Jun 24, 2007 12:20 pm US/Eastern
S. Florida Round-The-World Pilot 1 Stop From Home
Barrington Irving Returns To Starting Point For His 21,000 Mile Jorney Wednesday
HOUSTON (CBS4) ―
-
-
Barrington Irving
Experience Aviation
Barrington Irving is just days away from returning to South Florida and completing a round-the world flight which started three months ago Saturday in Opa-Locka, and has covered almost 22 thousand miles.
The 23-year-old Florida Memorial University senior was in Houston Saturday, his last big-city stop before returning to South Florida, with a message for the about 50 students who cheered his arrival.
"I think this shows it doesn't matter where you come from, what you have or what you don't have," Irving said, a few minutes after exiting his single-engine Columbia 400.
The 23-year-old aerospace student built his plane from more than $300 thousand in donated parts, and took off from Opa-Locka airport hoping to become the youngest person and first black pilot to fly solo around the globe.
Irving had planned to fly last year, but a lack of funding delayed his $1 million project. He's since received support from a variety of corporate and other sponsors.
Irving plans to arrive back at Opa-locka Wednesday after a final stop in Alabama. His plane is dotted with stickers of small flags of several of the countries he visited, including Spain, Italy, Greece and Japan. His 21,000-mile trip included stops in Cleveland and New York before passing into Canada, then crossing the Atlantic, through Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Irving said difficult weather delayed some legs of the trip, and he admitted he had trouble keeping his mind occupied during the long flights. Landing small planes in some foreign countries, he said, can be a challenge but he managed with the help of a savvy ground crew.
Irving was born in Jamaica and grew up in Miami. Irving is now studying at Florida Memorial University; he has private and commercial pilot licenses. He also founded Experience Aviation, a Miami-based organization that encourages minority youths to pursue aviation careers.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
