Steve Fossett Missing

[Capflyer]

Just seeing this:

RENO, Nev. (AP) - A small plane carrying aviation adventurer Steve Fossett has been missing since Monday night, federal officials said Tuesday.

Fossett took off in the single engine Bellanca at 8:45 a.m. Monday at a private airstrip on a ranch south of Smith Valley in western Nevada and didn't return as scheduled. A friend reported him missing, said Ian Gregor, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman in Maryland.

"The Civil Air Patrol is looking for him. One problem is he doesn't appear to have filed a flight plan," Gregor told The Associated Press.

The search was being coordinated by the Air Force's Rescue Coordination Center in Langley, Va., Gregor said.

"They are working on some leads, but they don't know where he is right now," Gregor said.

In 2002, Fossett became the first person to fly around the world alone in a balloon. In two weeks, his balloon flew 19,428.6 miles around the Southern Hemisphere. The record came after five previous attempts?some of them spectacular and frightening failures.

Three years later, in March 2005, he became the first person to fly a plane solo around the world without refueling.

He and a co-pilot also claim to have set a world glider altitude record of 50,671 feet during a flight in August over the Andes Mountains.

Fossett, 63, of Beaver Creek, Colo., was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in July. He told a crowd gathered at the Dayton Convention Center in Ohio that he will continue flying.

"I'm hoping you didn't give me this award because you think my career is complete, because I'm not done," Fossett said.

Fossett said he plans to go to Argentina in November in an effort to break a glider record.

[az_gila]

The Hilton Ranch that he left from is not on any of the aviation charts, but it?s position is well known.

Google earth to:-

38 d 36 m 40 s N
119 d 00 m 00 s W

...to check out the nice corporate jet size airstrip - you don?t think Baron H. actually drives there, do you...

Zoom out to see how empty that part of NV is, and full of rocks. If his ELT didn?t work correctly, they could be looking for weeks.

The articles don?t say if he was heading somewhere, or just going up for a local aerobatic trip... not very good details at this time.

...hoping for the best... he has done a lot for both gliding and general aviation.

gil A

One more reason to buy that 406/GPS PLB....

[n5lp]

One of the stories I saw said he was scouting for a location for a land speed record attempt.

[RV10Rob]

Originally Posted by az_gila

Google earth to:-

38 d 36 m 40 s N
119 d 00 m 00 s W

To do that, search in this format: +38 36' 40", -119 00' 00"

Direct link: here

[gmcjetpilot]

Wounder why he was looking for a place to run a land speed attempt. Ain't the Bonneville Salt Flats the premier place to go fast on wheels, especially for setting records?

Wounder if he had a 406 Mhz ELT?

I would not be surprised if fellow millionaire (billionaire?) Richard Branson of Virgin gets involved in the search (he was on the news). They're buddies and been involved in record setting together for a long time, mostly in ballooning.

Their last collaboration was the plane used for the solo, un-refuled, around the world record flight, the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer.

[John Clark]

Originally Posted by gmcjetpilot

Wounder why he was looking for a place to run a land speed attempt. Ain't the Bonneville Salt Flats the premier place to go fast on wheels, especially for setting records?

Because the Bonneville Salt Flats have become too "small" for the ultimate speeds. The current record holder used a desert dry lake near Gerlach, Nevada to go supersonic on the ground. Here is an article:

http://www.cnn.com/TECH/9710/15/brits.land.speed/

John Clark
RV8 N18U "Sunshine"
KSBA

[Mike S]

John has it correct, I was at Bonneville this year, the track was so wet they didnt even have the long track layed out, and even if they did, the "long" track is too short for the jet powered vehicles.

[az_gila]

Originally Posted by Mike S

John has it correct, I was at Bonneville this year, the track was so wet they didnt even have the long track layed out, and even if they did, the "long" track is too short for the jet powered vehicles.

Yes... but the Gerlach dry lake is over 20 miles long.

How many miles are need for a supersonic drag strip? 10? 20?

There just aren't that many dry lakes that large in that corner of NV. They can all be seen with Google earth....

I wonder if he had a specific one in mind? Had to be within 2 hours of Citabria flight time from Hilton's ranch....

....still hoping for the best.... gil A

[frankh]

Its stating the obvious but once again proves ELT's just arn't reliable (of course we don't know if he had a 406 unit as George mentioned).

For right now it seems the engine going away should prompt the activation of the PLB as the first step.. In fact my Wife is briefed to do just that...and hold the thing up to the sky to try to get a GPS lock into the unit.

For solo XC flights I loop the cord of the plb thru the seat belt and leave on the PX seat.The idea is that the PLB may get thrown around but it will still probably work and hopefully if I have a few minutes of glide it may have transmitted my postion.

Like everyone I'm sure I really hope teve is found soon.

Frank

[Ron Lee]

If needed within minutes SAR folks will know that I (by name) am in distress and exactly where I am. No need to search hundreds of square miles.