ML137962
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Subject: (Interview). Subtitle: Steve Fossett. Timecode In: 00:04:08. Timecode out: 00:20:48. Notes: Hot air balloon. Equipment Notes: Stereo=1; Dual-Channel Mono. RADIO EXPEDITIONS STEVE FOSSETT INTERVIEW W/ ALEX CHADWICK 1/27/97 LOG DAT ALEX CHADWICK 4:17 (asks how he identifies himself) STEVE FOSSETT 4:22 I think I'm an adventure sportsman. 4:24 AC (mentions he has bkgd. in sled dog racing and ballooning and asks what else he does) SF 4:37¿ I'm very active in sailing. I've probably spent 2 mon. on the water sailing this past yr. trying for world records. 4:46 AC (asks what abt. balloons attracts him) SF 4:54 It's the endeavor itself to fly around the world that brought me into ballooning. I identified this 5 yrs ago as perhaps the greatest unachieved goal in aviation is to fly a balloon around the world. And from that identification I decided I wanted to be part of the competition and then set out at that time to get my ballooning licenses and take the steps necessary to work my way up to around the world attempts. 5:22 - (AC comments he's only been doing this for 5 yrs.) - that's right. I'm a newcomer to ballooning which really blows the socks off of my friends in ballooning that I've come in and now I'm trying to do some really interesting flights. 5:35 AC (asks abt. getting permission for flying around the world and taking off and hoping for the best) SF 6:05 yes, it's hard to get a decision from some of the countries and it has to do w/ the way governments work that they can offer some reasons. (continues talking abt. this subject) 6:36 AC (mentions how 2 balloonists 2 yrs. ago were shot down over Belarus and how not getting permission can be deadly) SF 6:51 It was very sobering to see that balloonists can actually be killed under these circumstances . we've taken precautions to prevent the same thing from occurring which is more a lack of communication b/tw the civilian aviation, b/tw the balloon and the military. But this is perhaps the most dangerous aspect of around the world flight is the military risk. 7:13 - (AC of being shot down, not of crashing) - balloons can be flown down. I could have an equipment problem w/ a balloon and I can fly it to the surface and do some kind of a reasonable landing. That's not the threat of death. The threat of death would be something dramatic like being shot. 7:34 AC (talks abt. how he went across the Atlantic and abt. then having to wait in Libya; asks to explain how you are able to wait and delay progress) SF 8:11 interestingly you can steer balloons. A balloon goes w/ the wind and the only way you can steer it is find different wind. And the wind at different altitudes will be at slightly different speed and perhaps 10 or 15 degrees different direction. In the case of libya we tried to fly around the south end of Libya by flying at a lower altitude where the wind was not only slower but also gave me a different direction that allowed me to get south. There was a way to wait and try to work my way around. 8:42 (AC asks if that was why he ran out of fuel) - I did consume some extra fuel in this operation of flying at a flight level which was not a part of the flight plan¿. But I did more of that over the atlantic where we also needed to change directions and consumed a great deal of excess fuel over the atlantic. By the time I finished going over libya we were able to calculate that I only had enough fuel to make it 2/3 the way across the pacific. 9:18 - (they laugh abt. this) AC (asks how he knew he didn't have enough fuel) SF 9:38 we had the proper amount of fuel assuming we didn't have any diversions which would consume extra fuel. That was where our calculation came up short. All distance flights in the past have been w/ an ideal flight level profile and we're used to cal... (Notes truncated)
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Archival information
- Cataloged
- 17 Oct 2008 - Ben Brotman
- Digitized
- 17 Oct 2008 - Ben Brotman
- Edited
- 17 Oct 2008 - Ben Brotman