Flyzolo Team - Day 150
Zara is on her way to #Senica, #Slovakia, Sharky’s 🦈 ✈️ home, to meet with her other most important #sponsor, Vladimír Pekár from Shark.aero. Vlado is the single other most important person that allowed Zara to fulfil her dream 💪 🙏.

So what is the story here? Why would someone decide to support a teenage girl 👩 claiming she wants to fly around the #world 🌎 on her own, and, just lend her… an ✈ #aircraft on the off-chance she might just achieve what she says she is going to achieve? 👮‍♀️

The answer again is: Dreams & Values… 🌟✨

Vlado believes in excellence, hard work, #courage, reliability, team work and fulfilling your #dreams,... Thanks to his personal story, the fact he was so passionate about #aviation and believed in Zara’s #dream, he, just like Dimitar, allowed for an amazing story to be told. One of grit, courage, #resilience and passion.

This is what Vlado posted on his FB page in early January this year:

« This December it was 35 years from Voyager non-stop flight around the world.
I was 21, started studying aircraft design in Czech technical university in Prague, flying Blaniks and Zlins in aeroclub. Burt Rutan, his designs, high performing canards possible to build at home, in garage, was for me one of the biggest inspirations. Even Voyager was build from hot-wire cutted blue foam, wrapped with carbon fabric and epoxy. This shows me, that if you have courage, you can beat even giants as Boeing, Airbus, Tupolev and Ilyushin that time.

Czechoslovakia was part of east-block, behind steel curtain. When building models, we was dreaming about carbon fiber - which was embargoed. I was searching and stealing any available information about composites.

In 1989 “Velvet revolution” in Czechoslovakia opened doors even for most crazy dreams. Czech Flying amateur association was established, anybody can legally design and build his own aircraft and fly it. And hundreds of people who was dreaming about it whole life - now they did it. Based on rich history of aircraft designing and building in Czech, corresponding know-how, mixed with great skills and flexibility of people, new very liberal rules with minimum barriers - brought incredible progress in designing and building ultralights. They today easy outperform typical GA aircrafts, fly faster, with lower fuel consumption, they are more comfortable, safer - alltogether -and most important - they fly much cheaper, so they are much more affordable.
Czechia and Slovakia was some years producing about 50% of world amount of light aircrafts, in ultralight and LSA category. Countries with population 10+5 million. Incredible.

Shark design started 15 years ago. Jaro Dostal as chief designer with his design competency, experience and skills, and me experienced in composites and production of parts for light aircrafts - plus team of engineers and thanks to community of plenty of small competent suppliers - started to work to design, develop and produce the best UL aircraft, with at that time available materials and technologies. Defined design targets for this new aircraft was - it must respect strict UL limits, must be fast, comfortable, safe, efficient, sexy. It must be pilot dream.

Shark is for me Czechoslovak aircraft. We are producing it in Slovakia, it was engineered in Czech, Moravia.

Shark holds world speed records, 100+ aircrafts is flying around the world.
Today Zara landed in Dubai. Within some days we wait her in Senica. For me, as small aircraft producer - what can be bigger than fly it around the world?
One of the most important inspirations for me, and it means as well for Shark, was Burt Rutan, and Voyager. He just show -Yes, you CAN do it! And the rest is just up to you. Up to your dreams, and your sweat. »

Vlado and his team remained, without fail, on call 24/7 during Zara’s epic #journey - as opposite time-zones don’t care about your sleep. He and his engineers were only a phone call ☎️ away. A big chunk of them were probably, till only a few days ago, in a permanent jet-lag.

Sharky 🦈 ✈️ has been AMAZING. We and probably the whole wide world fell in love with this stunning #Czech & #Slovakian feat of giant #engineering in a tiny package. What a rocketship 🚀!

Thank you Shark.aero. Thanks to you Zara was literally able to spread her #wings and inspire #girls 👧 and #women 👩 around the world thanks to your #support! You were instrumental in her success. 🙏