Pole to Pole 2027, Byron Waller's next mission
North Pole
to South Pole
In 2027 Byron Waller will fly from the top of the world to the bottom of it — a pole-to-pole crossing of the planet flown for the Teen Pilot Foundation. Routes, aircraft configuration, hospital partners and country hosts are being locked in now.
Interested? Contact ops@byronwaller.com — or keep checking this page as the mission is announced.
The hardest line you can draw on a planet
Flying around the world proved a 15-year-old with Crohn's disease could do something the world said was impossible. Flying pole to pole is the harder version of the same sentence: no forgiving weather, no easy alternates, magnetic compasses that stop meaning anything, and survival margins measured in minutes.
That difficulty is the point. Young people living with serious illness, disability or hardship are asked to do hard things every day without an audience. This mission gives them one — and it brings the programs, mentors and equipment of the Teen Pilot Foundation with it, into wards, schools and regional communities along the whole length of the route.
The flight is not the charity. The flight is what makes the charity reach people.
Built against the constitution, clause by clause
Teen Pilot Foundation Limited is a public company limited by guarantee, established as a Public Benevolent Institution. Every element of the pole-to-pole mission has to serve its Principal Purpose and supporting purposes — nothing is flown for its own sake.
Every polar leg is paired with hospital visits, live cockpit link-ups and bedside mission briefings for young people aged 13 to 25 whose development, identity or participation has been interrupted by serious illness, disability, mental health difficulty or hardship. The flight is the hook; the relief is the contact.
Programs designed with clinicians to lift mood, emotional regulation and social participation during long admissions — a shared goal to track, a crew to belong to, and a pilot who has been on the same side of the ward door.
The route becomes a classroom: navigation, meteorology, survival, fuel planning, magnetic versus true north, polar physics. Free curriculum-linked lessons and live lesson drops for schools and hospital school units in every host country.
Young people who took part in Australian programs step up as mentors and crew ambassadors for the polar mission, converting participants into leaders and building a self-sustaining, multi-generational model of peer support.
A global stage used deliberately: documentary, broadcast and press coverage that advances public understanding of invisible chronic illness in young people, and advocates for their inclusion and access to aspiration-building opportunity.
Teen Pilot Foundation Limited · ACN 700 252 562 · ABN 31 700 252 562 · Not-for-profit · Board oversight · Audited use of partner funds
Arctic departure, equatorial transit and an Antarctic crossing sequenced to the only workable weather window of 2027. Legs, alternates and fuel caches under study now.
Airframe selection, extended-range fuel, survival and immersion equipment, polar navigation fit-out, and a qualified safety pilot on every leg.
Hospitals, schools, regional airfields, aviation authorities and founding partners are being signed in each host country. Australia, USA and Canada first; other countries to follow.
Detail is released as it is confirmed. Keep checking this page to learn more.
There is a seat at the table
- Founding partners and sponsors — naming rights on legs, livery, documentary co-billing and measurable program outcomes.
- Hospitals and clinicians — host a ward program, co-design the wellbeing measures, put your patients on the crew list.
- Schools and STEM educators — take the free curriculum-linked lessons and live link-ups into your classrooms.
- Countries, airfields and aviation bodies — register your country as a host stop for the 2027 mission.
- Young people and families — tell us your story; the mission exists for you.