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Steve Fossett Declared Dead
Parallax Blue writes "Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett, who risked his life seeking to set records in high-tech balloons, gliders and jets, was declared dead Friday, 5 months after he vanished while flying in an ordinary small plane. The self-made business tycoon, who in 2002 became the first person to circle the world solo in a balloon, was last seen Sept. 3 after taking off in a single-engine plane from an airstrip near Yerington, Nev., heading toward Bishop, Calif. He was 63."
ordinary small plane.
Hardly - the plane he was using was an aerobatic Bellanca-built Super Decathlon Citabria, capable of inverted flight and frequently used for aerobatic training.
...people say "he died doing what he loved". No pilot loves crashing a plane. Whatever had gone terribly wrong at the end of Steve's last flight, I can guarantee you he was not loving it. I'd bet that the first emotion that he felt was anger at whatever caused the initial deviation from normal flight, followed by shock and apprehension in the final seconds once he realized he was in serious trouble.
Fortunately I have never been in such a dire predicament while behind the controls of a plane, the worst that's happened to me was a partial loss of power after takeoff during climbout in a C172, but I had plenty of altitude and an airport right behind me in easy gliding distance in case the engine quit completely, but I landed normally without incident. I can tell you I was certainly NOT loving it, and the emotion going thru my head was that I was pissed off at the airplane.
Two pilot friends of mine have died in small plane crashes, both due to making really stupid errors in judgement. As they drilled their respective planes into the dirt, they were not doing what they loved either. Both of them took friends and family members to their deaths with them too.
"Help & Preferences" -> "Index" -> "General", then uncheck "Show Tags".
I turned them off a long time ago since they provide no value.
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
From low-end to top of the line in this model series:
(1) Champ
(2) Citabria (various versions)
-----> (2.5) Scout line derived from Citabria airframe to become bush-plane line.
(3) Decathlon
(4) Super Decathlon
Steve was flying the top of the line model, though the Scout probably would've been a better choice of a plane for the particular mission Steve was flying, if he would have had one available.
No, he was seen flying by a person who works at the ranch. That's where they got their 'best guess' as to the direction he was flying in.
Hotblack Desiato didn't fake it. "He's spending a year dead, for tax purposes," is how it was described.
Not just fighting crime, but fighting crime in the bat-hot air ballon.
Sig unrelated.
Great! Now I know what to say when people say "But Jesus died ...!" "Who gives a f*ck?"
In Soviet Russia, the party declares YOU dead!