ELLSWORTH – Lloyd Harmon and Bill Clark shared their 28,000-mile ’round-the-world journey in a tiny single-engine plane with dozens of friends and neighbors Saturday, jokingly attributing their success to the gooey homemade chocolate brownies that sustained them through 14-hour days in the cockpit.

The pair’s slide show at the Ellsworth Public Library was their first public presentation since their April 19 homecoming.

For six weeks in March and April, Harmon and Clark circled the globe to fulfill a lifelong dream, visiting 21 countries and winning second place for precision flying in an international air race along the way.

“I can stand here and tell you the world really is round,” Harmon said.

The retired army pilot and surgeon at local hospitals spent the past two years planning a trip around the world with neighbor Clark, an investment manager. When Harmon learned of the Great London to Sydney Air Race 2001, the opportunity was “just too wonderful to pass up,” he said.

So on April 3 the aviators departed from Trenton with great fanfare. But the celebration soon ended when the plane headed straight into an ice storm over the Atlantic, en route to St. John’s, Newfoundland, the most easterly point of North America.

“I was listening [on the radio] to the planes trying to land, and all the airlines turned around – I was getting a hint that maybe there was a problem,” Harmon said.

Finally, they diverted 100 miles northwest to Gander, Newfoundland.

“It was like magic,” Harmon said. “Within five minutes the ice fell off the wings.”

On the ground, he discovered a perfectly shaped ice cone extending four inches from the center of the propeller; “It looked like someone had put it on a lathe, or a potter’s wheel,” Harmon said.

When the weather cleared, they crossed the Atlantic in a 16-hour, 1,800-mile marathon flight to Scotland.

Midway across the sea, lulled by the peaceful sound of the engine on autopilot, the two suddenly were jolted by a disturbing silence. The engine had stopped when the fuel in one gaugeless tank ran out before Harmon anticipated.

“You’ve never seen anyone move so rapidly as Lloyd moved,” Clark said.

After arriving safely in Scotland and making a short hop to London, the aviators met up with 35 other teams preparing to compete in the air race.

At dawn, April 11, the race was on, with pilots flying the first leg down to Cannes, on the coast of France.

Harmon and Clark slowly adjusted to the grueling schedule: rise at 5:30 a.m.; reach the tarmac by 6 a.m.; fly nonstop without rest or food – except the brownies – until 6 or 7 in the evening; eat dinner with their fellow racers; then fall into bed so they could rise a few hours later and do it all over again.

“We began to love bottled water. It was what sustained us,” Harmon said. “We got to the point that we were like misers – we hoarded water.”

Saturday, the pair showed photographs of the azure-blue Mediterranean melting into a cloudless sky, the Greek isles rising out of the mist just below their plane’s wing.

Their first glimpses of Egypt were among the most striking, Harmon said.

“You’d be flying along over this featureless desert, and all of a sudden, there was a bright green strip there. It was the Nile,” he said.

During a rest day in Egypt, the men traveled with new friends to see the Sphinx and ancient tombs. Ironically, the centuries-old road to the pyramids was lined with reminders of home – including a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant, Clark said.

They flew on at a frantic pace – Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Oman, India, Myanmar, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia – exotic destinations passed under the plane’s wings in a blur of swelteringly hot runways and darkened cities.

Though time in each nation was brief, Clark and Harmon marveled at the cultural differences they encountered. In Ha’il, Saudi Arabia, a throng of people greeted the aviators – boys and girls and men excitedly inspecting the planes without a single adult woman among them.

In Egypt, police lined the roads to protect tourists from young men hidden in the hilltops, hoping to make a few American dollars by selling trinkets.

In Calcutta, the poverty was overwhelming, and dozens of aviators were sent to bed with “Delhi belly” from ingesting contaminated food or water, Clark said.

And in Bahrain, the pilots were forced to circle the Persian Gulf for more than an hour, waiting for the nation’s Emir to arrive in his private plane.

During a rest day in India, the two flew India Air from Delhi to Agra to view the Taj Mahal – it was the most dangerous part of the trip, Harmon said.

“When Lloyd lands the plane, it’s like a feather kissing the ground. When their jet lands, it’s like this, ‘whomp!'” Clark said, slamming his hands together in a demonstration.

Finally, on April Fool’s day, they landed in Darwin, Australia.

“Never were we so happy to get somewhere as Australia,” Clark said. “We could brush our teeth in tap water – I was never so happy to see a salad.”

The crew relaxed somewhat, exploring the Outback by air, and visiting Ayers Rock – a sacred site for Aboriginal people.

Then, 36 planes and helicopters flew in formation over Sydney Harbor to celebrate the race’s completion and Australia’s 100th anniversary. The spectacle was impressive, but dangerous, the men said.

A fellow racer came within 15 feet of colliding midair with the Maine plane, and one plane nearly landed atop another, Harmon said.

After accepting their trophy for achieving a second-place finish for precision flying – calculating distances and winds to predict the exact time each route would require – Clark and Harmon left their peers, and headed east.

First, to New Caledonia, then on to American Samoa – where the heat and percent humidity reached the 90s and just walking was a struggle Clark dubbed “the Samoan shuffle.”

They crossed the international dateline three times, flying into a brilliant sunrise over Christmas Island on Easter morning, then continuing on to Hawaii, and making another 13-hour flight across the sea to reach Los Angeles.

Again, the unexpected kept the men from dozing when the autopilot was accidentally jostled and turned off. The tiny plane tipped and began spiraling toward the Pacific.

“You’re sitting in this little cocoon, it’s totally black out there, and you’re listening to the comforting noise of the engine, and you start to hear the wind,” Harmon said. “Without the horizon, you don’t realize what’s wrong until you hear the sound of the plane starting to spiral.”

Harmon relied on his military past, and guided the plane back to its proper path with instruments. “It was a little hairy,” he said.

Family and friends were thrilled to have the pair arrive safely back in Ellsworth. They plan to stay grounded for a while, but haven’t ruled out another adventure, they said.

“It’s possible we’ll take to the air again,” Clark said.

London to Sydney Air Race 2001

Week 1: Wednesday, April 11, depart London. Fly 2,433 miles, stopping in Cannes, France; Corfu and Crete in the Greek Isles; and Cairo and Luxor, Egypt.

Week 2: Monday, April 17, depart Luxor. Fly 2,607 miles, stopping in Ha?il, Saudi Arabia; Bahrain; Dubai in the United Arab Emirates; Muscat, Oman; Karachi, Pakistan; and Delhi, India.

Week 3: Monday, April 23, depart Delhi. Fly 3,001 miles, stopping in Agra and Calcutta, India; Yagon, Myanmar; Phuket, Thailand; Singapore; and Jakarta, Indonesia.

Week 4: Monday, April 30, depart Jakarta. Fly 3,926 miles, stopping in Bali, Indonesia; and Darwin, Tennant Creek, Alice Springs, Birdsville, Long Reach, Rockhampton and Coolangatta, Australia.

Week 5: Monday, May 7. Depart Coolangatta for the 393-mile flight to Sydney, Australia.