Queensland teenager Lachie Smart has arrived in the USA after completing the long Hawaii to California leg of his solo around the world journey.
Smart landed at Hollister Airport in his Cirrus SR22 at 6.45 pm local time on Tuesday (11.45 am Wednesday AEST) after an epic 13-hour over-water flight from Hilo.
The exhausted Smart described the first two hours of his flight as difficult, before saying that the crossing went much better than he had anticipated.
“I tried to get to sleep early before this flight," he said, but it took a while and it was broken sleep the whole time. I wasn’t nervous about the flight itself, I just knew it was a significant day of this trip.
“The first two hours of the flight were very challenging. Once I was past the runway lights on take off, it was pitch black. I imagine it was a little bit like being in space. In those first couple of hours I was flying the aircraft manually due to the weight on board with extra fuel. The amount of concentration needed was very high and it was tiring.
“Once I pushed through that challenge the flight was great, really it was smooth sailing and for the last 90 minutes in the air I had a tailwind, which pushed me ahead of schedule.”
Smart will have two nights in Hollister before moving on to Las Vegas.
Follow Lachie Smart's journey on the Wings Around the World website.