With limited flying experience, no support team and only basic instruments in his tiny flying boat, the Southern Sun, Smith risked his life to make modern aviation history. His adventures include an unexpected greeting by Special Branch on his arrival in the UK, a near-death experience while leaving Greenland, and a wondrous journey up the Mississippi. In just seven months he made eighty stops around the globe, exploring twenty-five cities and communities, and visiting some seventy cinemas. All along the way Smith updated his online journal, cheered on by 50,000 followers.

In 2016 he was named Australian Geographic's Adventurer of the Year.