600 square miles?

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