Touchdown brings to an end pilots’ shared dream
Piccard emotional at landing and final engine shutdown
ABU DHABI // Bertrand Piccard was tempted not to land in Abu Dhabi yesterday because he did not want the dream to end.
The Swiss project co-founder and co-pilot of Solar Impulse 2 said he was very moved when he landed and shut down the motors. He was “seeing the world through a lot of water”.
“When I was circling above Al Bateen, an hour and a half passed. I crossed the line where Andre had taken off,” Mr Piccard said. “I knew we had succeeded but I was not yet ready to come down.”
But in retrospect, he and his partner Andre Borschberg said they were not immune to a fear of failure, although doubt also served as a driving factor.
The team endured their fair share of setbacks. Last year, the record- breaking flight across the Pacific Ocean caused the batteries to overheat, grounding the plane for nine months.
Delays held it back several times during the journey and they were at times told that what they aimed to do was not possible. During the building phase, the aircraft broke while engineers were testing stress on its wings.
“That added another year to the project and I had to find funding for it,” Mr Piccard said. But he said anyone who embarked on such an adventure should expect to face doubt.
Mr Borschberg agreed, saying that many had doubted the project, especially during the planning and building phases.
There was a lot of cynicism during the planning stages but it was not the biggest hurdle to overcome, Mr Borschberg said. “Planning was the moment where we had absolutely no idea if we would succeed.”
Having completed the journey, the pilots were only now admitting to having fears of failure. Mr Piccard said the most frightening moment for him was on March 9 last year in Abu Dhabi, the day Solar Impulse set off on its attempt to circumnavigate the planet with no fuel.
“I was thinking we are completely crazy. The risk of being disappointed, the risk of failure was so high. It was not so obvious we would land today. I think that is why I am so moved.”