A Wyoming pilot who was the youngest person to fly solo around the world when he did it in 2014 — and owns his own fighter jet — can add another skill to his resume: co-starring in a zany comedy series about an ill-conceived global misadventure.
The Disney+ series “The Worst Flight Around The World” stars Matt Guthmiller of Alpine and Mexican comedian Juanpa Zurita premiered Nov. 7.
It’s marketed primarily through the Disney+ Latin American division and is in Spanish with English subtitles available.
Guthmiller told Cowboy State Daily that the language barrier helps fuel the comedy in some segments because “I don’t speak any Spanish.”
What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
He said the show could be likened to the classic comedy “The Odd Couple,” which was about a pair of terribly mismatched roommates.
In this airborne scenario, Guthmiller plays the straight man, or the calmer, level-headed one, against Zurita’s goofy antics.
“We’re very different personalities. I’m relaxed, down to business. And he’s full of energy, bouncing off the walls,” Guthmiller said.
The basic premise is that Zurita recruits Guthmiller as his pilot, and then gets in over his head, according to the show’s description.
“Having no clue about what traveling around the world entails, Juanpa Zurita convinces Disney+ that he can do it with just a small, single-engine plane together with the legendary pilot who broke the record for being the youngest person to have ever made it: Matt Guthmiller,” the description states.
“Flying around the planet, traveling to eight destinations across four continents with eight guests who happen to be celebrities—so he can keep his promise to Disney—it was inevitable that this would end up being a complete disaster,” according to Disney+.
An Impressive Aviation Background
Guthmiller has an impressive background in aviation and technology.
He lives at the airfield in Alpine, where he keeps his own military jet trainer, an Eastern Bloc 1976 Aero L-39 Albatros decommissioned from the Estonian Air Force.
He had his first solo flight in 2011 in a two-seat 1975 Cessna 150, which fueled an already burning passion for flying. He started his flying lessons at age 16, got his private pilot’s license on his 17th birthday and has gone on to earn an airline transport certificate.
In 2014 at age 19, he became the youngest person ever to circumnavigate the globe solo in an aircraft. His 44-day, 30,000-mile odyssey took him to New York City, London, Greece, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Hawaii.
That record has since been broken, most recently last year by 17-year-old British-Belgian national Mack Rutherford.
Guthmiller was still in public school when he developed one of the first iPhone unlocking services in 2007 before selling it to another company.
And as a high school senior, he was a finalist for the 20 Under 20 Thiel Fellowship award before dropping out of the running to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned degrees in electrical engineering and computer science.
He’s currently working on a cutting-edge aviation route-planning app for pilots.
Call Comes In From Disney
Guthmiller has a popular aviation-themed YouTube channel.
He said the channel caught the eye of Disney+ producers, who first reached out to him in 2020 about doing a show.
It was initially supposed to be more of a serious “documentary” about circling the globe in small aircraft and visiting various spots along the way, he said.
Production was set back by Covid, and the development phase went on for a few more years.
Eventually, the premise morphed from a documentary to a comedy series, with Zurita attached as the co-star.
Guthmiller said he wasn’t certain “until almost the last minute” whether the show would go into production.
When he got the call, he realized he hadn’t had several vaccinations that he’d need to travel to various parts of the world with exotic diseases.
So he went to a clinic and got all of his shots at once.
Luckily, the only side effect he got was “my arm being sore for a few days,” he said.
Disney+ provided the aircraft, a single-engine prop-driven TBM 850.
It’s big enough for a “couple of extra passengers” and the film crew, he said.
But it’s still small enough to set the stage for “flying around the world in a small plane, with people who have never been in a small plane,” Guthmiller said.
Not Sure What To Expect
Filming took place over about six months last year. There were breaks in production during which he and other cast and crew members would “airline back home,” he said.
Guthmiller said he wasn’t sure what to expect going in but said that he quickly became comfortable working with his co-star and guests.
Most of the material was genuine and as it happened, with him and Zurita just naturally playing off one another, he said.
He said his comedic chops came naturally.
“I like to think I’m kind of funny. But If you had told me five years ago that I was going to be making a comedy for Disney+, I’d have laughed at you,” he said.
There were some instances where “the camera guy didn’t quite get something, so now you’ve got to kind of act a bit to get it again,” he said.
The shooting schedule allowed Guthmiller the opportunity to set a new record-setting run from Japan to Alaska, for the class of aircraft he was piloting.
The average speed was 422.7 kilometers per hour (roughly 263 miles per hour).
There were also shorter flights, to specific destinations in some of the countries they visited, such as Vietnam.
That required knowing the differences in various nations’ flight regulations, Guthmiller said.
He’d Do It Again
Now that the show has wrapped up and is on the air, Guthmiller said he’s kept the lines of communication open with Disney+.
“I think it would be fun to do it again,” if the show producers decide to continue, he said.
He added that the show does have a twist to it but declined to give it away.
“I don’t want to spoil anything, but the show doesn’t end quite the way that you’d expect,” he said.
Contact Mark Heinz at mark@cowboystatedaily.com
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
