Steve Fossett

Discovery HD Channel is airing a special on Steve Fossett next Monday at
10PM eastern 7PM PST. They took footage of my Husky flying along the eastern
flank of the Sierra, as it's blue and white and "sort of like" the plane
Steve was flying.

For the interview part, I got them to set up with one of Minden's soaring
FBO's "Soaring NV" in the background. Also asked them to consider doing a
special on soaring . . . can't hurt to ask.

all the best,

bumper

It will also be on the regular Discovery channel too. The trailer for
the documentary shows the crash site and a closeup of Fossett's SSA
card.

Thanks for letting us know this was going to be on the tube. Great to
see all that familiar scenery and get a few more details about the
accident.

On Nov 26, 7:55*am, ContestID67 wrote:
It will also be on the regular Discovery channel too. *The trailer for
the documentary shows the crash site and a closeup of Fossett's SSA
card.

Watched it last night, and aside from seeing bumper interviewed and
them showing his husky, it pretty much sucked. To me it seemed to be
the usual over hyped aviation disaster "documentary". Don't get me
wrong, Steve was a good pilot, but I got kinda annoyed when they kept
calling him the "worlds greatest pilot".

Pete

Pete,

I can't disagree, though I thought it wasn't as bad as most of the usual TV
stuff. As pilots, we tend to be sensitized to inaccurate aviation info.
Considering the average viewer this was directed to, I thought they did a
pretty good job. It did slow down some after the first shots of my Husky . .
.. then they kept interest up by showing little snippets of it interspersed
with the rest of the show (g).

bumper
zz
Minden, NV


"vontresc" wrote in message
...
On Nov 26, 7:55 am, ContestID67 wrote:
It will also be on the regular Discovery channel too. The trailer for
the documentary shows the crash site and a closeup of Fossett's SSA
card.

Watched it last night, and aside from seeing bumper interviewed and
them showing his husky, it pretty much sucked. To me it seemed to be
the usual over hyped aviation disaster "documentary". Don't get me
wrong, Steve was a good pilot, but I got kinda annoyed when they kept
calling him the "worlds greatest pilot".

Pete

Yeah, I was disappointed also. There was far too much time spent
going over the same details again and again. I was left with the
feeling that they didn't have enough material for an entire hour. I
suppose I wanted more technical details than the general public (which
might not know an aileron from an altimeter).

I was really hoping for the why. I guess we all are. At least a
discussion of what the NTSB has found out about the airframe and if it
was the culprit. It may be too early to rule this in/out but the
producers should have given more details.

The one interesting point was how they highlighted the areas of the
impact (quite flat) and how Steve may have tried to crawl out of the
bush (because he was found 3/4 of a mile away and scavengers wouldn't
have dragged the body that far).

So what are the theories? Weather? Medical? Airframe? A
combination? The one piece of clear evidence is that the plane
impacted straight ahead at a very high speed to do that much damage.
This implies IMHO that Steve had nearly zero time to react.

Possibilities are;

- Weather (i.e. fog, rain) obscured the mountain. Was fog seen
around this area at the time of the accident? Could a microburst or
wave rotor create the same impact pattern?
- Steve was totally incapacitated (i.e. heartattack). But he was in
very good shape for his age.
- Some critical part of the airplane broke (i.e. elevator). Would the
impact have been nose down?
- Terrain (box canyon) - While this is possible I would think that
Steve would have pulled up sharply (and slowed down) as he got to the
end of the canyon. The debris field would have been signicantly
different. IMHO.
- Forced Landing (out of fuel, etc) - Fossett would have tried for a
landing (which was implied in the show). I would think that this
would have been a low speed event. The airplane might have
cartwheeled or gotten wrapped up in a tree, but it would not have been
utterly distroyed.

So my money is on an airframe failure, with fog as a second choice and
medical as a third. Again, we may never know. My $2.02.

Finally, Google was providing high resolution satellite images during
the web based search effort. We now know the coordinates of the crash
site. What, if anything, can be seen on the high-res images? The
normally available low resolution satellite images don't shown nearly
enough detail.

- John

"ContestID67" wrote in message
:

SNIP
Finally, Google was providing high resolution satellite images during
the web based search effort. We now know the coordinates of the crash
site. What, if anything, can be seen on the high-res images? The
normally available low resolution satellite images don't shown nearly
enough detail.

- John


I recall reading right after they found the wreckage that the crash site
was outside (west of) the high-res area being searched.

Larry "01"

Possibilities are;

- Weather (i.e. fog, rain) obscured the mountain. * Was fog seen
around this area at the time of the accident? * Could a microburst or
wave rotor create the same impact pattern?


No fog. Turbulent, yes. We flew that day at TAGARs (Truckee glider
race). While I can't vouch for the conditions at Mammoth, I am pretty
sure it was similar to Truckee. We had bright blue conditions at TRK
with SW winds 20kts increasing thoughout the day to 30kts in the BL.
I remember looking south in that direction and seeing nice Cus develop
in the afternoon in the 15k range thinking, forget the race, why
didn't I go south..it looks really good(ya I had no chance of
winning). Steve was flying earlier in the day so it was most likely
blue but the winds were probably there. I couldnt tell from the
documentary if he then landed with the wind.

On Dec 2, 4:13*pm, db_sonic wrote:
Possibilities are;

- Weather (i.e. fog, rain) obscured the mountain. * Was fog seen
around this area at the time of the accident? * Could a microburst or
wave rotor create the same impact pattern?

No fog. Turbulent, yes. *We flew that day at TAGARs (Truckee glider
race). *While I can't vouch for the conditions at Mammoth, I am pretty
sure it was similar to Truckee. *We had bright blue conditions at TRK
with SW winds 20kts increasing thoughout the day to 30kts in the BL.
I remember looking south in that direction and seeing nice Cus develop
in the afternoon in the 15k range thinking, forget the race, why
didn't I go south..it looks really good(ya I had no chance of
winning). *Steve was flying earlier in the day so it was most likely
blue but the winds were probably there. *I couldnt tell from the
documentary if he then landed with the wind.

I believe the answer lies in Steve's mind-set that day, we know he
buzzed a ranch hand shortly after takeoff. The NTSB has removed the
accident report to update after finding the ship, but the original
report stated Steve was seen between 100 and 200 feet near 9-mile
ranch. He was having fun! If he was flying with that mind-set near the
crest of the Sierras on a windy day.........................
JJ