7 to 18 August 2008
Eleven days
The crew posted almost every day they were flying. Their site is long gone, but the Internet Archive captured the front page on nine of the twelve days. This is that record, in their words, in order.
7 to 18 August 2008
The crew posted almost every day they were flying. Their site is long gone, but the Internet Archive captured the front page on nine of the twelve days. This is that record, in their words, in order.
Grand Adventure live
"Good morning this is the crew of Helicopter November One Uniform Sierra, finally underway on our Grand Adventure." Departure from New York, eastbound. Every previous attempt on the record had flown west.
Fox 5 covers the departure
Elaine Reyes interviews Scott and Steve before they lift off. It is the last time either of them stands still for eleven days.
Greenland crossing completed
Departed Nuuk. From the command center the same day: "The guys are running on pure adrenalin."
Nuuk, Greenland · Oliver Schauf · CC BY 4.0Thanks to Simon at Scottish Control
A named controller gets a public thank you from the crew. Small thing, and a good indication of how much of this flight ran on people choosing to help.
New York to London record shattered
"Amazing news last night. We shattered the New York to London Speed Record." The old mark fell by about 35 hours. A second record taken inside the first, two days into the flight.
Departing Milan
"Scott and Steve have just arrived back at the Agusta Factory." The aircraft returns, briefly, to the building it was assembled in the year before, then leaves again.
Donna, reporting from the command center
"We had to explain to the Credit Card company how a card could be in so many countries on the one day." Fraud detection was, briefly, one of the obstacles to a world record.
11,000 ft, enroute through Austria over the Alps
"A beautiful sunny morning, we had a great departure... soon we will pick up our interpreter for our flight over Russia."
The Alps from the air · Kitty Terwolbeck · CC BY-SA 2.0Cleared into Russian airspace
"We picked up our Russian Translator and head into Russian airspace." Ahead: nine time zones, 19 fuel stops, four overnight stops, and a requirement that a Russian official be on board the aircraft at all times.
Stuck in Okhotsk
"The guys are stuck in Okhotsk, Russia after completing only 1 leg this whole blessed day. Needless to say they are eager to get going, however, they are grounded until tomorrow. There are many reasons for this, construction closing at one airport, no fuel at another, no clearance to takeoff from UHOO."
Okhotsk · Sizavl · CC BY-SA 3.0Departing Russia
"Plans to depart Russia are modified with the GACC flying fuel in from Alaska." Rather than lose more time waiting on Russian fuel, the ground team moved it across the Bering Sea themselves.
Progress
"Donna from the GACC reports on the furious planning and support behind N1US."
Russia, with Natalia
The command center's Russian coordinator reports on "an eventful journey through her homeland." Natalia Nizker, a Saratov native and an elementary school teacher in Georgia, handled the entire Russian ground operation.
Lightning fuel stop in Arizona
"Listen to a live fuel stop in Arizona. Captain Bob interviews the crew on their way on the home straight."
Sprint finish
"Harlan from the GACC explains why the Grand Adventure is zig zagging her way across the US on a sprint finish to smash the world record." The route home was not the shortest one. It was the one that satisfied the record.
New York
11 days, 7 hours. An average of 136.7 km/h for the whole circumnavigation, and almost six days off a record that had stood for twelve years.
The day that explains the record
Okhotsk is the useful data point. An entire day lost to airport construction, an empty fuel bowser, and a tower that would not release them, and the margin at the finish was still almost six days. Whatever this record measures, it had enough slack in it to absorb the total loss of one day in eleven and still win by that much.
There is nothing here for 12 or 14 August, and nothing between Okhotsk and the Russian departure. The Internet Archive captured the front page on most days but not all of them, and the podcast audio the crew recorded was never archived at all. Neither were the photos.
The forum, where the crew answered questions in near real time, is gone entirely. If any of that material still exists on a hard drive somewhere, it is the only copy.