While I have sod all experience flying anything other than paper jets and my MS 2004 Flight Simulator, I have been following this flight with more than a passing interest. I am intrigued by the various comments posted re this record. Some points to think about.
Who issued the challenge ? Alex Henshaw issued the challenge. If you look on the Alex Henshaw Challenge web site, apart from modern avionics, both aircraft were very similar in performance. Yes Alex would have experienced a greater "effort" in actual flying havng no auto pilot and navigating via slide rule compass and stop watch - however, that was the norm in those days so it was obviously not a "show stopper" for him. Perhaps one could argue that Alex had age on his side to compensate.
I would agree that Chalkie's flight carried less risk in the case of a problem manifesting itself. That's because we live with today's technology. One could then argue that Alex's flight was less risky than Charles Lindbergh's cross Atlantic flight back in 1927 - The "Spirit of St Louis" was far less "advanced" than the Mew Gull. So using some arguements put forward on this post, Alex's record was "less impressive" than Charles Lindbergh's. And one could then compare Charles Lindbergh against the Wright Brothers against Joseph-Michel Montgolfier against Icarus and Daedalus - a "silly arguement" I would venture.
As far as I am concerned, It's a GREAT bit of flying and it took 70 years for someone to achieve a better time than Alex did back then. It refocused a huge amount of attention on both Chalkie as well as Alex Henshaw, as it should. In closing, commeth the hour, commeth the man !!!