A dashing and handsome 22-year-old Swiss pilot passed through the city on his way to making a world record of being the youngest pilot to fly round the globe in 80 days.
Carlo Schmid flew in to Karachi from Muscat on his way to Ahmedabad and Nagpur in his quest for the record. Carlo, who hails from a family of bankers and is one himself, has a fascination and passion for flying. He has undertaken this adventure called “RTW 2012” (Round The World) as a way of paying tribute to his mother Carla Schmid who died of Cancer in August 2010.
To achieve this goal, Carlo, who is the sole pilot and assisted by a 12-member team in Switzerland, founded a private limited company, which would collect donations for a Children Project being run under UNICEF. The RTW-2012 is initiated, planned and executed by a generation of youngsters, the eldest team members being 40 years old. Several high profile partners like TCS, Swiss International Air Lines and Zürich Airport have helped in the RTW-2012 children project.
The dashing pilot landed in Karachi two days ago by coincidence to be just in time for the 721 st Swiss National Day celebration which saw a large turnout of the city’s elite. He joined the reception and was introduced to the gathering by the Swiss Consul General Mr. Didier Boschung.
In a brief chat with the media, Carlo Schmid said he had a passion for flying and taken his first gliding lesson at the age of 15. He became member of Zürich Aircraft Club at 17 and soon passed his PPL (Private Pilot’s License) exam. Carlo’s passion for flying was so intense that he usually spent 95% of his apprenticeship salary on flying and doing part-time jobs to save money and collect funds for his dream of flying round the world.
Carlo quit banking in 2011 to fully concentrate on his Round The World project and his hard work and dream finally became a reality on July 11, 2012 when he took off from Switzerland in his Cessna 210 turbine single-engine plane to fly around the world.
Carlo intends to fly round the world in 80 days, covering 40,000 kilometers while crossing 24 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia and North America. He said if he manages to achieve the objective, this would be a great honor for him and the memory of his late mother to be the youngest pilot to fly around the world. He added that that since 1929 when the first pilot flew round the world, only 87 pilots had managed to successfully fly around the world.
