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THE GREAT NON-STOP AROUND THE WORLD BALLOON RACE
Chapter Seven - September 2, 1998 Steve Fossett in his Solo Spirit balloon accomplished quite a bit before a thunderstorm put him down in the Coral Sea about 500 miles from New Caledonia and Australia. After a picture perfect moonlit liftoff from the Malvinas Soccer Stadium in Mendoza, Argentina at 6:30 PM CDT (23:30 UTC) on August 7th, 1998 he: (1) Flew 15,202 meandering miles (24,466.0 Km) to shatter his own non-stop balloon distance world record of 10,360.61 miles (16.670.81 Km) established in January 1997 on a flight from St. Louis to Sultanpur, India. The exact great circle distance to the point where contact was lost has not yet been determined and must be approved by the FAI/CIA before a new record is official. (2) Now holds the top four long distance records for balloon travel. In addition to the new one and the prior record, above, he went 5.808.94 miles from St. Louis to Grechonaya, Russia in January 1998 and 5,484.82 miles from Seoul, Korea to Mendham, Saskatchewan, Canada in February 1995. (3) He is the only balloonist to have crossed the South Atlantic Ocean. (4) He is the only balloonist to have crossed the Indian Ocean. (5) He is the first balloonist to go over half-way around the World. He almost made two-thirds of the way around (63%.) (6) Fastest balloon flight across Australia doing an average 125 mph in19 hours, 31 minutes as against a previous record of 40 hours, 23 minutes. (7) The longest manned balloon flight continuously over water. His journey was not without tense moments. Shortly after liftoff a burner fuel tank connection sprung a leak and caught fire within the capsule. Steve's eyebrows were singed off and he sustained a minor burn on his nose and left wrist. He successfully extinguished it, but lost the ability to use two of his four burners. He later effected repairs which enabled him to count on 3 of the four. Things were fairly serene until he was over the Indian Ocean nearing Australia. A high pressure area looked like it might capture the balloon and direct it to a "parking lot" where wind velocities were so low the balloon could use up its fuel just to stay out of the water. Bob Rice, chief meteorologist for the team, described the Indian Ocean as a "meteorological mine field" full of traps for an unwary balloonist. After a tense 12 hours of movement in the wrong direction Fossett finally picked up the air stream that shot the balloon toward and across the Australian continent. These winds were at high altitudes which meant increased use of his oxygen supply. There was fear that the oxygen he had left would not be adequate to get him over the Andes mountains on his return to Argentina. Past Australia, over the Coral Sea, Steve was warned of gathering thunderstorms he could not avoid. Everyone involved thought he could fly above them. They proved higher than anticipated and Steve found the balloon losing altitude, slowly at first, and then more rapidly. He fired the burners to raise the balloon and soon found it "yo-yoing" up and down. He was already near the balloons design ceiling. He thinks that a too rapid rise in altitude plus the shearing winds and hail caused the balloon fabric to rupture and it began to fall at an accelerating rate. His variometor pegged out at 2,500 feet per minute and he said outloud, "I am going to die." He fired up the burners full blast and kicked in two emergency backup units in a last ditch effort to slow the fatal rate of decent. The insulation on the outside of the capsule caught fire. Melting polyester from the balloon fabric begin to drop into the capsule along with hail and rain. 2,000 feet above the water he cut loose fuel tanks to lighten the load. At 500 feet he laid down on his back on a bench to best absorb the impact He thinks he might have briefly lost consciousness when it hit. He found himself upside down; the capsule half full of water with the stifling fumes from the burnt insulating chemicals about to overcome him. He grabbed a little 12 pound life raft and a portable EPIRB unit and swam out into the ocean where the windswept still partially inflated balloon envelope swept over the raft. It almost smothered him and he fought its efforts to sweep him off the raft into the sea. Eventually he lost track of the balloon in the stormy waters. Miraculously, he suffered no serious injury. The weather abated somewhat. Some hours later, tracing the weak but still effective signal from the EPIRB, a French rescue plane from New Caledonia searched the area for about an hour. They located him still floating in shark infested waters in his tiny raft. They dropped him a much larger life raft, a radio, food, water and supplies. The rescue plane stayed with him until limited fuel forced its return. An Orion aircraft took its place. An Australian Hercules (C-130) relieved it and stayed with him until he was taken aboard the private ketch Atlanta which threaded its way through treacherous reefs to pick him up. After a night aboard the Atlanta it rendezvoused with a New Zealand navy ship, the Endeavor, and Steve transferred to it for a trip back to Australia. A search was started for the capsule so as to salvage some of its more important contents or perhaps the entire thing if it is feasible. Steve Fossett answered questions and told what happened in a radio interview with a journalist aboard the first rescue plane and in subsequent press conferences. The story gradually fell into place after several misleading reports. He questions the wisdom of continuing his non-stop around the world balloon quest and says, "maybe I'll stick to sailboats." Maybe? He is now back home in the US All the information, in greater detail, is contained in his website listed in the Index. There was a reluctance on the part of sponsors to commit to anything while Fossett was still going. You can't blame them. Why spend a lot of money which would be down the drain if he succeeded? He didn't make it and now the bushes are stirring. There were over 8 million hits to his website one day. Think of the advertising exposure! The Breitling Orbiter team just announced that Andy Elson will not be available this season and is being replaced by English flight engineer, Anthony A. Brown who is with the Concorde organization. This is the first word that there will be a Breitling Orbiter competing this season. Jean-Bernard Maeder, webmaster, writes that the balloon is being prepared for flight and they will be updating their website soon. Only the Global Hilton remains silent. So now we have six announced remaining competitors for the Budweiser Cup this season. Steve Fossett in the Solo Spirit tried and was brought down by a thunderstorm. The Global Hilton's silence is ominous. Other groups are expected to announce soon. Several of those who have announced their intention to compete need to firm up their financial arrangements and expect to do so in the immediate future. At least two separate groups will offer alternate technologies. All in all, developments look like they will provide much interest and excitement in the months ahead Every one of the team websites is listed in the Index. Just click on an address to go take a look. All are interesting and informative. Bookmark ARMCHAIR so you can check back with a single click to keep in touch with new events in this great adventure! |