KORTRIJK, Belgium \u2013 Beaming and waving her arms in the air, teenage pilot Zara Rutherford was euphoric Thursday after completing a solo, round-the-world flying odyssey with the dream of getting into the record books.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very difficult but very rewarding,\u201d confessed the 19-year-old Belgian-British sensation who can claim to being the youngest woman to have circumnavigated the globe alone in a cockpit.<\/p>\n
She touched down at an airfield outside the Belgian town of Kortrijk, welcomed by a crowd of journalists, well-wishers and family just over five months after she set off on 18 August, 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very strange being back here,\u201d she told a media conference, adding that, after an epic journey with stops in nearly 30 countries, she was looking forward to putting her feet up for a while in just one place.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to do nothing next week,\u201d she laughed. \u201cIt was harder than I imagined.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rutherford \u2014 whose both parents are pilots and her father flew for Britain\u2019s air force \u2014 field questions in English, French and Dutch.<\/p>\n
She explained that Russia\u2019s vast, frozen expanse of Siberia was the \u201cscariest\u201d leg of her journey: a place of overwhelming distance between habitations, and where the temperature fell below minus 30 degrees Celsius (-22 degrees Fahrenheit).<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d be going hundreds and hundreds of kilometres without seeing anything human I mean no electricity cables, no roads, no people and I thought \u2018if the engine stopped now I\u2019d have a really big problem\u2019,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u2018Pretty nerve-wracking\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n
Navigating the world in a tiny, 325-kilogramme (717-pound) Shark UL single-propellor plane, loaned to her under a sponsorship deal, meant she had to skirt around clouds and could not fly at night.<\/p>\n
The restrictions meant many times she had to divert or make hasty landings \u2014 including taking to ground quickly early this month, just a short distance from Dubai, to avoid getting caught in the first thunderstorm that city had seen in two years.<\/p>\n
There was also a long three-week stretch for most of November in a Russian eastern coastal town called Ayan where she could not take off because of the weather, relying on kind locals who were \u201cvery willing to help with anything I might need\u201d.<\/p>\n
She did not escape the Covid pandemic and related restrictions, either.<\/p>\n
China barred her from its airspace because of virus curbs, \u201cwhich meant I had to do a huge detour to avoid North Korea \u2014 and that took six hours over water,\u201d she said. \u201cThat was a pretty nerve-wracking experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
She was subjected to PCR tests \u201call the time\u201d to get clearance, and \u201cAsia was extremely strict, so I had to make sure that I had to stay in hotels\u201d.<\/p>\n
But the 52,000-kilometre (32,000-mile) trip, tracked on her website and caught on cameras she took with her, also brought its share of unique experiences.<\/p>\n
They included flying around the Statue of Liberty and seeing a SpaceX launch in California, soaring above Saudi Arabia\u2019s \u201cdiverse\u201d landscape, stopping in Colombia, seeing an isolated house on its Icelandic island, and powering along \u201cbeautiful\u201d Bulgarian valleys.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u2018Do something crazy\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been through some stuff,\u201d Rutherford said, adding: \u201cSo many countries, so many kilometres, but every single one was amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be very strange to not have to fly every single day anymore \u2014 or try to fly every single day,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just happy to finally be in the same spot for, you know, a few months hopefully.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rutherford is not the youngest to have flown around the world solo. That title goes to an 18-year-old Briton, Travis Ludlow, who completed his feat in July last year.<\/p>\n
But, once confirmed by Guinness World Records, she assumes the title of the youngest woman to do so, displacing a US pilot of Afghan origin, Shaesta Waiz, who circumnavigated the planet in 2017, aged 29.<\/p>\n
Rutherford said she hopes she\u2019ll serve as an example for girls and women to go more into aviation and studies traditionally dominated by men: science, technology, engineering and mathematics.<\/p>\n
More than that, though, she said her feat is a tribute to seizing hold of dreams and making them happen, saying she had to get past her initial fears that her goal would be \u201ctoo expensive, too dangerous, too complicated\u201d.<\/p>\n
In sum, she said, \u201cI want to encourage people to do something crazy with their lives \u2014 to go for it\u201d.<\/p>\n