A Long, Lonely Distance

Balloonist Richard Abruzzo landed on the Georgia coast Wednesday as the first person to fly solo across the continent in a helium balloon.

In the process, Abruzzo broke a world distance record for that type of balloon, the 39-year-old pilot said Thursday.

"It was such an amazing flight," Abruzzo said of his 73-hour, 20-minute trip, which covered 2,079 miles.

The Albuquerque man took off from the Pacific Coast just north of San Diego on Sunday. The balloon sailed over Mexico, Texas, Louisiana and Florida on its way eastward before landing within sight of the Atlantic Ocean near Waverly, Ga., he said.

A Wild High

"The most wild part of the flight was that for the first 40 or so hours, I was in Mexico," he said by phone from a Chicago airport during his return trip to Albuquerque.

Abruzzo said he deliberately flew much of the first one-third of the trip over Mexico to avoid restricted airspace in the Southwest, where the Army's neighboring White Sands Missile Range and Fort Bliss' McGregor Range are located.

"I was able to go below all the restricted airspace. That turned out to be very fortuitous," he said.

The flight surpassed the previous record of 2,001 miles, he said.

Like Father, Like Son

Abruzzo's father, Ben Abruzzo, was the first man to cross both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in a gas balloon in 1978 and 1982, respectively. Ben Abruzzo died here in 1985 in an airplane crash.

Last year, Richard Abruzzo flew 1,740 miles from Albuquerque to Delaware to win a helium balloon race with former Gov. Gary Johnson as a passenger. The race was an adjunct of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.

The distance record for an AA-6 gas balloon will become official after verification from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, the world governing body for air sports, he said.

FMI: www.fai.org