'I need a drink': British woman lands in Sydney after 21,000km flight in vintage biplane

"I need a drink. And I need a hairdresser," said Tracey Curtis-Taylor as she climbed out of her 1942 Boeing Stearman Spirit of Artemis to cheers and applause at Sydney airport on Saturday.

The 53-year-old pilot has flown across 23 countries, making 50 refuelling stops, since she set off from Farnborough, Hampshire, southern England, in October.

The pilot's mission has been to emulate pioneering British aviator Amy Johnson who became the first woman to fly solo from Britain to Australia in 1930.

Curtis-Taylor's route has taken her across Europe and the Mediterranean to Jordan, over the Arabian desert, across the Gulf of Oman to Pakistan, India and across Asia.

Encountering treacherous weather and navigating the politics of the airways were the toughest parts of the trip, she said.

She said of one leg near Bucharest: "Flying in heavy rain, low cloud on the deck ... that was a death trap, that killed a lot of the airline pilots. So I turned around and went back."

But the highlights far outweighed the frustrations. Looking down on Uluru rated in her top six special moments, which included flying across the Dead Sea in Israel in formation with an F16 Israeli military pilot. "That was amazing," she said.

Before starting her flight, Curtis-Taylor said in October: "For my whole life, I have been moved by the achievements of pioneers like Amy Johnson.

"My own flight to Australia is the realisation of a burning desire to fly my beloved Boeing Stearman around the world following in their footsteps," she told Press Association.

She has recreated the essence of Johnson's era of flying, with an open cockpit, stick and rudder flying with basic period instruments and a short range between landing points.

But she is not unfamiliar with this form of flying. In 2013, she flew 13,000km solo from Cape Town to Goodwood, West Sussex, to recreate the 1928 flight of Lady Mary Heath.

For more information go to The Guardian.com
Photograph: John Goodman / Bird in the Biplane/EPA