Steve Fossett missing!

[Baradium]

http://kutv.com/local/local_story_247140815.html

Rescuers Hope Nerves Of Steel Will Help Fossett
 SLIDESHOW: Steve Fossett Adventures Around The Globe
RENO Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett's admirers were counting on his grit and experience Wednesday as rescuers searched for his missing plane in the rugged mountains and sagebrush-filled desert of western Nevada.

Fossett's single-engine plane vanished Monday as he was scouting dry lake beds for an attempt to set a world land speed record.

``Steve is a tough old boot. I suspect he is waiting by his plane right now for someone to pick him up,'' said Sir Richard Branson, the U.K. billionaire who has helped finance many of Fossett's adventures. ``Based on his track record, I feel confident we'll get some good news soon.''

The millionaire aviator did not file a flight plan. His plane, a Bellanca Citabria Super Decathlon, carried a locator that sends a satellite signal after a rough landing, but officials said they had picked up no locator signals from the plane or radio communication.

Even if the plane locator failed, Fossett usually wears a Breitling Emergency watch that allows pilots to easily signal their location, said Granger Whitelaw, co-founder of the Rocket Racing League.

``They're registered to us personally, so they know it's you,'' he said by phone Wednesday from New York. There had been no word of such a signal by Wednesday.

Rescuers in Nevada had higher hopes of finding something because there was little wind to interfere with their aerial search efforts, unlike Tuesday, said Gary Derks, operations officer for the Nevada Division of Emergency Management.

The aerial search Tuesday included 14 aircraft conducting grid searches over 7,500 square miles _ an area larger than Connecticut. The search on Wednesday was intended to concentrate on 600 square miles.

Fossett, the first person to circle the world solo in a balloon, took off alone Monday morning from an airstrip at hotel magnate William Barron Hilton's Flying M Ranch, about 70 miles southeast of Reno. A friend reported him missing when he didn't return.

It was not known what kind of survival gear, if any, Fossett might have had with him. He was planning just a short flight before returning to the private air strip.

Civil Air Patrol Maj. Cynthia Ryan would not speculate about how many days someone might survive in the terrain, but she and longtime associates of the 63-year-old adventurer said he had proven survival skills.

``He's a very savvy and methodical and determined pilot. I'd give him the highest odds,'' she said.

Winds gusting up 40 mph on Tuesday kept the search planes from flying as low to the ground or as close to the 10,000-foot peaks as they would have liked, Ryan said.

One Civil Air Patrol pilot said turbulence was so bad that his aircraft dropped 1,500 feet in about three seconds. The downdrafts and gusts also provide a very real danger: They can come out of nowhere to push aircraft into the granite mountainsides if pilots aren't careful.

``It's provided a real bouncy ride for our searchers and that makes it really difficult to look at what's on the ground,'' Ryan said.

Forecasters said the winds would drop to about 10 mph on Wednesday in the county Fossett had targeted. Temperatures were in the high-40s overnight and were expected to be in the high 70s and low 80s on Wednesday.

Searchers have had little to go on because Fossett apparently did not file a flight plan, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said.

``It is a very large haystack, and an airplane is a very small needle, no doubt about it,'' Ryan said at a news conference.

Nevada National Guard planes and helicopters in the rescue effort were equipped with infrared and other high-tech vision equipment, said Col. Craig Wroblewski, the Guard's director of operations. The aircraft worked into the night Tuesday, but there was no sign of the pilot or his plane.

``We just want to find him alive,'' Wroblewski said.

Fossett has an application pending before the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for a permit in Eureka County to attempt to break the land-speed record of 766.6 mph.

In 2002, Fossett became the first person to fly around the world alone in a balloon. In two weeks, his balloon flew 19,428.6 miles around the Southern Hemisphere. The record came after five previous attempts _ some of them spectacular and frightening failures.

It is among dozens of firsts claimed by Fossett in his life as an adventurer, which he embarked on after earning a fortune as a financial trader.

He set marks for speed or distance in balloons, airplanes, gliders, sailboats _ even cross-country skis and an airship, according to his Web site. In March 2005, he became the first person to fly a plane solo around the world without refueling.

Fossett also has experience as an outdoorsman, climbing some of the world's best-known peaks, including the Matterhorn in Switzerland and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

He also swam the English Channel in 1985, placed 47th in the Iditarod dog sled race in 1992, participated in the 24 Hours of Le Mans car race in 1996 and broke the round-the-world sailing record by six days in 2004.

[undatc]

Old new kid, happened yesterday.  I'm sure he will be ok, as CNN put it, "he's a tuff old bird."

[PiperGirl]

So today, one of our local pilots walked in to my office and said he had seen on TV that they found Steve Fosset... but I haven't heard anything like that. Did I just miss something or was this guy just blowing smoke?

[Rooster Cruiser]

Still missing as of this morning.  I often fly over the area where he went missing, and I am sorry to say this but that is about as rugged of country as you will find in the USA.  Very easy for airplanes going missing for years (witness the 10 previously missing wrecks they have found so far).  After nearly two weeks, I don't know how Fossett could survive without any water.  Its been extremely dry up there this year.

[THEfuelguy]

As of tonight, Thursday, he is still missing.  He spends two weeks each summer in Ely flying his glider.  He tried to set an glider altitude record several years ago when I was working at the airport.  He missed it at just under 49,000 feet due to a navigational error.  I refueled his Citation X once, so his missing is kind of personal and I feel for his friends and family.

[Mike]

just flew from WMC to SVE with one radio tuned to 121.5 and looking for a wreckage . . . . nothing . . .


anybody have any news?

[Baradium]

just flew from WMC to SVE with one radio tuned to 121.5 and looking for a wreckage . . . . nothing . . .


anybody have any news?

This is a good time to remind everyone that when monitoring 121.5 for an ELT be SURE to turn your squelch OFF!

Many radios will consider even a full strength ELT signal to be static and squelch it out.   This includes the radios in our 1900s (we have the original style Collins units found in many King Airs).  I've turned it on and off a few times while recieving strong ELT signals to verify this.  With squelch on you may fly directly by an ELT and never know it.  At best you may miss out on weaker signals.

Also noteworthy is that there can be a "dead zone" for an ELT just like a VOR's zone of confusion.  If you pass directly overhead an ELT the signal may dissapear.  An immediate drop off and then return of signal can signify you have passed over the transmitting device.

If monitoring for ELT signals, try to note your position as soon as you hear any signal (fade in) and then when you lose the signal (fade out).  This is mostly useful when triangulating an ELT position, but can give SAR personel a better starting point (gives a better reference on where you would have received your strongest signal at).  There are more procedures regarding ELTs and monitoring you can find in the AIM, but I believe this covers the important aspects.


Unfortunately, at this point the ELT batteries will have ran out, if the ELT was actually operating in the first place.

[airtac]

Been a couple of weeks now and I'm afraid the prospects for his safe return are increasingly dismal-----met him at Ely on a number of occasions and for a rich guy, he seemed well grounded (no pun intended).........Very sad and mysterious indeed!
Close friend of mine went missing in 1961 in an Aeronca Champ on a 30 minute local flight out of Petaluma CA, a pretty highly populated area. It's been 46 years now and no one has ever found any traces of him or the airplane (N3472E)

Remember, ALWAYS FLIGHT FOLLOW (FAA flight plan or tell someone exactly where you're going) and ALWAYS FOLLOW YOUR PLANNED ROUTE    ---makes it easier to find your sorry butt when you go missing. 

[PiperGirl]

When I was backpacking in the cascade mountain range in WA a couple of years ago, we happened upon the skeleton of a WWII plane that had crashed. Of course we weren't the first to see it and it is a documented site now, but it hadn't been found for years and years after the crash. It was originally found by a backpacker in the 70-80s I think.

[Baradium]

Sometimes it seems that some things should be much easier to find if they are lost... but even an airplane can become impossibly small when dealing with wilderness.

Even in relatively well traveled parks, few people venture off of the well established routes and trails.  It'd be possible for wreckage to be quite close to people and never noticed.

[TheSoccerMom]

Sounds like the search is active again, as they "saw" something in an area that was focused on by USAF imagery examiners...  thye were pretty vague on the news, and added they didn't want to "disclose the exact area" because they feared an influx of private planes.

It has been a month...  stranger things have happened....  but that is sure an awfully long time to be very optimistic in terms of airplane wrecks....     

[tundra_flier]

Just one question...does anyone here think this kind of search effort would be expended for one of us?  How many previously lost aircraft have been found by this search now?  Anyone here actually know Fosset?  Does anyone here think the search for them would go past the first week? 
Sorry, just getting sick of this countries celebrety worship.

Phil

[airtac]

Just one question...does anyone here think this kind of search effort would be expended for one of us?  How many previously lost aircraft have been found by this search now?  Anyone here actually know Fosset?  Does anyone here think the search for them would go past the first week? 
Sorry, just getting sick of this countries celebrety worship.

Phil

I met Steve several times at ELY and he seems to be an enthusiastic aviator as well as pleasant person ---would anyone expend this much effort for one of us ?---no way 

[spacer]

Just one question...does anyone here think this kind of search effort would be expended for one of us?  How many previously lost aircraft have been found by this search now?  Anyone here actually know Fosset?  Does anyone here think the search for them would go past the first week? 
Sorry, just getting sick of this countries celebrety worship.

Phil

Ah, well. It happens in many countries. Royalty across the pond, and folks are expected to worship their 'leaders' at gunpoint in many other nations. I think there'll
always be a higher value placed on people who are more popular with the public (and even more on the well-politically-connected). As for myself, I'd rather not be
that deep in the public eye, and I'll take greater care with my flying. There are people close to me who I hope will try as hard as possible to find me, and the .gov
can go sit on their thumbs.

[Baradium]

There wouldn't be this type of pomp for one of us.

They really did carry it on/

Update though:  The USAF has called the CAP off of the search.