From 2019: Coast-To-Coast Solo In A Pipistrel Sinus Motorglider

Riley Speidel is not like most 14-year-old girls. Instead of living on social media, talking about boys, fashion, and anything else many other 14-year-old girls do, Riley’s interests are navigation, aircraft performance, and fuel consumption.

Finishing the school year on June 7, most of Riley’s classmates would be thinking about summer vacation, summer jobs and chasing boys, but Riley is different!

Riley left school that day and just a few hours later, at around 1:30pm, she departed on an epic solo trip flying a Pipistrel Sinus touring motorglider across the continental US. A journey of some 3,300 miles, from Marina in California to the east coast town of Sanford in Maine. She flew the aircraft solo and she showed exceptional piloting skills, decision-making, and navigation ability that was the culmination of more than two years training, most of which was done in her father’s Pipistrel Sinus aircraft.

Aero-TV caught up with Riley at AirVenture this summer to talk with her about her adventure.

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