Houston ? Two stops before completing a journey that would make him the youngest person to fly solo around the Earth, Barrington Irving glided into Houston on Saturday with a message for the roughly 50 students who cheered his arrival.

“I think this shows it doesn’t matter where you come from, what you have or what you don’t have,” Irving said after climbing out of his single-engine Columbia 400.

The 23-year-old aerospace student, who built his plane from more than $300,000 in donated parts, took off from Florida on March 23 in his bid to become the youngest person and first black pilot to fly solo around the globe.

After one more stop, in Alabama, Irving plans to return to Opa-locka Executive Airport outside Miami on Wednesday to complete his journey.