus in our eyes at least, “defying” Dawn to Dusk.