posted 02-16-2008 09:27 AM               

RIP

posted 07-29-2008 03:37 AM               

Fossett had just shattered another record under the Perlan project - the maximum height achieved in a glider. "Disappearing" would not be the way out for such a driven high-achiever.

posted 07-29-2008 04:17 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by gliderpilotuk:
The ONLY aspect I find odd is that he was apparently ill-prepared for survival contingencies, but then over-confidence has been the downfall of many a pilot.

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Yes, over-confidence can be a dangerous thing. After undertaking so many risky flights and surviving so many close calls, it's probably easy to under-estimate the dangers of a relatively simple (and "low risk") flight over the desert. To him, it must have seemed like no big deal.

posted 07-31-2008 03:07 AM            

Investigations by the authorities and insurers have uncovered a string of worrying revelations including:

• SECRET MISTRESSES: Fossett cheated on his wife with TWO lovers in an amazing double life.
  
• BAFFLING CHOICE OF PLANE: Fossett chose a light stunt aircraft which could be easily dismantled and hidden, a type he did NOT like.
  
• NO EMERGENCY KIT: Despite a lifetime's experience he supposedly set off on the three-hour flight in just T-shirt and shorts with no parachute or his regular global positioning system watch.
  
• TAKE-OFF PUZZLE: The only witness who says he saw Fossett fly off has never been quizzed by the authorities.
  
• TRACKER RIDDLE: The plane was fitted with a satellite rescue beacon to pinpoint its position for rescuers but no signal was ever received.

posted 07-31-2008 12:22 PM               

If SF had 2 girl friends, that doesn't give him a reason to fake his death, that gives him a reason to get a divorce. BTW, about 50-60% of the men in the world cheat on their wives and like it or not, themz is the facts. Let's not forget that most of the greatest men this planet has ever known, have cheated on their wives, so to claim he wanted to hide from the world because he was screwing around, just doesn't hold water. He was in his 60's and had 2 girlfriends, I'm impressed that he could handle the extra work load, regardless of the moral implication. A study done a few years ago found that men who craved power (politicans, police officers, CEO's, adventurers and the such) were biologically wired in such a way, that they were compelled to have many women in their lives. Look at our former president, most politicans and others for a clear example of that drive.

His choice of plane was actually pretty good, considering that it had outstanding handling capabilities, it had a very slow stall speed for short or unimproved landing strips on desert hardpack floor and that it was very fuel efficent. IMHO, it seems like a great choice.

Do you really think that SF was going to land his airplane in the middle of the desert, pull out his handy dandy tool kit, take 2-3-4 hours to dismantle his airplane into parts small enough to hide, then dig a hole large enough, so then he could then bury it all????? Yeah....I'll need a little more evidence on that one.

If the man didn't take an emergency kit, I don't see him packing 2 tanks for a cutting torch, socket set, Swiss army knife, an engine hoist and have hours to take this aircraft apart in order to hide it.

I love flying in a T-shirt & shorts, who doesn't? 99% of small aircraft pilots don't take parachutes aboard unless we're jumping out of an airplane, which usually means we're not the ones flying. General aircraft pilots are taught from the beginning to always be looking for landing spot in case of emergency. He was flying over a desert in a plane that had a very good glide ratio and probably figured if he had engine failure, he could glide to a landing spot.

Personally I think it's stupid to fly without an emergency kit, even on a 3 hour flight. Still, look at what happened to Gilligan when he went out on a 3 hour tour !!! 30 years later we all know what happened to those poor people.

SF's reason for flying without his GPS watch could have been that his plane had one. Nowadays, most aircraft avionics packages come with GPS. Don't forget, SF has been flying long enough that he was taught how to navigate with a compass & chart, long before the advent of electronics. From what I've read, he also knew the area very well and flew in & out of this airport frequently. In the desert, flying without GPS is pretty easy, considering that you're looking at mountain landmarks that are typically 30-50 miles away, so it's easy to stay on the same heading without instruments or GPS.

As far as his ELT not working, about 20-30% of the crashes don't activate them due to a dead battery or an antenna being broken. It's generally found that the battery was never changed. The same thing happens with boaters.

posted 10-01-2008 01:59 PM               

A weathered sweat shirt, cash and a pilot's license with Fossett's name were found Tuesday near Mammoth Lakes, police Chief Randy Schienle said. The license did not have a photo, he said.

posted 10-02-2008 09:49 AM               

The wreckage of a plane found near the town of Mammoth Lakes in California does belong to missing US adventurer Steve Fossett, officials say.

A number plate confirmed the plane as the single-engine Bellanca Super Decathlon owned by the 63-year-old millionaire businessman.

posted 10-02-2008 02:38 PM               

I wish he was found sitting on Branson's Carib island sipping a tropical drink, with his 2 girlfriends at the beach.

posted 10-02-2008 02:49 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Spacepsycho:
It will be interesting to see on Google maps the exact location of the crash site and how it looked from that angle.

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posted 10-02-2008 09:07 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Dirk:
Just found the photos. Photo 12 is very interesting, looks like the 4 points lock of his safety bellts... but no bellts to seen... so they were not locked... or at some time unlocked...

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You can't necessarily go by that. Super Decathlons are two seat aircraft (front seat and rear seat). As such, it would have two sets of belts. So one set is unlocked, but we don't know from just looking at the photo if it is the front seat or rear seat. With the second seat unoccupied, there would no reason for the second set of belts to be locked, although some pilots do secure the unused set of belts and tighten them down, such as if they plan to fly aerobatics to keep the belts from flapping and potentially hitting something. If this was just intended to be a sightseeing trip though, then I doubt Fossett was planning to fly aerobatics.

It looks like an instantly fatal crash to me, probably being an impact with the mountain where Steve tried to pull up at the last second or was already in a climb to avoid the mountain when something caused his plane to hit it. Apparently there were showers in that region on the day Steve disappeared, so it could have been either that he flew into a cloud and then into a mountain, or windshear could have brought him down (or caused his climb not to be as pronounced, resulting in the aircraft hitting at a nose high stance under power) and the results would have been the same eitherway.

posted 10-03-2008 03:19 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by spaced out:
I still don't understand why the Amazon Mechanical Turk didn't widen the search area once the original zone was covered at least a couple of times over.

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posted 10-03-2008 06:06 AM               

It may be that the wreckage was so widely scattered and the pieces so small that there would have been nothing visible.

posted 10-03-2008 07:36 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by 328KF:
Sadly, it appears that investigators have found enough in the wreckage to positively identify the pilot

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posted 10-03-2008 08:11 AM               

1. head-on flight into terrain
2. fire
3. one year on an exposed mountainside
4. wild animals

posted 10-03-2008 08:14 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by David Bryant:
Are there really enough wild creatures in California to completely devour a whole human in 12 months?

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