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The British adventurer, who twice launched failed transatlantic hot-air balloon trips from Pittsburgh, plans to use a plane leased from the Pittsburgh Flight Training Center in West Mifflin to take him from the Arctic Circle to South America.

On July 6, Hempleman-Adams, 47, with his Canadian copilot Lorne White, intends to start flying a single-engine Cessna 132 more than 11,500 miles from Cape Columbia in the Arctic Circle to Cape Horn in Chile.

"It's going to be quite an undertaking with some potentially scary sections," Hempleman-Adams said in a news release. "My hope is that it will inspire young people back to the classic spirit of adventure and prove to them that anything is possible."

Now if only he could get that insurance thing worked out.

Barney Spix, director of operations at the Pittsburgh Flight Training Center, said the flight school's insurance carrier has yet to notify them whether Hempleman-Adams will have coverage that allows him to fly through the various countries. As with car insurance, flying through foreign airspace requires insurance coverage in that country, Spix said.

"As far as I know, there are still a few issues that have to be resolved," Spix said.

Hempleman-Adams could not be reached for comment about the insurance issue. He became familiar with the flight school, based at the Allegheny County Airport, in the fall of 2002 while planning his first attempt to cross the Atlantic in a wicker-basket balloon. His first attempt, which started at the airport, failed. So did a second, launched from a Pleasant Hills baseball field. He finally succeeded in September after a launch from Canada.

Around June 25, he plans to be in Pittsburgh to pick up the plane, which he is leasing from a private owner who allows the flight school to use it for training. He will then fly it north to Cape Columbia, 500 miles shy of the North Pole, then fly south to the tip of South America, following the Eastern seaboard of the United States and going over Brazil and Argentina before reaching Cape Horn.

The Cape2Cape Challenge, as it is called, will take Hempleman-Adams to remote, undeveloped regions of the world and allow him the chance to break various aviation records. The plane, equipped with a long-range fuel tank, will make repair and refueling stops along the way. The goal is to make the trip in 14 days.

Smile, an Internet banking company, is sponsoring the flight.

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