By ANN Contributor Daniel Ford

Maurice Kirk, the 60-year-old British veterinarian flying his Piper Cub around the world, was hospitalized in Japan on Friday after a forced landing near the historic city of Kanazawa. His 1943 L-4 -- a liaison version of the Cub built for the U.S. Army -- was badly damaged in the landing.

The Cub's engine lost power as Maurice was crossing a mountain, as he told the story in a phone call to his wife in Wales. The only open area proved to be a playing field with children, so he made a downwind landing on a road under construction. According to Japanese police, the light plane hit parked vehicles and was badly damaged. The pilot was bent but unbroken, and doctors had him in casts because of sprains to his neck and right ankle.

Maurice had spent two weeks on the far-north island of Hokkaido, hoping for a 30 mph tailwind to boost him on the hazardous 19-hour crossing to the Aleutian Islands. With the weather and the season against him, he decided to pack it in -- literally -- and send the Piper Cub to Alaska in a box. Evidently he was heading south for this purpose when he crashed.

The round-the-world trip began in 2001 when Maurice entered his Piper Cub, called "Liberty Girl," in a London-to-Sydney air race. Though disqualified on the first day for making an unauthorized landing, he kept up with the pack by flying seven days a week, catching up every Sunday while the other contestants took a day's rest.  In addition to that disqualifying landing in France, he also made unauthorized landings in Egypt, India, Thailand, Indonesia, and Australia, further alienating him from the race officials while making him a hero to everyone else. He broke the monotony by occasionally cutting the engine, skimming down to 20 feet above the ground, and shouting to woodcutters or fishermen: "Hi! I'm on my way to Australia!"

He covered 14,000 miles in 28 days, spending 200 hours in the air. That left Liberty Girl on the wrong side of the globe. Then Maurice lost his veterinarian license because of repeated jousts with the law. "He combines independence of spirit and a passion for justice with a flaming temper and complete insensitivity to the feelings of others," noted the Lords of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, denying his appeal. They also praised him as "one of a small number of veterinary surgeons practising in Wales who is willing to be called out any time of the day or night to a sick creature.

"He will sometimes even use his own light aircraft to get there. No animal has any ground for complaint against him. Mr. Kirk's problem is with people."

Nothing daunted, Maurice turned his practice over to his wife, Kirstie, and set out to bring the L-4 home by way of the United States. He left Australia on April 28, tacking north through Indonesia and the Philippines to Seoul, South Korea, where he arrived on May 25. There he left Liberty Girl wrapped in blue plastic tarps and went home to raise money and get permission to enter China and Russia.

Frustrated in that -- the Russians expected him to install a diesel engine because there's no avgas in Siberia -- he bypassed them by turning east to Japan. The Piper Cub is outfitted with gas tanks in the wings and overhead in the cockpit, plus several 20-liter jerry jugs in the front seat, in addition to the factory-installed tank in front of the instrument panel.

Maurice is now hoping to find an American or Japanese angel to help him rebuild the battered Cub.

(Dan Ford edits the Piper Cub Forum online and flies a 1946 J-3 with only 12 gallons of gasoline.)

FMI: www.kirkflyingvet.com