CarolAnn Garratt’s father passed his love of aviation on to his daughter, but her mother gave her the reason to fly around the globe and break a world record. After Garratt’s mother died in 2002 from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, the UI alumna knew she wanted to use her love of flying to help find a cure for the fatal illness.

Garratt’s first around-the-world flight was a solo trip in 2003 on which she raised $80,000 for ALS research. Spurred on by that success, she decided to do something even bigger. On Dec. 2, 2008, Garratt and her copilot, Carol Foy, took off from Orlando, Fla, to circumnavigate the world. They did so in just eight-and-a-half days, in a Mooney M20J—a small single-engine plane—shattering the world record for a light-aircraft westward flight around the world, all in the name of ALS research.

On a recent stop in Iowa City, Garratt (MBA '83) spoke with Spectator@IOWA about her record-breaking trip and her continued quest. For more information about Garratt and her cause, Dash for a Cure, visit www.alsworldflight.com.

How did you prepare for the trip?

My life was dedicated to flight preparation for 18 months. It was an iterative approach, flying around the world the first time to see how long the legs would be, how many stops.

I probably circled the globe over 200 times just getting more and more details—airways, weather, where to stop, and where to find avgas [high-octane aviation fuel used to power aircraft and racing cars]. Then came time to prepare the plane for the flight, deal with mechanical issues, and raise funds. There were so many items to cover that I was always working on something.

The previous world record was set in 1988 at 18 days. What made you think you could do it in a week?

Well, there was a mistake in the record book and it looked like the record was 11 days. I thought, ‘I have to beat it.’ As I planned, I saw I could do it in around seven or eight days, so that was significant enough to beat the old record. Then right before the flight, I found out the old record was a mistake.

So, you really shattered the old record.

We more than doubled the flight speed of the old world record. Before I took off, the governing body said that as long as we did it in less than 18 days, we would beat the previous record. I could have done it much slower, but the planning was already complete by then. I’m glad we beat it by a lot.

Your plane is fairly compact. What was it like to share such a small space with someone else for eight-and-a-half days?

Imagine a small car with four seats, but narrower. We’d removed the two rear seats and put gas tanks back there, and the seating is more like a sports car—you kind of slide in with your legs straight out and leaning back a little bit.

After the flight, I’d fly by myself to presentations. I’d look at the right seat and shake my head—I just couldn’t believe we actually did it. Carol also has a relative with ALS, so it meant as much to her as it did to me.

The route you took and the stops you made along the way largely determined how quickly you could make the trip. Could you describe your route?

One of the objectives was to go as far as we could with each leg and to make as few stops as possible. Every time you make a stop, especially in a foreign country, you have customs, immigration, and all the bureaucracy that goes with it, and we’re not in charge of that time. Yet time on the ground counts, just like time in the air.

We left from Orlando. The first stop was San Diego, which was very quick—gassed up and kept going. Second stop was Hawaii. Third stop was Guam, which is a U.S. territory in the western Pacific.

Our first international stop was in Thailand, but we had people on the ground to help make it very quick. We chose a very small airport in Oman that was very quick in and out. I had stopped in Djibouti, on the east coast of Africa, on my 2003 trip, so I knew that was relatively quick.

The Cape Verde Islands I didn’t know about, but they’re on the west coast of Africa and it had to be the last stop—we didn’t have a choice there. The position of the country made it a mandatory stop, and it turned out to be reasonably fast. In the middle of Africa, however, we had a slight incident that altered our plans.

Slight incident? Were there any technical issues?

Not with the plane. We were shorted on gas in Djibouti and couldn’t make our planned stop in the middle of Africa, but the unplanned stop turned out to be amazingly fast and efficient at 1 a.m. We couldn’t have done it without that great stop.

Did you have people helping you all along the way?

When doing a world record attempt, many people have a control room with computers, weather, and people who support the flight 24 hours a day. I didn’t have that. I had talked to various pilot friends around the world, and they agreed to be what I call my ‘distributed ground crew.’ They stayed at their homes with their computers. They had each other’s phone numbers and e-mail addresses and communicated amongst themselves. Each one was responsible for a different leg based on his experience.

At some points, you were in the plane for more than 20 hours at a time. How did you eat? How did you sleep?

We had two legs of 23 hours—those were our longest legs. We did two-hour sleep shifts that worked fine the whole flight. We drank plenty of water because it’s very important to stay hydrated. We restricted our food intake to two Power Bars and two pieces of fruit per 23-hour leg. We did eat some on the ground. At each hotel break we’d either catch a very small amount of lunch or a small amount of breakfast, but again, had to keep it limited.

Your original goal was to raise $1 million for ALS. Where are you right now?

We set the goal at $1 million anticipating corporate donations. Carol and I were paying 100 percent for the flight. All donations were going to ALS research, so it was a big surprise when no corporations jumped on board. We went back to companies multiple times to try different avenues and still nothing. We are now at $262,000—all $20 at a time, selling books for donations and making presentations.

You received your MBA from The University of Iowa. Is there anything you learned that you’ve been able to apply to your flights?

Everything in my past helped prepare me for this flight. Specifically, the MBA helped me progress to a reasonably high level in the company I worked for, which allowed me to save a lot of money and eventually buy a plane. A combination of everything helped me achieve this goal, and the education definitely helped my career.

What’s next?

Next year I plan on flying eastbound around the world. A very slow trip—a year and a half. Take off in April, visit different countries, meet more people, learn new cultures, and take my time.

—Kelli Andresen
photo by Kirk Murray