{"id":418,"date":"2022-02-17T10:38:25","date_gmt":"2022-02-17T10:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/b1b2english.com\/?p=418"},"modified":"2023-11-27T14:35:14","modified_gmt":"2023-11-27T14:35:14","slug":"19-year-old-flies-around-world-in-155-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/b1b2english.com\/?p=418","title":{"rendered":"19-year old flies around world in 155 days (Long Read)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On 20 January 2022, Zara Rutherford landed her small plane in Belgium, becoming the youngest woman to fly around the world solo. Her goal was to inspire other young women.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of starting university, Zara Rutherford spent five months flying more than 51,000 km across five continents.  She flew in a SharkVL plane with 2 radios, 2 extra fuel tanks and a parachute.  After leaving Belgium in August, she wrote on the internet:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m Zara Rutherford, a teenager. I\u2019m attempting to fly solo around the world\u2026  If I succeed, I will be the youngest woman (by 12 years) to do it.  And I will be the only pilot to do it in a microlight plane.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI have just completed my A-Levels in Mathematics, Further Mathematics, Economics, and Physics, and hope to go to university to study computer science\/computer engineering. I have been flying for a long time and one of my biggest dreams is to become an astronaut.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It would a dangerous journey across 41 countries.  She would need to make decisions every day that could mean life or death.  Why did she do it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnly 5% of commercial pilots and 15% of computer scientists are women. This is because our dreams are formed during childhood from the role models we see in our lives. Boys learn through history classes, street names and films that they can be scientists, astronauts or presidents. Girls are encouraged to be beautiful, kind, helpful and sweet. With my flight I want to show young women that they can be bold, ambitious and make their dreams come true.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The first month of her bold journey took her from Belgium over the Atlantic through Iceland, Greenland and Canada to New York.  She flew down the east coast of the US over the Caribbean and to Colombia and Panama, where she went north along the Pacific coast of Central America to North America and through Mexico to the American state of Texas.  From there she flew from California and up the Pacific coast to Seattle.  She constantly fought risky weather conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy flight across the Atlantic was my first big test.  There were too many clouds to fly above 1,500 feet (457 m) altitude.  My plane is not certified to fly with instruments alone, so I have to be able to see.  It was a rough flight with some turbulence, and flying so low over the ocean for so many hour was\u2026, well, intense.  Plus, I lost radio contact for two hours.  When I landed in Iceland I texted my parents that I was alive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Newfoundland, Canada, Captain Erin Pratt, a female pilot in the Canadian Air Force, gave Zara advice.  Pratt said, \u201cFlying a small plane around the world at low altitude is exceptionally brave. She\u2019s amazing.\u201d  She gave Zara the \u2018flying wings\u2019 pin that she had worn for the past seven years.  It became Zara\u2019s good luck charm.  Later in Florida, another female pilot gave her advice on dealing with adversity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A traditional Canadian Airforce flying wings pin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Flying down the east coast one evening, it was too dark to see well, so she had to make an unplanned landing.  The airport was so small that nobody was there.  There were no taxis, so she had to hitchhike to the nearest town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout her long journey, weather was the most important factor in her daily plans and decisions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I got down to Georgia and Florida, I had to dodge some scary thunderstorms.  It was hurricane season, and I wanted to avoid them when I went through the Bahamas.  The jungles of Colombia were beautiful, but I had to constantly fly around these huge clouds, and in Mexico there was a lot of really dramatic lightning that, obviously, I had to avoid.  I can\u2019t fly above 1,500 feet with poor visibility, so I often risk getting hit by lightning.  It was extremely close once\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When flying to Seattle, smoke from forest fires entered her plane, making it impossible to see clearly, so she had to turn back and land at another airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After resting two days in Seattle, she flew up the Pacific coast of Canada to the American state of Alaska, arriving at Nome on the Bering Sea on 30 September.  She wanted to get to Siberia, Russia before bad weather arrived.  Unfortunately, her journey was delayed in Alaska for a month.  First she had to wait a week for her Russian visa, and then the weather wasn\u2019t good enough to fly.  While she waited, she was impressed by the friendliness of strangers.  \u201cOne family hosted me for a week, even though the mother had had a baby five days before.  People were so kind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

#FromRussiawithlove<\/a>! Zara is in #Magadan<\/a> #Russia<\/a> after 6H25 flight over the #Siberian<\/a> #tundra<\/a>! What a relief for Zara & the whole team: if she were to land in these extreme temperatures, she could not have taken off again. \u2708\ud83e\udd76\u2744\ufe0f. To all flight and weather advisors: \ud83d\ude4f! pic.twitter.com\/8bW7wDWu9h<\/a><\/p>— FlyZolo (@fly_zolo) November 2, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote>