Fossett and the Trans-Atlantic attempt

[Icebound]

Apparently just left today.
http://www.940news.com/nouvelles.php?cat=9&id=n070239A

[Cub Driver]

>Apparently just left today.

My daughter was at St John's last week and watched him tool around the
harbour in practice flights. www.expeditionsail.com -- scroll down.


-- all the best, Dan Ford

email (put Cubdriver in subject line)

Warbird's Forum: www.warbirdforum.com
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the blog: www.danford.net
In Search of Lost Time: www.readingproust.com

[Icebound]

"Icebound" > wrote in message
...
> Apparently just left today.
> http://www.940news.com/nouvelles.php?cat=9&id=n070239A
>
>

I guess they made it okay:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000082&sid=a8N4X0OV9vk4&refer=canada

Not many details, though....




>

[Kyle Boatright]

"Icebound" > wrote in message
...
> Apparently just left today.
> http://www.940news.com/nouvelles.php?cat=9&id=n070239A

Fossett's previous record attempts have been meaningful, but this one
puzzles me. I really don't understand risking a one of a kind very low
performance aircraft to recreate a long over-water flight. Its been done
before, and there is nothing to gain and a bunch to lose...

[NW_PILOT]

I think it would be called a sense of adventure which most people have lost
in the world and the ones that do still have a sense of adventure are called
crazy, reckless, arrogant, dumb, ect. by the general public. Look at the guy
that did the flight across the Atlantic in a Cessna 150.


"Kyle Boatright" > wrote in message
...
>
> "Icebound" > wrote in message
> ...
> > Apparently just left today.
> > http://www.940news.com/nouvelles.php?cat=9&id=n070239A
>
> Fossett's previous record attempts have been meaningful, but this one
> puzzles me. I really don't understand risking a one of a kind very low
> performance aircraft to recreate a long over-water flight. Its been done
> before, and there is nothing to gain and a bunch to lose...
>
>
>

[Cub Driver]

Okay, he made it just fine, overnight Saturday/Sunday. Landed on the
8th tee (whatever) of a golf course in Ireland.

They navigated with a compass and a sextant, which for us GPS addicts
is almost as astonishing as flying 19 hours over-water in a 1919
(well: pseudo 1919) open cockpit biplane.


-- all the best, Dan Ford

email (put Cubdriver in subject line)

Warbird's Forum: www.warbirdforum.com
Piper Cub Forum: www.pipercubforum.com
the blog: www.danford.net
In Search of Lost Time: www.readingproust.com

[Icebound]

"Cub Driver" > wrote in message
...
.....
> They navigated with a compass and a sextant, which for us GPS addicts
> is almost as astonishing as flying 19 hours over-water in a 1919
> (well: pseudo 1919) open cockpit biplane.

One of the by-products of the modern world is that it has reduced the
opportunities for the great masses to get their hands dirty, become
inquisitive, and learn things.

60 years ago, nearly every car owner in North America had to tinker with it
at one time or another, if only to change a tire.

Every pilot had to learn some serious navigation skills, especially for IMC
or featureless terrain.

Today, the relative number of people with either of these skills out there
in the mass population is much smaller. Arguably, the skills are no longer
necessary... but I wonder if it also means that the population's collective
desire to *learn* may be diminishing... "Why bother, somebody else's
technology will take care of it" ? ? ?

I'd like to be around another 50 or 100 years from now, to see how this
plays out... How will us masses evolve? How dependant will our lives become
on the few, powerful keepers of technology? Will another Steve Wozniak rise
to completely upset the course of technological history, or are we past
that; will such breakthroughs remain only in the domain of the large and
the powerful?

60 years ago, my father happily solved his worries by his own initiative...a
good shot of self-distilled potato brew, straight up.

(Homeland-Security 1950's style... the police would browbeat local
merchants into telling them who was buying excessive amounts of sugar).

Today, self-medication is frowned upon and I am supposed to rely on someone
else's technology: I think its called Eli Lilly???

That would make we worry even more, about becoming dependant on the
technology.

I will think about it some more after this bottle of Seagram's is empty.

;-)

From north of the border, all the best for July 4th to those of, in, and
from the USA. Stay Safe!

[Matt Barrow]

"Icebound" > wrote in message
...
>
>
> "Cub Driver" > wrote in message
> ...
> ....
> > They navigated with a compass and a sextant, which for us GPS addicts
> > is almost as astonishing as flying 19 hours over-water in a 1919
> > (well: pseudo 1919) open cockpit biplane.
>
> One of the by-products of the modern world is that it has reduced the
> opportunities for the great masses to get their hands dirty, become
> inquisitive, and learn things.

And people now can't do even basic arithmetic without an electronic
calculator :~(