"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