Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is apparently on the long list of high achievers who’s decided the next challenge will be getting a pilot certificate. According to Insider, the social media magnate has successfully obtained his student pilot certificate. We couldn’t verify the Facebook founder is on the FAA registry because it’s closed for maintenance all weekend. It’s not clear if he’s actively training or what his goal is for the effort. There is plenty of speculation, however, that it might be playing catch up with his newly designated archrival Elon Musk.
Earlier this month Zuckerberg launched Threads, a Twitter-like platform aiming to capitalize on Musk’s controversial decisions as the new boss at Twitter. But all other things being equal in terms of billionaire status there is one thing that Musk is that Zuckerberg isn’t and that’s a pilot. Musk is actually a pretty accomplished aviator and is typed in an L-39 and Citation CJ2 and also owned a Piper Meridian. But he’s apparently also able to self-certify and hasn’t flown for 15 years. “I have to work when I fly and have too many thoughts in my head to pay the necessary attention to the plane—I can be absentminded at times, which is a really bad habit for a pilot,” Insider quoted Musk as saying in a 2008 Washington Post interview.
