The adventure, or madness for many, began in Sofia, Bulgaria on March 23, 2022.

 

Dressed in his aviator pilot suit, Mack Rutherford, now known as Mack Solo, Belgian-British, then 16 years old, climbed into a single-seater with a single propeller of a Shark-type ultralight aircraft, built in Slovakia to carry out a great feat and incidentally, breaking the Guinness record of going around the world alone and his soul in his plane, in just 5 months.

 

Last year his 19-year-old sister Zara had already traveled around the world with another route in 150 days.

 

Mack Rutherford, Pilot: “My sister was the first one to do this trip in January and she was the one who gave me the idea and in a way she was the one who inspired me to do this trip…”

 

The current record is still held by Travis Ludlow from the United Kingdom who made the journey in a 2001 Cessna 172 R model, in July 2021 at the age of 18, so if he achieves his goal, Mack will do so having turned 17.

 

Since leaving 4 and a half months ago, it has landed in countries such as Italy, Greece, Egypt, Sudan, Kenya, India, Japan and others, arriving in San José del Cabo, reaching 34 countries to complete its 52-country route.

 

Mark spoke of the difficulties he had in this first part of his journey:

 

Mack Rutherford, Pilot: “It was crossing the Pacific to the United States, it was very difficult because I couldn't fly over Russia and in Japan they didn't allow me to cross it either, but I was lucky that in the end they said yes, even so I flew from Japan to an island in the United States. States was a long journey of 10 hours to the nearest American island "

 

He also shared the beginnings of him:

 

Mack Rutherford, Pilot: “Basically I have flown all my life, but when I really started flying a lot it was from the age of eleven with my parents, but at the age of 15 I became the youngest pilot in the world”

 

The autonomy of the fuel that it carries is 13 hours and the loneliness combats it with how busy it is.

 

Mack Rutherford, Pilot: “I haven't felt too lonely as I'm pretty busy making sure all the gadgets work great, but I also listen to music on my podcas…I always keep in touch with my parents and my support team. We talk all the time while I fly since we have satellite communication which is very good”

 

Here he was received by the Director of the Los Cabos International Airport.

 

Francisco Villaseñor, Director of the Los Cabos International Airport: “…it was through the College of Pilots who are coordinating the entire operation in Mexico, through them they made us the request to be able to support them”

 

 

 

 

The next day he took off to Isla Socorro in Revillagigedo to continue to Puerto Vallarta and then to the rest of the route to finish where he started before the end of August 2022.