Some people spend Memorial Day weekend barbecuing with friends, or hitting the local parade.
Not Zeke Iddon, a 30-year-old video game nut from Aylesbury, England. Iddon, who runs the comedy gaming site Iron Man Mode, plans to spend up to 72 hours in an epic virtual flight around-the-world. The flight, which will be livestreamed and take place using the advanced X-Plane 10 flight simulator, begins at 9 p.m. GMT.
“I have no idea how this is going to go,” Iddon tells GeekWire. “I don’t even know how long it’ll take to fly around the world – there’s so many variables that the maths gets fuzzy. The team’s best estimate is 50 hours if I’m lucky, and 80+ if I fly like I’ve never been in the cockpit of a plane before.”
For most of the voyage, Iddon plans to pilot a virtual Boeing 747-400. He noted that any real pilots who tune in will be “dismayed” as he struggles to figure out how to make things work in the cockpit.
The whole idea sounds a bit crazy, but it’s actually for a good cause as the writer winds down his blog. Iddon is using the voyage to raise funds for Child’s Play, the Seattle area non-profit that provides toys and games to hospitalized kids around the world. He hopes to surpass his $2,000 fundraising goal. You can follow the action on Twitter at #ChildsPlayFlight, or watch the livestream here. (Heck, that might be more fun than the Indy 500).
Iddon has pulled stunts like this in the past, including an attempt in 2010 to play the video game Guitar Hero for 24 hours straight.
“I contracted repetitive strain injury, got motion sickness from staring at moving dots all day, and threw up in a bucket. It was awesome,” he recalls.
The hilarious video above details the upcoming expedition, including Iddon pleading with viewers to donate to Child’s Play so he doesn’t “get hemorrhoids for nothing.”
I will point out that no matter how bored or exhausted I get, it will be fun for the viewers – rather than just a guy mumbling into a webcam and staring out of a plane window,” he says. “We’ll have all sorts going on during the stream and I’m fully expecting everyone in the chat to help me navigate across the planet in whichever way we feel best along the way. But as long as those donations come in, I’ll just keep on applying that hemorrhoid cream and soldiering on.”
Now, with that said, one last thought as this remarkable journey is set to begin.
