Balloonist faces fire on final leg
Posted on 07/03/2002 12:17:24 PM PDT by MeekOneGOP
Balloonist faces fire on final leg
07/03/2002
BROKEN HILL, Australia - After an uneventful flight around the world, a loose burner hose fitting on Steve Fossett's Spirit of Freedom balloon started a fire Wednesday, forcing the American adventurer to climb out of his capsule in the middle of the Australian night to put it out.
"Even though the RTW ('round the world) is completed, I really nervous until I can get this balloon on the ground," Fossett wrote in an e-mail to his mission control staff in St. Louis.
AP Steve Fossett's balloon approaches the south Australian coast Wednesday. |
Gusty winds had made it too risky earlier Wednesday for Fossett to end his record-breaking balloon flight, forcing him to spend another night aloft, slowly drifting toward Australia's self-proclaimed remotest town.
Fossett said the fire started immediately after a hose fitting came loose about 12 p.m. EDT on Wednesday. He was able to put out the fire by shutting off a ball value joint, which is used to attach the hose to propane fuel tanks and the balloon's burner. It was not clear from Fossett's e-mail at what end of the hose the fire started.
"The priority is to shut off everything then figure out the cause," Fossett wrote.
The fire came after the balloon passed over a natural gas field, causing a "rock and roll ride" that forced Fossett to raise the balloon from 5,000 to 8,000 feet.
The shock of hearing about the fire -- the first emergency of Fossett's sixth attempt to circumnavigate the globe -- came with relief at mission control, since Fossett reported the fire in the same note in which he said it was out.
"When it happened, it was a big deal," said Joe Ritchie, Fossett's mission control director. "Even though the flight is over and you're flying low, you can still get killed."
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But after crossing the south Australian coast, Fossett was met by gusty winds, and his support crew decided to have him fly through the night in search of better weather.
"I think he's more than ready to get this over with," Ritchie said.
After earlier targeting a dawn landing near Birdsville, an outback settlement of about 100 people famous for its annual horse race meeting that draws thousands of people for a beer-fueled September weekend of revelry, Fossett's team was planning a landing near South Galway.
Late Wednesday, Fossett dropped altitude to 6,000 feet to slow his progress and was drifting at just 29 mph.
"Balloon landings are messy," Ritchie said. "Unless you have no wind, you're going to get dragged."
If there is wind, Fossett would like to land in trees -- but they are scarce in the parched Australian Outback. Landing in trees prevents the wind dragging the balloon.
When his cramped capsule touches the ground, Fossett will release a panel to let helium and hot air escape from the balloon -- if all goes well. If the balloon stays partially inflated, it can act as a sail and drag Fossett's closet-sized capsule for miles.
Fossett flew over the south Australian coast at 2:17 p.m. almost directly over Ceduna. Almost all of the coastal town's 3,500 people, notified by radio broadcast, came out to wave and shout as the balloon passed overhead, police officer Cheryl Nicholls said.
Breaking the record, Fossett spent nearly two weeks living on military-like rations, breathing from oxygen cylinders and using a bucket as a toilet.
"It's enormous relief and satisfaction, because I have put everything into this -- all of my efforts and my skill," Fossett said by satellite phone from his capsule.
British tycoon Richard Branson -- who also has tried and failed to do what Fossett did -- said his achievement was greater than that of Charles Lindbergh, the first man to fly solo across the Atlantic.
Besides a couple of turbulent patches, his flight was largely problem-free.
The voyage he began June 18 in western Australia took him exactly 13 days, 12 hours, 16 minutes and 13 seconds.
Fossett was able to sleep only about four hours a day during this trip, usually 45 minutes at a time. He had to climb outside the capsule, into freezing temperatures, to change fuel tanks or repair burners.
High-altitude winds powered Fossett's Spirit of Freedom balloon along at speeds of up to 200 mph over the Southern Hemisphere -- spending most of his time over water and avoiding any countries that might object to his presence in their air space.
His previous attempts have been more eventful if less successful than the latest. In 1998, an attempt from Argentina ended with his balloon's harrowing 29,000-foot plunge into the Coral Sea. Last August, Fossett flew for a record 12 days, 12 hours and 57 minutes before going down on a cattle ranch in Brazil.
Fossett holds world records in ballooning, sailing and flying airplanes. He also swam the English Channel in 1985, placed 47th in the Iditarod dog sled race in 1992 and participated in the 24 Hours of Le Mans car race in 1996.
Here's to the loonies who do the things the rest of us just shake our heads at. Without them this world would be drab indeed!
But, Did this guy legitimately fly "around the world?" It seems that he really flew "around Antarctica," barely catching the southern tips of South America and Africa. Shouldn't one at least cross the equater at some point in a circumnavigation of the globe?
Gosh, I didn't realize he'd already amputated one of his legs.
He is a credit to 58-year-olds everywhere.
Out west you can do something similar in Four Corners, where Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona join up. You can stand, or sit, in four states simultaneously. I did that as a child when our family took a summer vacation in the American west. Years later, I happened to visit Four Corners again, but this time decided to drive through all four states. I drove through four states in about 10 seconds. Unfortunately, neither CNN nor FOX news was present to videotape the event or to interview me afterwards....
I say it is obvious to most that he didn't, and after how many tries, couldn't, for any number of fluky reasons. But I am tired of guys who got rich on founders stock getting their 15 minutes, over and over again. Just give it to him, with the asterisk saying that he finally did it at a latitude that maximized jet stream speed and minimized actual distance traveled.
Any international organization that decrees that 70% of the distance around the world qualifies as 100% of the circumnavigational distance, is suspect on its face. Why wouldn't 60% be as good? (or 1%)
The reason he has been able to get as far as he has, with his ruse, is that no one else is egotistical enough to make a race out of it. Once the time parameter is introduced, the distance is automatically a factor.
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