ISLAMABAD: Pakistani singer and activist Fakhr-e-Alam on Wednesday said that his childhood dream of becoming a pilot is close to reality.
Talking to a private news channel, Alam said, “Mission Parwaaz is my childhood dream. I wanted to become a pilot and in 2015 I got my license.”
Now the 42-year-old will attempt to become the first Pakistani to fly solo around the globe.
Earlier, Alam had taken to Twitter to make the announcement and said, “Dear all I am happy to report to you all today that after three years of a lot of hard work & persistence #MissionParwaaz my attempt to circumnavigate the globe is finally happening. If I succeed I will become the 1st Pakistani in the history of the world to do so.”
The 28-day tour which begins in Clearwater, Florida on October 6, will take Alam to 32 countries.
“I will start my tour from Clearwater in Florida and then pick up fuel from Boston. From there I will fly to the Canadian Airbase in Goose Bay and then Greenland.”
“From Greenland, I will fly to Iceland, United Kingdom, Egypt and then to Bahrain. From there my next stop will be Dubai and then Karachi on October 13,” he said.
Alam added, “From Karachi, I will be flying to Islamabad and then Lahore. From Lahore, I will be on my way to Dhaka, Bangkok, Singapore, Jakarta and then Darwin in Australia. Other countries where I will be making a pit stop include Philippines, Taiwan, South Japan, Northern Japan, the Pacific Bay, Russia, Alaska and then back to the US.”
The singer further revealed that there are few rules of global circumnavigation that he will have to follow while making his trip.
“Global circumnavigation has some rules. One of the rules is that the airport where you start your tour from is the one where you end it. Second is you have to travel at the rate of 26,000 nautical miles. Third, you have to travel through all the time zones and medians on the planet. And lastly, you have to complete your journey in the same plane that you started in. You cannot change your plane,” he added.
Regarding the plane that he will be flying on his trip, Alam said, “It is a Pilatus PC-12, Swiss made and is single-engine turboprop. It is among the lightweight carriers and travels at 300 knots.”
