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C150GO team finally touches down in Thompson

After spending over 40 days circumnavigating the globe in a Bell 429 Global Ranger helicopter, the father–son duo of Bob and Steven Dengler arrived at the Thompson Airport on Thursday, Aug. 10.

After spending over 40 days circumnavigating the globe in a Bell 429 Global Ranger helicopter, the father–son duo of Bob and Steven Dengler arrived at the Thompson Airport on Thursday, Aug. 10.

While the team, along with pilot Rob MacDuff, has visited over 100 airports across 14 countries for their world-record “C150 Global Odyssey” (C150GO) tour, their brief stop in the Hub of the North definitely stood out from the rest.

The C150GO team was greeted by a small welcoming party inside the airport terminal and they spent around 20 minutes signing posters and taking pictures with the crowd before they had to take off to their next stop. Thompson city councillor Penny Byer attended this quick meet-and-greet as well, and presented Bob and Steven with a set of local pins to add to their collection.

“I honestly can say that this has been one of the most warm welcomes, if not the warmest welcome, we’ve had on the trip,” said Steven. “So I’m amazed and thankful.”

 The pair was originally slated to touch down in Thompson on July 31, but poor weather conditions around Baffin Island, Greenland, and Iceland caused a series of significant delays. However, even though this arctic section of the trip threw a monkey wrench into their plans, it also provided the team with one of their most memorable sights throughout the entire trip: Mount Thor in the Akshayuk Pass.

“It has the tallest vertical face in the world. 5,000 feet,” said Bob. “They did some James Bond movie filming there and people fly in by helicopter to parachute off.”

Once the team made it to Europe, things went a little more smoothly and they encountered similarly warm receptions travelling from the United Kingdom to Russia.

Unfortunately, the pair ran into more complications once they crossed over the Bering Strait and back into the Great White North. Because of the ongoing British Columbia wildfires, Bob and Steven had to cancel most of their planned stops in the province.

“That was heartbreaking. We have family on Vancouver Island,” said Bob. “We really wanted to be there, but we can’t do anything about that.”

“We would have been adversely affecting the safety of other people if we’d gone through there,” Steven added. “Fortunately we stopped in Fort St. John in the northeast corner. So we did get to go to B.C. … just not central.”

Despite all these delays and detours, the C150GO team is still glad to have the opportunity to promote the tour’s mission statement: celebrating Canadian innovation for the country’s 150 anniversary, and raising money for worthy causes like the Southlake Regional Health Centre Foundation and the True Patriot Love Foundation.

While the pair’s 38,000 kilometre trip is coming to a close, Steven relates that the entire experience has been full of surprises, especially when it comes to the people they met along the way.

“Russian people were so much more friendly than I ever imagined,” he said.

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