Two Pilots Returned To Whistler Municipal Airport In Vancouver, Canada August 5

Ninety-seven days from their date of departure, pilots Ruben Dias of  Whistler, Vancouver Canada and his co-pilot Mischa Gelb landed their Robinson R66 helicopter back at Whistler Municipal Airport completing the world's fastest antipode circumnavigation in a helicopter.

The Vancouver Courier newspaper reports that the pair landed back at Whistler Municipal on August 5. The trip was dubbed the EPIC World Tour, for Empowering People Inspiring Change. In geography, the antipode of any spot on Earth is the point on Earth's surface diametrically opposite to it; the antipodes of a region similarly represent the area opposite it.

Dias told the paper that the trip also represented the longest distance trip around the world ever in a helicopter. He said that they are still calculating the exact distance, but he estimates that it will exceed 23,400 nautical miles. During the trip, they visited 42 countries.

Along the way, the pair faced multiple challenges, such as getting a permit to enter Pakistan. That was eventually secured through a conversation between a bellman at a hotel Dubai and a high-ranking Pakistani diplomat who was also staying at the hotel.

The purpose of the tour was to promote entrepreneurship and healthy lifestyles. Along the way, Dias and Gelb conducted a series of free, open-to-all conferences targeted at future entrepreneurs. "The helicopter was no random choice. Inside any helicopter cockpit one finds a precise fine-tuned environment with no room for mistakes and little tolerance for blurred focus. Pretty much the same environment you should be grooming inside your own business. Our conferences will show exactly how you can achieve that corporative state of mind," the team said on its website.

Dias' venture capital and plant-based food lounge companies sponsored the tour. "It’s important to understand from the get-go that there’s much more to be gained in a world filled with happy, accomplished, healthy people," Dias said on the website.

On their return to Whistler, Dias said the pair was glad to be home. "We were commenting, both of us, that we've travelled a lot—this trip, we did 42 countries—but the best place to live on Earth is Whistler," Dias said. "Specifically Whistler, but all of B.C. British Columbia is just the most beautiful place."

(Image from EPIC World Tour YouTube video)

FMI: Source report, www.epicworldtour.com