Pair circumnavigate the globe in helicopter

WASHINGTON — Before setting out to fly 24,000 miles, over about 20 countries, at a pace to challenge the speed record for circumnavigating the globe in a helicopter, it's best to inform your credit-card company.

That was the lesson two Washington-area pilots learned when a fraud alert was put on their account after they bought fuel in five countries in the first two days of their journey. An assistant in the United States cleared up the matter, and the two completed the trip, landing at LaGuardia Airport in New York on Monday, 11 days, 7 hours, 2 minutes after taking off.

Although trip details must be confirmed, the two men are widely believed to have set a record.

"It's a remarkable achievement for these two pilots and for helicopter pilots around the world," said Jonathan Gaffney, president of the National Aeronautic Association (NAA), which certifies and compiles U.S. aviation records.

He said such feats are more common in airplanes, which generally fly at higher altitudes and can go farther without refueling.

"But flying around the world in a helicopter is a totally different animal," he said.

The trip was the brainchild of Scott Kasprowicz, of Middleburg, Va., a former telecommunications executive who footed the bill. Kasprowicz bought the AgustaWestland Grand copter a year ago in Italy and flew it home with his co-pilot, Steve Sheik, a corporate pilot and a former flying instructor for the Maryland State Police.

In February, the two flew to New York from Los Angeles, Kasprowicz said. That got him interested in flying around the world.

"And if you're going to do it, why not try to break the record?" he said.

The team believes the trip broke speed records on the New York-to-London leg and for the entire trip.

Trip details must be confirmed before the honor is bestowed, but Kasprowicz said he and Sheik beat the previous record of 17 days, 6 hours, 14 minutes, set in 1996.

Although pilots like to brag about elapsed time, the record is stated in terms of average speed for the trip. Kasprowicz and Sheik had an average speed of about 85 mph, according to figures submitted to the NAA. The previous record was about 57 mph.

Kasprowicz estimated the trip cost him "several hundreds of thousands of dollars."

He guessed that he and Sheik had slept an average of two hours a night and said they ate only four meals on the ground. The other meals, some no more than granola or trail mix, were consumed in the air.

A 24-hour ground crew in Peachtree, Ga., tracked their progress and spent hours on the phone with the credit-card company, among other things.

Kasprowicz said the most remarkable part of the trip was the "condensed and compressed view of the world" he and Sheik got from touching down in so many landscapes and cultures.

But he does not see another trip on the horizon.

"I'm not sure there is a trip I can identify right now that would be in the same league as this," he said.