Pioneers shed light on their preparations for the journey

Bertrand Piccard talks about the duo's preparations for the first round-the-world trip in a solar-powered plane, the Solar Impulse 2.

Q: Even though you will share flying duties, you will only be able to swap roles when you make a pit stop on dry land. There are so many challenges for a pilot flying for such a long time. How will you deal with the physical and mental challenges?

A: When you do something for the first time, there is no benchmark and nobody can give you the answers. We have to do it all ourselves, as a team, and prepare mentally and physically. We will do a 72-hour simulation to break our normal habits. For example, we will need to break up our normal eight hours of sleep at night into 10 periods throughout the day of 20 minutes each. Another thing: you can't focus on the final goal. Instead, you have to focus on the moment until you reach that goal.