Abu Dhabi: What was perceived as a disappointing experience in the midst of an ambitious project later turned into a blessing in disguise, teaching more lessons about life’s mysteries and human attitudes towards it.
This was the most touching experience of Bertrand Piccard, the Swiss adventurer who made history on Tuesday by successfully flying the final leg of the first zero-fuel electric and solar aircraft’s circumnavigation across the globe.
He was elated when the airplane, which started its epic journey in March 2015, successfully crossed the Pacific in its toughest leg after many delays and landed in Hawaii in the US on June 28, 2015. But then it was disappointing to face an unexpected hurdle in the form of damaged batteries. It took around nine months to fix this and continue the journey on April 21, 2016. Piccard and his colleague, André Borschberg, CEO and co-founder of Solar Impulse, spent that time in awareness activities for clean energy promotion, the very aim of the project.
When they resumed the flight from Hawaii, they realised that discussions about Si2 were starting to shift towards a clean energy promotion initiative rather than an aviation adventure. “By the end of the final stage, everything mentioned about the solar plane was about clean energy’s potential,” Piccard told Gulf News. He realised that finally the purpose was already served. The intensive awareness activities conducted during the break played a major role in it. The hurdle caused by the damaged battery turned into a blessing in disguise, he told Gulf News in an interview.
That reminded him of another similar experience during his balloon trip a few years ago, which was denied direct flight path by the Chinese Government due to certain technical reasons. “I had to take detour and it was a disappointing experience.” But at the end he realised that the detour made him win a record of flying the longest balloon trip of that kind.
“We don’t know what life has in store [for us]. We have to be open to understand it [and take advantage of it],” Piccard said about the greatest experiences of his adventures.
This positive attitude makes the impossible possible, André Borschberg told Gulf News. “You can approach a glass as half-full or half-empty,” he said while explaining his experience.
When he started flying the toughest leg over the Pacific after a long delay, the engineering team informed him that an important gadget was missing in the cockpit. He was advised to fly back and fix it but then he would miss the perfect weather window then available for the around five-day-long crucial flight.
‘Tough decision’
He decided to go ahead with the flight against the wishes of his family, engineers and friends. “It was a hard moment but after one day I could get total control of the situation. I started enjoying each moment.”
He said it was a tough decision. “But if you look at the problems only, you cannot do anything,” said the pilot who created many records for that successful flight.
Piccard said he was happy that many Gulf News readers were constantly following Solar Impulse 2. Asked if he had any message for them, he said: “Be open to new ideas…be pioneers in your own life. Then we can create a better world.”
