# Around the globe? I don't think so! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 3, 2002, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/around-the-globe-i-dont-think-so/117127 "2002-07-03T00:24:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Weeks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbce88/32.png) [@Weeks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weeks)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/around-the-globe-i-dont-think-so/117127/1 "2002-07-03T00:24:49Z")
Whats wrong with [this](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/020702/161/1sals.html) picture? Couldn’t Steve Fossett have just flown around the south pole with a radius of about a mile or two to win the prize? I mean, are there any rules involved? It just seems he was awfully close to the pole to me… 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Mike\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@Mike\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mike_H)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/around-the-globe-i-dont-think-so/117127/2 "2002-07-03T01:00:07Z")
Yes there are. From [here](http://www.spiritoffreedom.com/faq.html) : > [@](#): > > As established by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale - the International governing body of aeronautics - the rules say a pilot must set a course of waypoints within a band of the Earth that stays at least 30 degrees latitude south of the North Pole or 30 degrees north of the South Pole. The lines joining those waypoints (on a “great circle” projection) must stay outside those polar caps, although parts of the actual flight can drift inside them. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/around-the-globe-i-dont-think-so/117127/3 "2002-07-03T01:19:17Z")
The southern route is shorter, but it is the reduced levels of antii-aircraft fire that make it the most attractive to baloonists. ## Tris “What have you done to that cat? It looks half dead!” ~ Mrs. Erwin Schrodinger ~ ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/around-the-globe-i-dont-think-so/117127/4 "2002-07-03T02:45:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Weeks \* > \*\*Whats wrong with [this](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/020702/161/1sals.html) picture? > Couldn’t Steve Fossett have just flown around the south pole with a radius of about a mile or two to win the prize? > I mean, are there any rules involved? It just seems he was awfully close to the pole to me… > 😕 \*\* Theoretically yes, but he didn’t. According to _CNN Headline News_ the trip covered a total of about 20000 miles. That’s 80% of a trip around at the equator. And as others have pointed out, there are rules. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/around-the-globe-i-dont-think-so/117127/5 "2002-07-03T03:33:04Z")
Complaining that Fossett didn’t go the full circumference is like complaining that he swam the English Channel, but walked the last 50 feet. 😃 BTW, Fossett _did_ swim the EC. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/47e85d/32.png) [@Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Lance_Murdoch)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/around-the-globe-i-dont-think-so/117127/6 "2002-07-03T03:39:40Z")
Is it just me or is anyone else thinking WHO CARES? This balloon thing is such a non-story. Lindy’s flight was a milestone in bringing Europe and America closer together. This is important only to other egocentric tycoons who had hoped to be the first to accomplish the same feat. ---
**Author:** ![AtomicDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/around-the-globe-i-dont-think-so/117127/7 "2002-07-03T10:49:15Z")
For every field of human endeavor, there is going to be someone who just isn’t interested. So why should **I** care that **YOU** don’t? ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/around-the-globe-i-dont-think-so/117127/8 "2002-07-03T11:12:48Z")
It is kinda ironic though, that his earlier attempts failed, and now that he’s succeeded, _he can’t stop_! Last I head he was still looking for a suitable place to land… ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/around-the-globe-i-dont-think-so/117127/9 "2002-07-03T12:36:14Z")
> [@](#): > > Is it just me or is anyone else thinking WHO CARES?.. - rogerb - - - **Amen to that**. Fosset is from St Louis (which I am near) and the newspapers and television news have had extensive coverage and updates of all the attempts. Like, it’s going to cure cancer or end violence in the mideast or something…_B-F-D_ - DougC ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/around-the-globe-i-dont-think-so/117127/10 "2002-07-03T12:38:12Z")
I love his next project, though. He wants to take a glider into the stratosphere. And you know, he better find a place to land soon. If he keeps going, he’ll pass Australia and will either have to land on an itsy bitsy island or wait till he hit North or South America… ---
**Author:** ![ski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@ski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ski)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/around-the-globe-i-dont-think-so/117127/11 "2002-07-03T12:43:51Z")
Nah, I don’t think he actually “circumnavigated” the globe. Yes, he may have followed the “rules”, but I say the rules are set up wrong. You want to “circumnavigate” the globe, I say you have to cross the equator at least once. Preferably twice so you end up close to where you started. Or how about this - your journey has to be at least 25,000 miles (or whatever the exact circumference of the earth is at the equator), and must cross the equator twice - now there would be a real set of rules. ---
**Author:** ![GregAtlanta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/eb9ed0/32.png) [@GregAtlanta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GregAtlanta)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/around-the-globe-i-dont-think-so/117127/12 "2002-07-03T17:34:14Z")
This achievement leaves me weeping with joy as I watch humankind take another great leap forward, shaking off the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God… Or not. All the pumped up news coverage brings out the sarcasm in me. I agree that, even if the rules are lax enough to allow it, skirting around the bottom of the globe isn’t really what people have in mind when they think of an adventurer “circling the globe in a balloon.” I thought the whole thing was silly every other time people attempted it, and now that I see how Fosse did it, I’m even less impressed. Even if he had boldly stuck right to the equator, I’d still see the stunt as entirely superfluous. It’s not like the world has been waiting with bated breath for some brave soul to take his balloon around the world and prove the viability of the global balloon trade routes. It just seems meaningless and self-indulgent, not the significant achievement that the media want to portray. Maybe for his next stunt he and his expert support team will build the world’s biggest ball of tin foil. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/around-the-globe-i-dont-think-so/117127/13 "2002-07-03T17:45:36Z")
They should have displayed the route on a Mercator projection. Would have looked much more impressive. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/around-the-globe-i-dont-think-so/117127/14 "2002-07-03T18:16:00Z")
Well, it couldn’t have been **too** easy… wasn’t this his sixth try? ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/around-the-globe-i-dont-think-so/117127/15 "2002-07-03T18:30:40Z")
In his previous tries, was he closer to the equator? I have a vague recollection about not getting overflight permission for Libya (or some other hostile state) and that’s what stopped a previous attempt. So maybe he tried it a few times the koser way, then took advantage of the rules because he kept failing. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/around-the-globe-i-dont-think-so/117127/16 "2002-07-03T20:04:38Z")
> [@](#): > > You want to “circumnavigate” the globe, I say you have to cross the equator at least once. Preferably twice so you end up close to where you started. The simplest way would be to require that two points on the route be exactly antipodal. This guarantees that the length is at least one circumference and crosses the equator twice, and also rules out some other things which would fit your rules but not really be a “circumnavigation”. For instance, I could start just above the equator, go straight south, loop around the pole, and come back north to my starting point, then wander about aimlessly near my starting point until I had finished my miles. Two equator crossings, all longitudes, and a full distance, but obviously not a circumnavigation. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/around-the-globe-i-dont-think-so/117127/17 "2002-07-03T20:15:03Z")
\>\> They should have displayed the route on a Mercator projection Here ya go: [http://www.cnn.com/interactive/us/0207/fossett.path/frameset.exclude.html](http://www.cnn.com/interactive/us/0207/fossett.path/frameset.exclude.html) ---
**Author:** ![MelCthefirst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@MelCthefirst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MelCthefirst)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/around-the-globe-i-dont-think-so/117127/18 "2002-07-03T20:52:16Z")
“And you know, he better find a place to land soon. If he keeps going, he’ll pass Australia and will either have to land on an itsy bitsy island or wait till he hit North or South America…” dantheman - I take that comment as an insult; New Zealand is not an “itsy bitsy island”. It may be small in comparison to the US but it is only marginally smaller than England and about the same size as Japan - neither of these islands would be refered to as “isty bitsy”. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/around-the-globe-i-dont-think-so/117127/19 "2002-07-03T21:06:43Z")
Well, it looks itsy bitsy from where I stand. Why don’t you move a bit closer so I can see you better? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Weeks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbce88/32.png) [@Weeks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weeks)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/around-the-globe-i-dont-think-so/117127/20 "2002-07-03T23:14:26Z")
> [@](#): > > They should have displayed the route on a Mercator projection Nah! It actually makes his lame trip around the pole look glorious that way. At least keep between the tropic of cancer and the tropic of capricorn! I think for his next adventure he should fly solo, in a single engine plane, along the same route as Lindburg! I mean, what a feat! ( what? huh, no way! NO, say it aint so! last month? Uh…) Never mind!