Sat, Feb 07, 2004
Fighting Headwinds, Ice, Turbulence
Gus McLeod took off from Ushuaia, Argentina Friday morning,
determined to cross the South Pole. According to Dr. Barbara
Ganson, from Florida Atlantic University, Gus' departure looked
terrific from the tower. "From the tower we had direct
communication with Gus for about a half hour until he reached his
first check in point at the end of the Beagle Canal."
It took him some time to reach 3,000 feet due to heavy rain and
turbulence. Gus' intended route takes him through the treacherous
Drake Passage, where he has to endure dangerous headwinds. Gus must
maintain a safe altitude to avoid icing on the Firefly. The
additional fuel onboard has made the plane heavy and maintaining
altitude has proven to be a concern. Gus has been teetering between
2800 and 3000 feet with a ground speed of 120 mph with a position
of 60 degrees latitude, 67 degrees longitude, about 3 hours south
of Ushuaia.
During his earlier flights, Gus was averaging a ground speed of
141 mph but because of the headwinds and the weight of his
additional fuel, Gus is flying slower and using up more fuel than
expected. As the attempt got underway, he became concerned that he
would not have enough fuel to make it back to Ushuaia, and was
wearing his exposure suit in the event of an emergency landing.
However; ice did force him down enroute to the Pole. McLeod made
an unplanned landing at Rothera Research Station on Adelaide Island
after icing up. A spokesman, Josh Brooks, noted that it was "very
uncertain" as to whether Gus was going to be able to continue his
flight due to an expected blizzard. The Rothera landing came after
McLeod made the decision to turn around, enroute, to affect the
landing at the station.
Gus' original plan was to make the 3700NM flight to the South
Pole and back to Ushuaia in a non-stop 30-hour flight. Beset by
scheduling issues, and equipment teething problems, the flight has
had to surmount a number of preparation issues that would have been
mollified by more testing, development and "burn-in" time... but
the deteriorating weather synopsis for the coming weeks showed a
smaller window of opportunity that needed to be used in order to
avoid scrubbing the attempt until later in the year.
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