By Angela Satterlee
When Alexandre Frota taxied onto the grounds of EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, he was making history. The Brazilian private pilot completed a solo flight around the world in his experimental Van’s RV-10, PT-ZRQ, making him the first Brazilian to circumnavigate the globe solo and the first documented person to complete a solo flight around the world in an RV-10.
He departed Brazil on March 15 and flew north. He arrived at Oshkosh April 20 to begin the around-the-world trip that he would finish at EAA AirVenture. His journey covered more than 50,000 nautical miles, over 300 flight hours, and 45 countries across five continents.
“I think this is the spirit of experimental aviation: to inspire people to fly further, to do new things and expand their limits!
“I’ve always loved aviation since I was a kid. I used to build my own wooden planes at 7 years old,” Alex said.
But becoming a pilot wasn’t easy. At 27, he began working toward his private pilot license before the cost of flight training forced him to quit. He worked long hours, put aviation aside, and thought the dream was over.
“I only came back to this dream of flying at 44 years old.”
After earning his certificate, adding an instrument rating, and building experience, Alex found himself asking a question that many pilots dream about: Could he fly around the world?
Originally, Alex planned to make the trip in 2028 to celebrate his 55th birthday. However, because of family obligations he wanted to be home for, he moved the timeline up and planned to complete it in 2026.
“October 19 of 2022, I went to my office and I wrote this email, and the subject of this email was ‘flying around the world 2028.’”
The email became his road map. Inside were route ideas, sponsorship plans, social media concepts, and pages of questions that needed answers before such an ambitious flight could become reality.
“I started to try to work on the route, and [it] took me almost two years and 1,500 emails to the five continents just to define the route.”
Before committing to the flight, Alex wanted to find out if he was even comfortable flying such long distances. He had never left Brazil before, so in 2024 he flew from Brazil to SUN ’n FUN as a trial run.
The response when he returned home surprised him. People couldn’t believe what he had done. Many had never heard of a Brazilian private pilot making a trip like that. Seeing the reaction from his community convinced him to take on the even bigger challenge and prove that a Brazilian pilot could successfully fly around the world.
Planning the flight became a full-time project. Alex had to improve his English, navigate insurance requirements for dozens of countries, and work through the difficult process of securing permits across multiple continents. The complications were almost enough to force him to give up.
By the time he embarked on his around-the-world trip at age 52, he had eight years of flying experience and about 600 flight hours.
“When I departed for this big journey, I had about 600 hours of flying time and this journey was 300 hours,” Alex explained. “So I flew in six months, half of the total time I flew during my entire career [as] a private pilot.”
Alex documented as much of the trip as possible on YouTube. Each roughly 30-minute episode covers about one week of the journey. Now he is working on a book and a documentary about the journey. Because he comes from a poor region in northeastern Brazil, he plans to provide both to schools and public libraries there free of charge.
“The main mission of this documentary is to impact the people of Brazil, that if I, a regular guy … can do it, everyone can do it.”
Alex said accomplishing a dream like this requires sacrifice, whether psychological, emotional, financial, or involving time away from family. But with careful planning, discipline, perseverance, and diligence, he believes it is possible for anyone to achieve.
“That’s what I’m trying to prove and I’m trying to share, especially [to] the youth of Brazil … And I think they are proud of me and that’s the mission.”
Alex explained that in the United States there are countless aviation companies, pilots, and success stories to inspire the next generation. In Brazil, he said that the aviation community isn’t nearly as visible. He hopes his accomplishment can become one of the stories that inspires future Brazilian aviators.
Although he has made it back to Oshkosh, Alex says the journey won’t truly be complete until he lands back in Brazil and is reunited with his family.
“From here, I’ll fly to the West Coast to the Pacific side and I’ll go down from Mexico, Central America, and all of South America … and then I’ll come back up to Brazil. At that point, I will be able to take my email from my desk and file it, five years later.”
Learn more about Alex’s journey:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frotas_pelo_mundo