Lancair pilot takes shot at 58 year old record

Sweet! Just saw the update he was inbound HNL :rockon:
 
I watched the video with Martin from Beech Talk. The HF antenna that delayed his departure includes a 50 ft long wire trailing behind the plane. I suppose that it drags on the ground until airborne.

Fascinating.
 
David Herzfeld said:
I watched the video with Martin from Beech Talk. The HF antenna that delayed his departure includes a 50 ft long wire trailing behind the plane. I suppose that it drags on the ground until airborne.

Fascinating.
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More likely is on a reel. Once airborne reel it out, reel it in before landing.
 
I didn't realize HF was (still) used, cool!
 
Doc Holliday said:
Yep, still is use all over the world.
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Thanks! Is the wire just hidden on the modern jets? I remember seeing the cable on old planes

I know it is still used for sailboats though
 
Tantalum said:
Thanks! Is the wire just hidden on the modern jets? I remember seeing the cable on old plane
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No wire on jets, they use an antenna.

MRANTENNA_diagram_Boeing_0.jpg
 
Tantalum said:
Thanks! Is the wire just hidden on the modern jets? I remember seeing the cable on old planes

I know it is still used for sailboats though
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A bit off topic, but interesting when discussing trailing wire antennas:

To use its Very Low Frequency radios, an E-6 has to fly in a continuous orbit at a high altitude, with its fuselage- and tail-mounted VLF radios trailing one- and five-mile-long wire antennas at a near-vertical attitude! The VLF signals can be received by Ohio-class nuclear ballistic-missile submarines hiding deep underwater, thousands of miles away.

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/t...craft-the-us-militarys-arsenal-you-have-20305
 
I really wish they didn't still insist on HF and would allow something modern like sat-phone. Fitting HF to airplanes like ours is a pain the arse and rarely works properly.
 
Should be just digital comms. I mean you can do it with an inReach unit for a couple hundred bucks and $9/mo.
 
From Bill's FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/ZQ-Pilot-863477070381846

Leg 1:
Ontario, CA (KONT) to Honolulu, HI (PHNL)
COMPLETE! 13 hrs 7 min

Bill has landed in HNL and will change the oil and fuel up. He'll get some rest and plan his departure. We expect him to depart for Jakarta, INO (WIHH) sometime between 0500 and 0700 HST (1500-1700Z).

In case you thought that was a long flight, I understand his leg to Jakarta is flight-planned for 31 hours of flight time. (This is not a typo.)
Still shorter than his record-breaking (distance) flight from Guam to Jacksonville which took 39 hours in this same Lancair 4.

- Martin
 
Martin Pauly said:
From Bill's FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/ZQ-Pilot-863477070381846

Leg 1:
Ontario, CA (KONT) to Honolulu, HI (PHNL)
COMPLETE! 13 hrs 7 min

Bill has landed in HNL and will change the oil and fuel up. He'll get some rest and plan his departure. We expect him to depart for Jakarta, INO (WIHH) sometime between 0500 and 0700 HST (1500-1700Z).

In case you thought that was a long flight, I understand his leg to Jakarta is flight-planned for 31 hours of flight time. (This is not a typo.)
Still shorter than his record-breaking (distance) flight from Guam to Jacksonville which took 39 hours in this same Lancair 4.

- Martin
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Urf, that sounds like punishment. Hopefully all will go well and won't wind up with thrombosis. That's a long time to sit.
 
I'm pulling for him. I wish him all the best and hope he breaks the record. But I'm sure glad it is him sitting in that seat for all those hours, and not me.
 
FormerHangie said:
Hopefully all will go well and won't wind up with thrombosis. That's a long time to sit.
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It sure is. Bill's many chores on these ultra-long distance flights include some exercise and gymnastics - to the extent possible in the space available.

Here is the leg he just started:

upload_2019-12-9_14-57-18.png
 
By flying westbound isn’t he flying into the prevailing wind? Isn’t that counterproductive on a speed run?
 
bluesky74656 said:
By flying westbound isn’t he flying into the prevailing wind? Isn’t that counterproductive on a speed run?
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While it's true that the winds over North America are westerly, I don't know that's the case for the rest of the world.
 
bluesky74656 said:
By flying westbound isn’t he flying into the prevailing wind? Isn’t that counterproductive on a speed run?
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I believe there are competitions even for the most adverse of conditions.
All that matters is that he beats the person with the best time, Max Conrad.

Does anyone know if his current time puts him ahead of Max?
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Does anyone know if his current time puts him ahead of Max?
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Yes, Bill is doing really well so far. Which doesn't mean surprises can't happen from here on, but now that the initial hiccups with the ignition and HF antenna are behind him, so far he appears to be on track to beat the old record.

- Martin
 
bluesky74656 said:
By flying westbound isn’t he flying into the prevailing wind? Isn’t that counterproductive on a speed run?
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Yes. That's why the FAI maintains separate types of records for "speed around the world eastbound" and "speed around the world westbound". They are very different challenges.

In Class C-1d, that's the class in which Bill is competing with his Lancair, the record for "speed around the world westbound" is 198.27 km/h, set in 1961 by Max Conrad. The current record for "speed around the world eastbound" is 318.28 km/h, set by Trevor Brougham in 1971 in a B-55 Baron.

- Martin
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Martin, where do you find that?
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I gathered that from the flight log he had on his website before he started. I don't see it there anymore; over on BeechTalk you can still find it.

At any rate, his log lists anticipated flight and rest times, for a total of 159 hours and 21,807NM - which means 137 knots. The record he is trying to break is 108 knots. His first flown leg was different from the planned leg, of course, since he now starts and ends in Ontario, CA. The flight time for the leg to Jakarta matches his original plan pretty well. He didn't stop in Hawaii for very long. So it appears he is on track so far.

upload_2019-12-9_22-9-35.png
 
He's been in the air 9 hours, is that correct? I'm going to bed, going to get up, work a full day, come home, make dinner and clean up the kitchen and he's still going to be in the airplane. Amazing.
 
I guess the altitude excursions (if they are not in error) might be to look at the wind.
upload_2019-12-10_4-44-55.png

Edit:- I missed the important bit
2,200 miles flown in 11h, 4,500 miles to go.
ETA is incorrect as flight plan assumes 327mph.
N6ZQ-1.jpg
 
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212mph, looks like the winds are favourable. NOT actual track, I just drew an approximate line over the windy.com screenshot.

upload_2019-12-10_11-32-41.png
 
Looks like 22 hours in, so maybe 8 or 10 to go? Anybody suggest a reason for the apparently wobbly track?

upload_2019-12-10_20-22-4.png
 
Martin Pauly said:
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Bill's excursion has gotten me thinking that would be an enjoyable adventure for my retirement years as well (or at least once the kids are out of the house). But an interesting point he made was starting out with a point-to-point speed record attempt. With my normal Cloud Nine trips, I have a lot of opportunities to do something like that. This weekend I've got two legs that could be attempted for that - CXO to BAF and MSO back home to IXD.

Maybe I'll start looking into this... (edit: I'm smelling a new "thinking about" thread)
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Bill's excursion has gotten me thinking that would be an enjoyable adventure for my retirement years as well (or at least once the kids are out of the house). But an interesting point he made was starting out with a point-to-point speed record attempt. With my normal Cloud Nine trips, I have a lot of opportunities to do something like that. This weekend I've got two legs that could be attempted for that - CXO to BAF and MSO back home to IXD.

Maybe I'll start looking into this... (edit: I'm smelling a new "thinking about" thread)
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While I can see doing a round the world flight (especially @Katamarino style) as being an enjoyable adventure for a retiree, as someone who has passed age 60, the idea of folding one's self into a Lancair and doing a 30 hour leg sounds way more like punishment than enjoyment.
 
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