Ethan Guo is 19 years old and at university, flying isn’t just a hobby for him; it is a quest.
This young Asian-American pilot is channeling his love for aviation into a noble cause: for the purpose of funding childhood cancer research as well as the treatment of big C fighters.
Guo is planning for a world record as he is aiming to be the youngest person to ever fly a small plane to seven different continents.
Apart from the championship victory, he aims to collect $1,000,000 by visiting the hospitals and making acquaintance with children in each country that he is going to visit.
“I will take every chance to introduce childhood cancer and the need to improve research in finding prevention as well as treatment for this disease,” said Guo.
“This journey has brought me to many part of the world up to now and what I have realized is that people are nice all over the world and all want to make this world a better place to live in and within their ability, everyone is striving to do so.”
He is at the moment based in Riyadh Saudi Arabia only for his ambitious fundraiser. His next stop will be Doha in Qatar and although he will spend a few hours there before proceeding to Dubai on the 19th August.
“The hospitality of Riyadh has been incredible; the friendliness of the people here is something that I have not experienced before,” he said.
He is now dreaming of coming to Dubai. “[I hope to engage] with the people in the UAE, whom I have been told are as friendly and supportive,” said Guo.
The grand journey
From Geneva – Switzerland, he flew to more than 60 countries, covering more than 150 days, or over 80,000km of airports. Some of the places he visits are Egypt, Saudi Arabia, India, Japan, the Northern Pacific to Alaska, Canada, United States of America and South America and Antarctica.
Guo, flying an overhauled Cessna 182 that has been customized for his individual use, has gone out of his way to cover himself with matters such as pulling out the rear seats so as to create more space for an extra fuel tank that allows him fly for up to 17 hours non-stop.
“I spent eight hours flying over Canada to west coast of Greenland The actual flight from Japan to Alaska will be fifteen hours continuously and I am looking forward to it,” said Guo who can keep in touch with his ground crew through satellite phone and carries three emergency locator transmitter on board.
His interest in aviation started at the age of thirteen and by the age of seventeen he had already been issued a private pilot license and had logged more than seven hundred flight hours.
His motivation
Guo’s mission became more personal when his cousin got diagnosed with cancer, and that motivated him to turn his hundred day journey into fighting cancer into more than a task he was being paid for.
“My cousin had blood cancer when he was 18 years old,” reveals Guo, “So I wanted to do something and discussed this idea with my parents and decided that I would travel alone around the world and give funds.”
Recalled Guo, ‘I did not have my mother’s consent and it was not easy for me to persuade her for six years but my father was quite encouraging,’
By doing so the teen pilot would achieve the feat of breaking the world record as well as making difference in the war against childhood cancer.