Steve Fossett missing..

[Toro]

By now many of you have probably heard through news wire that aviation master, and adventurer Steve Fossett has gone missing while scouting areas for a planned upcoming attempt at the world land speed record. I wanted to start this thread, should anyone here in the model/fullscale aviation community become aware of news regarding his condition, and where abouts that they could post quickly. News travels fast, and with the internet, it is just that much faster. So if anyone should hear of any news please post here.

I am surfing the news sites religiously looking for further information.

J

[66stang]

Yeah keep us posted. Man has an incrediable appetite for living on the edge.

[Mithrandir]

I had trouble finding anything this morning on this story!

[Road Builder]

Yes this is a shame. I guy I know here in IL was his air support when he broke the balloon record. Sounds like he is a really nice person. Hope he is ok.

Jay

[Boulder]

They will be back up this morning as soon as it's light enough. They're expecting calm winds and clear skies, hopefully things will turn out for the best. I believe the search crew will be using 5 planes and 2 or 3 heli's.

Prayers are being sent from this end.

[Ryguy]

My prayers go out to mr. fossett and the rescue crew.

[RCER123]

For everything he has accomplished in his life so far it would be a real shame for everyone to lose him! My heart goes out but still hoping for his rescue!!

[CSpaced]

Fingers crossed he's just waiting by his plane for someone to pick him up...

[xtreem3d]

do any of you know the following, why wouldn't he turn on the gps in the plane?, or file a flight plan ? or use his cell phone if he was able and had service?. from what i understand he had about 4 hours of fuel so i would imagine that rescuers could calculate the area he should be inside?

[Gary Powers]

Private pilots typically do not file flight plans. I think in over 1000 hours, I may have filed three. A flight plan comes into play when a flight is overdue and of course, gives searchers a place to start, but it is no guarantee that they will find you. In my case, I almost always requested "flight following" so that ATC was both keeping an eye on me on radar and also talking to me. Much better (in my opinion) than flight plans. Generally also got traffic warnings when other planes were in the area.

He probably did have GPS in the airplane .. most do today .. , but they receive and don't transmit. At least the three I had did not.

Gary

[FixedWing172]

	Quote: Originally Posted by xtreem3d
	do any of you know the following, why wouldn't he turn on the gps in the plane?, or file a flight plan ? or use his cell phone if he was able and had service?. from what i understand he had about 4 hours of fuel so i would imagine that rescuers could calculate the area he should be inside?

Xtreem3d,
More than likely Mr. Fossett was using his GPS while he was flying. Understand though that the GPS is only a receiver and used for his own situational awareness. This however will not help anyone else in locating him. If he went down somewhere and his equipment wasn't compromised in a crash, Mr. Fossett could still use his GPS to determine his exact coordinates but without some way of communicating this to the search team it won't do him or anyone else any good.

Regarding a flight plan, it was not required for him to file a flight plan and for the type of flight he was on it wouldn't have been practical to do so. VFR flight plans are normally filed when there is a specific destination from a known departure point with selected waypoints (VORs, airports, landmarks, etc) in between. Once that plan is filed and then opened, the flight service station (FSS) will know exactly where to look for you if you should come up missing. (That is providing you flew the same route that you filed) In Steve Fossetts case he had no particular destination and no known waypoints that he was scheduled to fly to so it wasn't practical to file one.

Most general aviation aircraft have an ELT (emergency locator transmitter) on board that will self activate in a crash. This is one of the mysteries of his disappearance as none of the searchers have been able to pick up that signal. The ELT is also removable so if Mr. Fossett was able to walk away from the aircraft he could take it with him and it would continue to transmit from where he was. Many possibilities exist that would prevent the signal from being transmitted including being underwater to something as simple as dead batteries (they are independently powered with regular alkaline batteries)

He was looking for an area where he could attempt a land speed record which would suggest that he was in a remote area to say the least. Such areas seldom have cell coverage which would explain why no one has received a phone call from him.

From what I have read the search team is concentrating on a 600 square mile area. Think about how big that is! And the terrain in some of that area is pretty rugged and mountainous. One thing that sticks out in my mind is the fact that the search had to be postponed due to high winds just one day after he was reported missing. High winds alone are dangerous enough to light aircraft but coupled with mountains can spell disaster to even the most seasoned pilot. Of course I'm not speculating that this is what happened but nothing can be ruled out. I as most others am hoping for a favorable outcome.

Stan Berger

[why_fly_high]

I also heard he had a locator beacon in his watch and they haven't picked that up either.

Dan