Mumbai: "Doing what you love is the easiest thing in the world," says the affable Jack Wiegand, all of twenty years of age. The young American pilot steered piloted his single-engine aircraft, Mooney Ovation-20, into Mumbai late on Tuesday evening.
The youngster, word 'easy' acquires a whole new meaning when applied to the case of this youngster who has a penchant for made it a habit of celebrating his birthdays by amassing record aviation feats, piloted his introductory glider flight on his 13th birthday. The following birthday, Wiegand became the youngest pilot at the Central California Soaring Club to solo a glider. On his 16th birthday, he soloed his first single-engine power plane. And when he turned 20 this month, Wiegand took off from his hometown in Fresno, California to circumnavigate the globe. His plan is to break the Guinness World Records title for the youngest person to fly solo around the world. In an age when one can turn an put an aircraft on auto-pilot after take-off, the challenge in flying solo presents itself comes when cruising over crossing oceans or when on encountering rough weather.
22/05/13 Manju V/Times of India
