For a while now I've been trying to ask myself just why it is that Zara's flight has caught my attention so much more than other recent RTW flights have done.
I may be part-way to an answer (for me) and whilst it's by no means the whole thing, I think it's something like this:
What she's doing is something that many of us have experienced or aspire to do on, for example, a European Tour - but writ large and with a fantastic amount of added guts.
Bear with me on this:
She's doing it VFR in a reasonably (but not amazingly) kitted out
Permit aircraft; not got a tight timetable to meet; she's not after a speed or endurance record; she will sit and wait out weather or tech issues when she must, despite the frustrations (we've all been
there!) ; she's building up her experience and pushing personal limits progressively.
Much of that is what we all do, to a greater or lesser degree.
EXCEPT that Zara has on top of all that, for example: All those loooong over-water legs; some of the weather she's been faced with is rather more extreme than a typical European summer frontal system; the bureaucracy, cultural and operational challenges are a bit more eye-opening than a stroppy Douane in Metz when there's a Ryanair in (!); the pressure has been sustained over weeks not days.
OK, she has clearly got an excellent support package behind her with Sam and team, has some relevant experience gained as pax/observer on a few ferry flights and is decently financed, but even so:
Her experience level is relatable to us all, it's still (of course!) her neck on the line, and ultimate decisions are inevitably hers when considering dynamic changes in the situations she faces.
Whatever it is, for me her journey in my mind is somehow different to Travis Ludlow's , or even people like Polly Vacher, both of whom I admire enormously. It's just that Zara's challenge seems somehow even greater, and yet at the same time more relatable to little ol' VFR me.
So what do you think? Is that perhaps why her trip strikes such a chord? We think we could do it, but maybe in reality we couldn't?
Or am I talking nonsense again?
Whatever it is, I have followed this trip with much vicarious pleasure and have found it thoroughly inspirational.
Anticipating plans for tomorrow, but:
Welcome Home, Zara - and just... Wow.