After crossing into Russia over the Bering Strait, she will fly over China, Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, before looping back to Europe. She said the only country that she intentionally avoided was North Korea.
The route is almost comically squiggly, in part, she said, because her two-seater plane is unable to fly long distances over oceans, but also because she likes the idea of a grand adventure.
“I could have shortened it, but I feel like that would have been quite boring,” she said.
Sponsors and airports are picking up the cost of the trip, and a company in Slovakia, Shark Aero, is providing her with the aircraft. She also has a support staff to arrange landing rights and other logistics, and her father has been advising her from the ground on technical specifics.
After her radio cut out during the journey to Greenland, for example, he asked in a text message if she was able to climb through holes in the clouds to an altitude where the visibility would be better.
Michael Fabry, a ferry pilot who lives in Belgium and happened to fly about 10,500 feet above Ms. Rutherford during part of her Iceland-to-Greenland leg, said that she would benefit enormously from having a support crew to help with logistics, particularly in Asia and the Middle East.