600 square miles?

[Hilton]

Hi,

OK, help me with my math here. If Fossett's groundspeed was (just) 90 knots
and he had 5 hours of fuel (according to the media), then pi*R^2 = 3.141 *
450 * 450 = 636,172 square miles (NM). If you convert that for the
non-aviators, it is about 731,598 square miles (SM).

OK, I understand that there is some 'bounding' going on (i.e. he's not going
to overfly SFO and keep going west), but still, for it to be only 600 square
miles, you'd have to know the exact radial/bearing and only search a little
more than 0.5 miles on either side of that. Or alternatively, from the
airport, he was only going to fly for 9 minutes in any direction.

Hilton

[Marco Leon]

"Hilton" > wrote in message
. net...
> Hi,
>
> OK, help me with my math here. If Fossett's groundspeed was (just) 90
> knots and he had 5 hours of fuel (according to the media), then pi*R^2 =
> 3.141 * 450 * 450 = 636,172 square miles (NM). If you convert that for
> the non-aviators, it is about 731,598 square miles (SM).
>
> OK, I understand that there is some 'bounding' going on (i.e. he's not
> going to overfly SFO and keep going west), but still, for it to be only
> 600 square miles, you'd have to know the exact radial/bearing and only
> search a little more than 0.5 miles on either side of that. Or
> alternatively, from the airport, he was only going to fly for 9 minutes in
> any direction.

They said in one article that the search team was reviewing radar tracks,
possibly even military radar tracks. That should narrow it down, no?

Marco

[Hilton]

Ahhh, OK, now CNN has a 'developing story' about expanding the search to
10,000, that's better. Let's assume they knew that he was flying 180-360,
and thought he would fly for about an hour, that's 10,000 (give or take).

Hilton

[muff528]

"Hilton" > wrote in message
. net...
> Hi,
>
> OK, help me with my math here. If Fossett's groundspeed was (just) 90
> knots and he had 5 hours of fuel (according to the media), then pi*R^2 =
> 3.141 * 450 * 450 = 636,172 square miles (NM). If you convert that for
> the non-aviators, it is about 731,598 square miles (SM).
>
> OK, I understand that there is some 'bounding' going on (i.e. he's not
> going to overfly SFO and keep going west), but still, for it to be only
> 600 square miles, you'd have to know the exact radial/bearing and only
> search a little more than 0.5 miles on either side of that. Or
> alternatively, from the airport, he was only going to fly for 9 minutes in
> any direction.
>
> Hilton
>
>

Even Paul Harvey repeats unrealistic numbers when commenting about the
Fossett search.
He "quotes" a CAP pilot who claimed that turbulence was so bad that his
aircraft lost
1500 feet in three seconds! That's downward at about 340 mph if the plane
accelerated
and decelerated instantaneously from level flight to level flight again 1500
ft lower. That's
probably pretty hard on the wings. Go to paulharvey dot com and play the
Wednesday
morning clip. It's right at the beginning.

Blue Skies, TP

[Larry Dighera]

On Thu, 06 Sep 2007 15:21:33 GMT, "Hilton" > wrote
in >:

>OK, I understand that there is some 'bounding' going on

There's a map of the ~triangular search area here:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-fossett7sep07,1,4799453.story

[Hilton]

Larry,

Thanks for the link.

[Aluckyguess]

We flew to Reno yesterday on bussiness. We looked for him on thethere.
When we took off out of Reno my Bonanza had a hard time flying. I kept
thinking of the accident the other one had. Reno has an 11000 ft runway so
it wasnt a problem.
If it was 4000 and trees at the end there might of been problems.
"Hilton" > wrote in message
. net...
> Hi,
>
> OK, help me with my math here. If Fossett's groundspeed was (just) 90
> knots and he had 5 hours of fuel (according to the media), then pi*R^2 =
> 3.141 * 450 * 450 = 636,172 square miles (NM). If you convert that for
> the non-aviators, it is about 731,598 square miles (SM).
>
> OK, I understand that there is some 'bounding' going on (i.e. he's not
> going to overfly SFO and keep going west), but still, for it to be only
> 600 square miles, you'd have to know the exact radial/bearing and only
> search a little more than 0.5 miles on either side of that. Or
> alternatively, from the airport, he was only going to fly for 9 minutes in
> any direction.
>
> Hilton
>
>