May he have a good tail wind (jet stream), all the way!
The best of luck to Burt and his team.
I can't imagine staying in the cockpit for that many hours, at those extreme altitudes (even on oxygen), being that sleep deprived, and then trying to handle an aircraft which has lost almost 90% of its' takeoff weight. The controls must be touchy as Hell when near empty, and there will be an elated, yet punch drunk pilot at the stick.
Try to put yourself in his place, and then go without sleep for that long, and at the end of 3 straight days go flying. Every other line in my checklists by day three would say: "WAKE UP!!!!!" And if it were me, I'd do just fine until that final approach. Then the feeling of accomplishment would set it, I'd relax, and go to sleep right before coming in over the fence.....and wake up immediately after the nose gear impacted the runway.
(((PING))))
The guy's already a sky legend!
Good Luck, Steve.
Wish he would depart on a weekend so I could watch the takeoff live. Guess I'll have to settle for a FreeRepublic "live" thread.
I got tired of Atlantic and Pacific crossings in the C-141 after we air refueled (the flight could be 17 hours), and I got to walk around, take a pee in a bathroom, and get out of the seat and let the other pilot have it for awhile. Eighty hours? Sheesh!
Maybe he could stay awake by listening to screeching Hillary Clinton speeches.
"Any time not spent, preparing to Fly or Flying is WASTED TIME"