On August 24, Mack Rutherford, a 17-year-old British-Belgian pilot, completed his
\nmission and became the youngest person in history who has flown solo around the world
\nin a small aircraft. He has landed in Sofia, Bulgaria, where his sponsor ICDSoft is based.
\nHis journey lasted 5 months and 1 day. With his flight, Mack wanted to show that young
\npeople can pursue their dreams and achieve amazing things. It might not be easy or
\nsmooth sailing, but with grit and perseverance chances of success are on your side. He
\nhopes he will inspire youngsters to pursue their dreams, who in turn, will inspire more
\nyoungsters to do the same. Hopefully, creating a virtual domino effect of youngsters
\nmaking a difference.<\/p>\n
Mack\u2019s journey took twice as long as expected and was filled with challenges that Mack needed
\nto solve one at a time. On 23 March 2022, two months before his seventeenth birthday, Mack
\ntook off from the same airfield he just landed at, Sofia West in Bulgaria. He headed to Italy and
\nGreece, where he faced a 6-week delay, having to alter his route and obtain the necessary
\npermits and documents required for further flight. From there he flew south to Africa, crossing
\nEgypt, Kenya, Madagascar and Mauritius. Next, he headed north to Oman and UAE, where
\nagain, he was delayed for more than 5 weeks, waiting for an Iranian permit that eventually did
\nnot come in fast enough. He decided to alter his route again to Pakistan, India, Thailand,
\nVietnam, South Korea and Japan. Next he crossed the northern Pacific and after 10
\nuninterrupted hours in the air diverted to Attu just before sunset, a volcanic island of the Aleutian
\nArchipelago near the Bering Straits. He continued to mainland Alaska, further along the west
\ncoast of America to Mexico, north to Canada and across the Atlantic via Greenland, Iceland, the
\nUK and Belgium.<\/p>\n
Apart from the permit and visa issues delaying his flight, Mack faced many other challenges.
\nOver Egypt his backup fuel tank wasn\u2019t working and he thought he may have to perform an
\nemergency landing. In Sudan, his solar panel system fell down because the heat melted the
\nglue maintaining it in place combined with extreme haze. In Dubai he faced extreme heat. In
\nIndia, monsoon rains entered his main fuel tanks and soaked his aircraft including some
\ndocuments on board. Soon after, his auto-pilot started failing and kept doing so, on and off, for
\nthe rest of his epic journey. On another occasion, he had an electrical failure impacting the
\nsystem that pushes fuel from the additional tank sat on the back seat, to the aircraft\u2019s main
\ntanks. After his longest flight across the Pacific, he found his food smelling of fuel, probably
\nbecause fuel had accidentally spilt on it. Upon his arrival in Greenland his landing gear alarm
\nwent on. Whatever was thrown at Mack, he dealt with it in a calm and professional manner. He
\nfocused on his dream and goal, proving that young people can pursue their dreams and achieve
\namazing things despite many challenges and obstacles.<\/p>\n
Since the age of three Mack has wanted to be a pilot. He qualified for his pilot license in
\nSeptember 2020, which at the time, made him the youngest pilot in the world at the age of 15
\nyears and two months. Mack has flown hundreds of hours with his dad, who is a professional
\npilot.
\nSince he became a pilot, he has been planning his solo flight around the globe. In the meantime,
\nhis sister Zara became the youngest woman to fly around the world, which gave Mack an
\nadditional spur to set off.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been fortunate to have had a family that has been able to help me progress in my flying.
\nBut no matter what background you have, I believe it is never too early to work towards your
\ndreams and you shouldn\u2019t limit yourself by others\u2019 expectations.\u201d \u2013 adds Mack.<\/p>\n
Mack has claimed two Guinness World Records. He is the youngest person to fly around the
\nworld solo \u2013 this title was held previously by Travis Ludlow who was 18 at the completion of his
\nattempt last year. Mack has also become the youngest person to circumnavigate the world in a
\nmicrolight, the title held previously by his sister Zara, who completed her own circumnavigation
\nin January this year.<\/p>\n
Just like Zara, Mack was flying a Shark. It is a high-performance ultralight aircraft manufactured
\nin Europe. It is one of the fastest ultralight aircraft in the world with a cruising speed reaching
\n300 km\/h. The aircraft was specially prepared for such a long journey.<\/p>\n
Mack\u2019s entire record-breaking trip around the world is proudly sponsored by the web
\nhosting company ICDSoft – helping sites fly since 2001. ICDSoft also very kindly loaned
\nMack the plane for the attempt.<\/p>\n
Exact itinerary and further information: www.macksolo.com<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On August 24, Mack Rutherford, a 17-year-old British-Belgian pilot, completed his mission and became the youngest person in history who has flown solo around the world in a small aircraft. He has landed in Sofia, Bulgaria, where his sponsor ICDSoft is based.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":32886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,54,60],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/evropaworld.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32906"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/evropaworld.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/evropaworld.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evropaworld.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evropaworld.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32906"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/evropaworld.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32913,"href":"https:\/\/evropaworld.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32906\/revisions\/32913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evropaworld.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/evropaworld.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evropaworld.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evropaworld.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}