GAZETTE & HERALD: Explorer David Hempleman-Adams is preparing to fly half way around the world in a tiny aircraft in an attempt to break several world records and to get back to the romance of adventure.

He will be flying a single-engine Cessna 182 from Cape Columbia in the Arctic Circle to Cape Horn in Chile, a distance of 11,060 miles.

His Canadian co-pilot Lorne White will be travelling alongside him over some of the most uninhabited regions in the world.

The two pilots hope to complete the expedition in 14 days.

Mr Hempleman, a father-of-three from Box, will be attempting a number of speed-over-distance aviation world records. He also wants to get back to basics in his latest challenge.

"I wanted to get back to making it simple. We will be sleeping in a tent under the wing. I will be wearing the same pair of underwear for the whole flight," he said.

"Throughout my career I've strived to get back to the romance of adventure. I am aiming to return to the basics and to recapture the essence of Jules Verne, and get away from the big-money, huge team expeditions.

"I originally thought of doing this journey by balloon but it's not practical so I decided to do it in a small basic single-engine plane."

The aircraft has been stripped down to fit a second fuel tank and all the supplies will be kept on the ground at each of the designated landing sites.

The pilots will travel with just a change of clothing, a tent and life raft. Food supplies will be waiting at each landing point.

"We have had to fly fuel out to some of the more remote locations. We are flying over some extremely remote area where there are no deviation airports. We will be landing on gravel rather than proper runways," said Mr Hempleman-Adams.

The small aircraft will be pushed to its limits, enduring temperatures ranging from minus 30 degrees in the Arctic, where 24-hour summer sunlight will prevail, to high equatorial temperatures over the Amazon rainforest to winter conditions in Patagonia and southern Chile.

"I am most worried about flying across the Amazon. It is a couple of thousand miles of nothing. If anything were to go wrong we would be in trouble," he said.

But Mr Hempleman-Adams said it was not until after his challenges that he usually got scared. "At the time I get on with it. But afterwards I always think why did I do that?"

The entire flight will be totally reliant on the prevailing weather conditions. This will be closely monitored by the smile cape2cape challenge control centre in Stockport, which will be in constant communication with the aircraft. Smile, the Internet banking company, will be sponsoring the challenge.

Mr Hempleman-Adams will pick up the plane in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on June 26. He will fly to Resolute on Cornwallis Island and from there head to the remote outpost of Eureka in the Canadian Arctic.

He and his co-pilot hope to set off from the northernmost point of the Arctic Cape Columbia, less than five hundred miles from the North Pole, on July 6.

They will fly over Canada and the USA, south to Brazil and Argentina before reaching the final destination of Cape Horn in Chile.