Music makes crossing an ocean boring. It can be lonely to be alone on an island with only seagulls. When the backup fuel tank stops working, it is frightening.
This is not a typical challenge for a teenager, but that is how Mack Rutherford, a 17-year-old Belgian-British pilot, spent his summer break.
Mack was the youngest person to fly solo around the world in a small plane when he landed in Bulgaria. He guided his Shark Aero, which was modified to carry extra fuel, into the airport at about 5 p.m.
He said it from inside the cockpit during a live stream of the landing.
People who had gathered to greet Mack were applauded by a narrator on the tarmac. A new world record has been set by us.
Mack climbed out of the cockpit after waving and smiling. He was happy to be here after a long time.
The moment marked the end of a challenging and sometimes lonely journey that took Mack nearly 30,000 miles, with stops in 30 countries, after he took off from the same airport on March 23. At the time, he was a teenager.
The feat has made him the youngest person to fly around the world alone. It took 18 years and 149 days for Mr. Ludlow to set the record.
Mack's family has a tradition of solo flying. When his sister set a world record as the youngest woman to fly solo around the world, she was at the controls of the same type of plane that he was.
His family and sponsors welcomed him at the airport.
Mack told reporters on the tarmac that he loved being in the air and that he had mixed feelings of excitement and frustration. He said he was able to look at a problem and work through a solution after a long time of flying.
Mack was the youngest person to fly solo around the world and the youngest to fly in a microlight plane. He was taken over deserts, forests, skyscrapers and sand storms. In March he traveled to Italy and Greece. He was in Africa in May. His route took him through several countries.
There were numbing hours of solitude in the cramped cockpit of his plane, which reaches a cruising speed of 186 miles per hour, and also the wonders of the elements, like sandstorms in Sudan and blazing heat in the United Arab Emirate. It took him more than 10 hours to fly from Japan to Alaska.
He traveled the West Coast of the United States to Mexico and then went north to Canada. Mack was welcomed with bagpipes and haggis when he landed in Aberdeen, Scotland.
Mack said he wanted to be a pilot since he was a child and flew hundreds of hours with his British father, who was a helicopter pilot. His mother is a lawyer in Belgium. Mack got his license to fly microlight planes when he was 15 years old.
He touched down at an airfield near Charleroi, in Southern Belgium, on Tuesday, where he had learned to fly. It was going to Slovakia. He described moments of beauty and boredom as he prepared for the final part of his journey.
He said that there were so many different types that had those "WOW" moments.
He mentioned the big cities of the U.S. I was surprised how close you are to the ground. I was able to fly through the air.
He said flying over the ocean can be boring. He doesn't eat much. He looked around and listened to music. He was kept occupied by a 24 hour long song list. He said that it filled up the time nicely.
He was forced to stop on Attu, an uninhabited island at Alaska's westernmost edge, as he flew across the Pacific to the US. It was a difficult experience. He had just eaten his last two items. It was getting dark and there were no living things.
He said that he spent the night on an island. There was a shed on the runway. I spent the night on a broken down sofa. I had a hard time sleeping there.
Mack faced technical dangers as well. There was a fuel bladder switch that was malfunctioning. He didn't know how he was going to be able to replenish his energy. He said it kicked in once he descended to a lower altitude.
He said that his mother and he watched the movie "Top Gun" in a theater on his birthday. He was stuck in the emirate for more than a month as he tried to figure out a route across the Pacific Ocean that avoided Russia because of the war in Ukraine.
He didn't know how it would work out. We didn't know how we would get through. I just got on top of it.
He was given permission to fly through Japan's airspace, which allowed him to cross the ocean.
There are some tasks that he won't be able to avoid. Mack, who is entering his final year at Sherborne School, a boys' boarding school in southern England next month, is expected to catch up on studies that he has missed, and to reflect on what comes next.
He said after landing that he would return to school and carry on. Continue to fly.
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