for me my journey into flying around the
world and doing so many things
what’s one that I would never expect I
started off as a high school football
star grew up in a very tough
neighborhood in Miami had a very modest
and humble beginnings at the time I
played fullback and linebacker 197
pounds 3% body fat around a 4 – in the
40 and had a full scholarship to attend
a University of Florida
until that changed when the gentleman
you see on the screen mr. Gary Robinson
walked up to me out of the blue in the
store and said to me hey son have ever
thought about becoming a pilot I looked
at him I told her I didn’t think I was
smart enough to fly an airplane but then
I asked him how much money he made and
after he answered the question of how
much money he made I took interest in
aviation and he did something very key
that turned my interest into passion he
gave me the opportunity to go to Miami
International Airport and sit down in
the cockpit of the aircraft that he flew
which was the Boeing triple7
I had a chance to sit down the cockpit
play with all the buttons and and I said
to myself instantly you know what I
think I can do this and when I made that
decision in the cockpit that I wanted to
pursue a career in aviation that was it
no business plan no PowerPoint
presentation this gentleman just simply
showed me what he did as a pilot and
that changed my life forever that was a
tough decision to give up my football
scholarship
coaches thought there was something
mentally wrong with me all my friends in
high school questioned my decision and
all the girls who were my number on
their dirt on their shirts no longer
wanted to talk to me anymore
nevertheless I managed to go from a
young man that turned down a football
scholarship and just wanted to be a
commercial airline pilot – somehow being
able to hold a Guinness world record of
being a youngest person to fly solo
around the world
which was previously held by someone at
the age of 37 for me for me there are a
number of different challenges in order
to accomplish this flight the aircraft
that I utilized you see in the picture
which I called inspiration
it’s a Columbia 400 which cost six
hundred and fifty thousand dollars there
are a number of things I had to figure
out in getting different partners and
donors to sponsor parts and it took me
two and a half years to get my first
sponsor to even support the initiative
and matter of fact the day that I
departed from Miami March 23 2007 it’s
funny because the number of media
outlets came out to interview me there
were about four or five thousand people
at the airport and many people didn’t
know this but my aircraft had no weather
radar no de-icing equipment in addition
to that I didn’t know how to swim
figured what would it matter if I
crashed in the middle of the ocean and
also as I’m looking at all these signs
cheering me on saying go Barrington go
go Barrington go I only had thirty
dollars in my pocket I’m saying where am
I going I don’t even have enough money
to put gas in the plane anyways it
worked out and I was able to get through
many challenges challenges such as
flying through a sandstorm over Saudi
Arabia at 17,000 feet where you go from
a clear beautiful day to seeing shimmers
of the Sun challenges such as flying
through weather conditions as it relates
to these clouds formations air and the
clouds are so saturated with water and
rain that it’s very turbulent to fly
through and I made it through that also
dealing with disasters potential
disasters such as crossing from northern
Japan into semi Alaska which is the
second and last Island on the Aleutian
chain and it’s only one mile long
two-mile circumference
I had airline pilots who are at higher
altitudes radioing down to me asking me
for my parents name and phone number
I told me to turn back there’s no way
you’re gonna make it on the other side
of the ice storm ahead when I landed and
shot me at Alaska I only had 12 minutes
of fuel left in my airplane so after
flying around the world which took 97
days approximately a hundred and forty
five flight hours almost 30,000 miles I
had over 300,000 students that were just
following me and blogging with me keep
in mind this was the same kid who left
with only 30 dollars in his pocket and
when I realized that I said to myself I
have something special here which is the
attention of young people so what I did
was I said to myself oh I’m going to
work more with in my foundation
experienced aviation I turned down
numerous job offers to fly for airlines
and celebrities and I said this is what
I want to do and one of the first
projects we tested was called building
soar where we challenged 60 students
from failing schools in Miami to build
an aircraft from scratch riveting the
wings putting the engine together
figuring how to set up the fuel system
in the aircraft the avionics even
building the very same seats at Saturn
and not only did they build it but I
told them if they built it I would fly
it and I’m very blessed to speak to you
all today because it worked out some of
the funniest things are done in this
picture you can’t tell who’s a
straight-a student or who’s a student
that just got out of the juvenile
justice system I was involved in
building the aircraft in addition to
that we have students that have gone on
to do many things for example there’s a
student in that picture that didn’t know
how to turn on a vacuum to clean up
after a class now he’s diffusing bombs
for the military in addition to that I
have another student who couldn’t point
out a sixteenth of an inch on a ruler
and now she’s on a full scholarship as a
math major at Duke University in
addition to that avid student in this
picture whose family wouldn’t allow a
woman to fly an airplane now she’s
studying to be a dentist at Florida
State University
Aviation and various forms of
exploration certainly has the power to
change the trajectory of where students
will end up later on in their life into
something magical that I realized and I
said to myself how do I do more how do I
take this from a small scale impact and
transform it on a national scale do you
know right now in math and science we’re
ranked 17th and 24th in the world in
math and science yet still we have all
the technology we need in order for
those numbers to improve drastically so
I decided and wanting to do something
different and have a mass impact I said
what if I transform a small light jet
into a flying classroom that will allow
me to teach from the air do satellite
technology broadcast to handheld devices
laptops and communicate with students as
I’m flying all around the world
collecting data and information meeting
with explorers in different locations
and providing students the opportunity
to explore discover and shape the world
that they live in when that moment
occurred for me I said to myself this is
what needs to be done so Hawker
Beechcraft stepped up to the plate and
providing us a five million dollar
aircraft that seats nine people what
they’ll allow me to collect atmospheric
data and I’m working with the University
of Miami on those measurement tools in
addition to that transport Explorer it’s
with me broadcast from 45,000 feet
provide video streaming and classroom
calls from the air while I’m traveling
to different destinations around the
world and one of the cool features about
this is that kids will have the
opportunity to vote on what I do not
only in the air but on the ground with
other explorers
prior to takeoff what does the
experience look like we want students to
learn about these countries learn about
geography learn about where things are
in the world and how does it affect my
physical location of where I’m at vote
on the expedition’s within the
adventures help me collect data around
the world and in addition to that learn
about places that these kids have never
seen when I’m 8 when I flew around the
world in 2007 the only place I’ve been
outside of the United States was Jamaica
I didn’t know a world existed we want to
change that perspective for students so
now during the flight students are going
to be able to do a number of things to
support me help me fly and land the
aircraft safely by helping with the
calculations runways runway conditions
weather obstacles you have to deal with
calculating fuel requirements aircraft
speeds monitor my alert levels and in it
listen to that help me to translate the
atmospheric data that we’re collecting
as well in flight now upon landing in a
specific region of the world as we
travel to all seven continents we plan
to explore of course earth land and sea
and that’s going to be made possible by
partnering with so many different
explorers around the world in different
fields because we want to ignite the
minds of students to become attracted to
these various career fields that are
available to them after the expedition
well prepare games quizzes use of data
collection again encourage them to
explore the world with different
hands-on activities and create also
teacher professional development
activities for the students as well now
to fly around the world again in a jet I
know some of you guys are thinking well
he’s flying a jet should be a little bit
easier that brings its own challenges
it’s a light jet I’m travelling to all
seven continents as you can see here and
I have a number of different obstacles
to deal with for example I’ll be heading
westbound so
take off from DC come down to Miami take
my talents to South Beach and then from
there work my way work work my way on up
through the Midwest and prepared across
the North Pacific against the wind
beginning in October students will be
helping me fly from Anchorage to
Petropavlovsk into northern Japan based
on all the wind conditions and this is
something that you really have to time
correctly
in order to get into northern Japan from
there there’s numerous obstacles to deal
with flying four and a half hours
sometimes back-to-back at a time in
addition to that of course dealing with
this area and as it relates to
sandstorms monsoon season avoiding all
these different storms although I’ll be
out 45,000 feet especially when you get
in this region here you have storms that
are shooting up into the upper
atmosphere at sixty seventy thousand
feet in addition to that I’ll also have
challenges are flying down into
Antarctica the Shetland Islands that is
definitely one of timing where I’d have
to reach Antarctica by January in order
to to meet the time window the
three-week time window that I’ll have
now the crew that will be with me as
I’ll have an extra pilot on board and in
addition to that I’ll be able to bring
explorers with me on certain legs but I
have quite a few challenges even flying
into Cusco Peru the aircraft is only
certified to take off and land from
10,000 feet in the air
elevation in Cusco Peru is at a little
bit over 12,000 feet so now the aircraft
manufacturer is modifying the aircraft
as best as they can in order for me to
fly not just land but also takeoff from
Cusco Peru it’s gonna be interested in
their wiring everything so that when I
take off out of Cusco all the awesome
oxygen mask doesn’t fall out and then
freak everyone out we all have an
opportunity to impact students like me
that were clueless unaware and just
uninformed of the opportunities that
exists not only in science technology
engineering and math
but within other fields whether you’re
talking about conservation history
environment geography these are the
career fields that are so powerful and
contains the lives of young people in
such a dynamic way and one of the things
I strive for every single day I wake up
in the morning is to create that and
package it in a way where kids are
turned on to these career fields where
they say like like I stole my mentor I
believe I can do this we all have a
story to share with our young people in
order to address the significant problem
we have with the lack of scientists
thank you guys for having me here
you
world and doing so many things
what’s one that I would never expect I
started off as a high school football
star grew up in a very tough
neighborhood in Miami had a very modest
and humble beginnings at the time I
played fullback and linebacker 197
pounds 3% body fat around a 4 – in the
40 and had a full scholarship to attend
a University of Florida
until that changed when the gentleman
you see on the screen mr. Gary Robinson
walked up to me out of the blue in the
store and said to me hey son have ever
thought about becoming a pilot I looked
at him I told her I didn’t think I was
smart enough to fly an airplane but then
I asked him how much money he made and
after he answered the question of how
much money he made I took interest in
aviation and he did something very key
that turned my interest into passion he
gave me the opportunity to go to Miami
International Airport and sit down in
the cockpit of the aircraft that he flew
which was the Boeing triple7
I had a chance to sit down the cockpit
play with all the buttons and and I said
to myself instantly you know what I
think I can do this and when I made that
decision in the cockpit that I wanted to
pursue a career in aviation that was it
no business plan no PowerPoint
presentation this gentleman just simply
showed me what he did as a pilot and
that changed my life forever that was a
tough decision to give up my football
scholarship
coaches thought there was something
mentally wrong with me all my friends in
high school questioned my decision and
all the girls who were my number on
their dirt on their shirts no longer
wanted to talk to me anymore
nevertheless I managed to go from a
young man that turned down a football
scholarship and just wanted to be a
commercial airline pilot – somehow being
able to hold a Guinness world record of
being a youngest person to fly solo
around the world
which was previously held by someone at
the age of 37 for me for me there are a
number of different challenges in order
to accomplish this flight the aircraft
that I utilized you see in the picture
which I called inspiration
it’s a Columbia 400 which cost six
hundred and fifty thousand dollars there
are a number of things I had to figure
out in getting different partners and
donors to sponsor parts and it took me
two and a half years to get my first
sponsor to even support the initiative
and matter of fact the day that I
departed from Miami March 23 2007 it’s
funny because the number of media
outlets came out to interview me there
were about four or five thousand people
at the airport and many people didn’t
know this but my aircraft had no weather
radar no de-icing equipment in addition
to that I didn’t know how to swim
figured what would it matter if I
crashed in the middle of the ocean and
also as I’m looking at all these signs
cheering me on saying go Barrington go
go Barrington go I only had thirty
dollars in my pocket I’m saying where am
I going I don’t even have enough money
to put gas in the plane anyways it
worked out and I was able to get through
many challenges challenges such as
flying through a sandstorm over Saudi
Arabia at 17,000 feet where you go from
a clear beautiful day to seeing shimmers
of the Sun challenges such as flying
through weather conditions as it relates
to these clouds formations air and the
clouds are so saturated with water and
rain that it’s very turbulent to fly
through and I made it through that also
dealing with disasters potential
disasters such as crossing from northern
Japan into semi Alaska which is the
second and last Island on the Aleutian
chain and it’s only one mile long
two-mile circumference
I had airline pilots who are at higher
altitudes radioing down to me asking me
for my parents name and phone number
I told me to turn back there’s no way
you’re gonna make it on the other side
of the ice storm ahead when I landed and
shot me at Alaska I only had 12 minutes
of fuel left in my airplane so after
flying around the world which took 97
days approximately a hundred and forty
five flight hours almost 30,000 miles I
had over 300,000 students that were just
following me and blogging with me keep
in mind this was the same kid who left
with only 30 dollars in his pocket and
when I realized that I said to myself I
have something special here which is the
attention of young people so what I did
was I said to myself oh I’m going to
work more with in my foundation
experienced aviation I turned down
numerous job offers to fly for airlines
and celebrities and I said this is what
I want to do and one of the first
projects we tested was called building
soar where we challenged 60 students
from failing schools in Miami to build
an aircraft from scratch riveting the
wings putting the engine together
figuring how to set up the fuel system
in the aircraft the avionics even
building the very same seats at Saturn
and not only did they build it but I
told them if they built it I would fly
it and I’m very blessed to speak to you
all today because it worked out some of
the funniest things are done in this
picture you can’t tell who’s a
straight-a student or who’s a student
that just got out of the juvenile
justice system I was involved in
building the aircraft in addition to
that we have students that have gone on
to do many things for example there’s a
student in that picture that didn’t know
how to turn on a vacuum to clean up
after a class now he’s diffusing bombs
for the military in addition to that I
have another student who couldn’t point
out a sixteenth of an inch on a ruler
and now she’s on a full scholarship as a
math major at Duke University in
addition to that avid student in this
picture whose family wouldn’t allow a
woman to fly an airplane now she’s
studying to be a dentist at Florida
State University
Aviation and various forms of
exploration certainly has the power to
change the trajectory of where students
will end up later on in their life into
something magical that I realized and I
said to myself how do I do more how do I
take this from a small scale impact and
transform it on a national scale do you
know right now in math and science we’re
ranked 17th and 24th in the world in
math and science yet still we have all
the technology we need in order for
those numbers to improve drastically so
I decided and wanting to do something
different and have a mass impact I said
what if I transform a small light jet
into a flying classroom that will allow
me to teach from the air do satellite
technology broadcast to handheld devices
laptops and communicate with students as
I’m flying all around the world
collecting data and information meeting
with explorers in different locations
and providing students the opportunity
to explore discover and shape the world
that they live in when that moment
occurred for me I said to myself this is
what needs to be done so Hawker
Beechcraft stepped up to the plate and
providing us a five million dollar
aircraft that seats nine people what
they’ll allow me to collect atmospheric
data and I’m working with the University
of Miami on those measurement tools in
addition to that transport Explorer it’s
with me broadcast from 45,000 feet
provide video streaming and classroom
calls from the air while I’m traveling
to different destinations around the
world and one of the cool features about
this is that kids will have the
opportunity to vote on what I do not
only in the air but on the ground with
other explorers
prior to takeoff what does the
experience look like we want students to
learn about these countries learn about
geography learn about where things are
in the world and how does it affect my
physical location of where I’m at vote
on the expedition’s within the
adventures help me collect data around
the world and in addition to that learn
about places that these kids have never
seen when I’m 8 when I flew around the
world in 2007 the only place I’ve been
outside of the United States was Jamaica
I didn’t know a world existed we want to
change that perspective for students so
now during the flight students are going
to be able to do a number of things to
support me help me fly and land the
aircraft safely by helping with the
calculations runways runway conditions
weather obstacles you have to deal with
calculating fuel requirements aircraft
speeds monitor my alert levels and in it
listen to that help me to translate the
atmospheric data that we’re collecting
as well in flight now upon landing in a
specific region of the world as we
travel to all seven continents we plan
to explore of course earth land and sea
and that’s going to be made possible by
partnering with so many different
explorers around the world in different
fields because we want to ignite the
minds of students to become attracted to
these various career fields that are
available to them after the expedition
well prepare games quizzes use of data
collection again encourage them to
explore the world with different
hands-on activities and create also
teacher professional development
activities for the students as well now
to fly around the world again in a jet I
know some of you guys are thinking well
he’s flying a jet should be a little bit
easier that brings its own challenges
it’s a light jet I’m travelling to all
seven continents as you can see here and
I have a number of different obstacles
to deal with for example I’ll be heading
westbound so
take off from DC come down to Miami take
my talents to South Beach and then from
there work my way work work my way on up
through the Midwest and prepared across
the North Pacific against the wind
beginning in October students will be
helping me fly from Anchorage to
Petropavlovsk into northern Japan based
on all the wind conditions and this is
something that you really have to time
correctly
in order to get into northern Japan from
there there’s numerous obstacles to deal
with flying four and a half hours
sometimes back-to-back at a time in
addition to that of course dealing with
this area and as it relates to
sandstorms monsoon season avoiding all
these different storms although I’ll be
out 45,000 feet especially when you get
in this region here you have storms that
are shooting up into the upper
atmosphere at sixty seventy thousand
feet in addition to that I’ll also have
challenges are flying down into
Antarctica the Shetland Islands that is
definitely one of timing where I’d have
to reach Antarctica by January in order
to to meet the time window the
three-week time window that I’ll have
now the crew that will be with me as
I’ll have an extra pilot on board and in
addition to that I’ll be able to bring
explorers with me on certain legs but I
have quite a few challenges even flying
into Cusco Peru the aircraft is only
certified to take off and land from
10,000 feet in the air
elevation in Cusco Peru is at a little
bit over 12,000 feet so now the aircraft
manufacturer is modifying the aircraft
as best as they can in order for me to
fly not just land but also takeoff from
Cusco Peru it’s gonna be interested in
their wiring everything so that when I
take off out of Cusco all the awesome
oxygen mask doesn’t fall out and then
freak everyone out we all have an
opportunity to impact students like me
that were clueless unaware and just
uninformed of the opportunities that
exists not only in science technology
engineering and math
but within other fields whether you’re
talking about conservation history
environment geography these are the
career fields that are so powerful and
contains the lives of young people in
such a dynamic way and one of the things
I strive for every single day I wake up
in the morning is to create that and
package it in a way where kids are
turned on to these career fields where
they say like like I stole my mentor I
believe I can do this we all have a
story to share with our young people in
order to address the significant problem
we have with the lack of scientists
thank you guys for having me here
you
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