Fossett about to land!

[MEBuckner]

More of an anti-cite:

Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager embody the very spirit and character of the word “pioneers.” In December 1986, they became the first people to circumnavigate the world, nonstop, without refueling their plane, the Voyager.

[Ponder_Stibbons]

MEBucker is quite correct. The problem is that many news sources are leaving off important qualifiers when reporting on the record Fosset broke today. This flight was:

1. The first solo nonstop, non-refueling circumnavigation of the world flight, and
2. The first jet nonstop, non-refueling circumnavigation of the world flight. Voyager was a prop-plane.

[VunderBob]

@Ponder Stibbons

MEBucker is quite correct. The problem is that many news sources are leaving off important qualifiers when reporting on the record Fosset broke today. This flight was:

1. The first solo nonstop, non-refueling circumnavigation of the world flight, and
2. The first jet nonstop, non-refueling circumnavigation of the world flight. Voyager was a prop-plane.

I realize that. Philster, however was full of it when he claimed Rutan and Yeager refueled.

[Rick]

my point exactly.

[Sauron]

@Musicat

I don’t have CNN, damn. Did they show it live? None of the major networks carried it all all.

CNN and somebody else (Fox, maybe) carried it live. I was working out at lunch and got to see him land.

The official web site says he landed at 19:52 UTC. That would make him about 35 minutes later than expected. Did he run out of fuel and have to glide or did he stunt for the audience? Or use a parachute?

I believe he deployed both chutes. I don’t know about the fuel situation (didn’t have the volume up on the TVs at the gym). It was rather neat, though, to see him make his approach. The video was shot from an airplane flying above him, and you could see miles of cars pulled off to the side of the roads to watch him fly by and land.

[Musicat]

I can hardly wait for the National Geographic Special. Almost like being there.

[Musicat]

100 years since Kittyhawk. Let’s compare:

1903: 3.5 seconds in the air, first heavier-than air manned flight, nonstop, one pilot, crash-landed

2005: 3 days, nonstop, one pilot, landed safely using parachutes

[Musicat]

@Musicat

The Times & The Sunday Times
The record for first non-stop round-the-world flight would not be ratified by the FAI but could be recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records.

Why not? What does the FAI want?

According to ABC News,

While Fossett is the first to make the flight alone, it will not enter the record books since the Paris-based Federation Aeronautique Internationale has said it does not have a separate category for solo pilots.

[Chefguy]

Wow, I can see the headlines tomorrow:

“Filthy rich man with too much time on his hands pisses away a shitload of cash in order to accomplish something pointless.”

I just can’t get too excited about this character.

[Duke_of_Rat]

Nah, he was sponsored by another flilty rich guy.

But I suppose if a homeless man could have scraped up the cash to build the plane and accomplish this pointless goal, well, he probably wouldn’t be homeless.

And as long as we’re pitting pointless goals, how about all the filthy rich people who pony up $30K each year to climb Everest?? I mean, that’s so '50’s.

And if some government had of put up the $$, then we’d have to gripe about them spending our tax dollars on pointless nonsense.

I say, if the guy has the $$ and the backing as well, who am I to say how he’s to spend it. Didn’t cost me a dime for him to do this.

[Musicat]

@Chefguy

Wow, I can see the headlines tomorrow:

“Filthy rich man with too much time on his hands pisses away a shitload of cash in order to accomplish something pointless.”

Didn’t they say that about Orville and Wilbur?

I just can’t get too excited about this character.

It’s not the person I’m excited about, but the accomplishment. Do you realize the 100 years of technological achievement that went into it? Isn’t that something to crow about?