"The world was supposed to be always round. In the past the human desire of discovery,  fame, money or just vanity, lead to the desire and attempts of flying around the world. Flying around the planet has been and still is now of a great symbolic importance. It is a test of endurance of planes as well of pilots who embark on such a precarious adventure.

Flight around the world cannot be made without flying over the ocean, high mountains, endless forests and polar expanses, where the boundaries between delight and real catastrophe is very very thin.” These are the thoughts Matevž is sharing in his book – travel diary “Okoli edinega sveta” (Around the only world).

As you know, this is not the first adventure of Matevž.. We are sure you might remember his first round the world flight in 80 days, completed in 2004. Then he crossed the Atlantic for the very first time, leaving Canada and flying across Greenland and Iceland to Europe. This time the flight in the opposite direction, from Dakar, Senegal, to Natal in Brazil requires even more willingness, courage, daring, and tremendous faith. However, your support and encouragement is very much appreciated. Brazilian city of Natal, which translates to Christmas, kindly welcomed Matevž’s landing at the airport.

No take-off for Friday 13^th is planned. This day is dedicated to rest, regeneration and making preparation for the next stage towards French Guiana.
Soon we will post news from Matevž point of view and upload the photos! Stay with us!

The amazing and long crossing of the Atlantic ocean is successfully completed!

Bravo Matevž! The flight was going smoothly and after landing Matevž was warmly greeted by many journalists and also by the Slovenian ambassador in Brazil, Mrs. Milena Šmit accompanied by two more Slovenian friends and several supporters of the flight.
Matevž is well, however tired a bit after a long and stressful day and is already on the way to the Hotel.  The much needed sleep will be more than welcome!

Sweet dreams!

The latest update! Fuel did not arrive on time, because of that flight over the Atlantic sea is planned for tomorrow morning at 05.00 UTC.

Mr. Idrissi knows Slovenia well, and he wants to promote economic cooperation between Slovenia in Marocco as the Honorary Consul. The process with airport authorities went quickly  and smoothly as they were informed about journalists in arrival hall. Afterwards, we went together to the town to find a replacement for the blown fuse for Spidertrack. We were lucky and found it in a small telephone repair store. The next morning Spidertrack revived and found the position of the aircraft right here on the Tanger Airport.

Early in the morning at Ljubljana airport I was surprised for the second time in two days as so many friends and journalists joined the start of our GreenLight WorldFlight Adventure. Thank you! It really means a lot to me and my team.

The flight was more or less easy, in good weather, although most of the time over water. First part I flew at altitude 3000 m just to get more speed and less fuel consumption from turbo. Strong northerly wind gave me some tail component, which became headwind leter on. It was surprisingly turbulent over the Mediteranean sea, but calm down just past Corzica Island. Before Mallorca Island spanish controller adviced altitude 3500 ft, but I remained at 4500 just above the clouds.

Pipistrel designed all new fuel venting system, with venting all four wing tanks through central tank - it prevents to lose fuel during the flight. It works fine, but requires a lot of attention from the pilot. Return fuel line from all 5 tanks is going into central tank and this hose is used also for fuel transfere from wing to fuselage tank. Complicated, yes. That was the reason that I probably lost some litres through the venting hoses, because I forgot to switch off the wing tank. 

Western side of Marocco was covered with clouds, so I checked weather again at ATS at destination. Just before airport clouds cleared out and I landed in severe VFR and 19 kts wind along the runway.

For 2143 km I needed 8.38 hours with average ground speed of 138 kts and 17,8 litres/hour consumption at 55-60% power setting. Fuel consumption was calculated on Nesis efis, it's accuracy is going to be proved later in flights.

Distance: 2.043 km (1.103 NM) / Time: 8,5 hours / Flight level: 3.000 – 3.500 feet / fuel consumption: 18 l/h / total 153 l / The flight was mostly nice and smooth. At the beginning the wind was quite strong and Matevz felt turbulent flow from the Alps.

The first stage is successfully completed. Matevz landed in Batouta international (GMTT, Morocco) at 15:50 GMT. The flight has gone smoothly.

Today at 8.00 a.m. pilot Matevž Lenarčič has started his 2nd flight over the World. First route is from Ljubljana to Tanger ( Morocco). It is estimated that arrival will be after 9 hours.

Live tracking is not working at the moment. We are trying to resolve the problem as soon as possible. Current picture on the live track site is not updated.  Thank you for your understanding.

GLWF Team

Dr. Grisa Mocnik,  from the company Aerosol prepared an instrument called "Aethalometer" for airborne black carbon detection. Air inlet on the pitot tube is connected by a special low drag hose with detector in cockpit. The whole procedure is added to the aircraft "check list". It is rather simple: "Change filter, switch on, download to computer, switch off, send via Iridium to Aerosol".

We did test flight with black carbon detection over the Vipava Valley and results were excellent.