I can only conclude that those ignorant few who would try and marginalise Chalkie's achievement have no concept of record breaking and obviously no relevant aviation experience that puts them in a position to pass comment. Flying a twitchy homebuilt light aircraft through the ITCZ at night with only a wing leveller to assist, with no weather radar or stormscope, and that while fatigued from days of flying is a feat in itself.
As someone mentioned earlier, breaking the record has taken nothing away from Alex Henshaw's original achievement - in fact it has heightened his profile and I am sure will inspire many pilots to go and read his brilliant books "Flight of the Mew Gull" and "Sigh For a Merlin". I myself am in awe of Henshaw flying his tricky little Mew Gull the length of Europe and Africa, a good portion at night, navigating only by map and compass. It is the nature of record breaking to use the latest equipment available - what would the point be otherwise - we would still be trying to break world landspeed records using horse driven carriages if this were not the case!