Bruce From United States of America, joined May 1999, 5025 posts, RR: 17 Posted (2 months 6 days 4 hours ago) and read 2897 times:
Bill Harrelson is a guy who built a special purpose Lancair IV - the special purpose for flying extremely long, record setting, round the world trips. I've been following this story ever since I saw the flight tracker for a non-stop leg from Indiana to Honolulu. That was just a practice run. Then, he flew on to Guam and then east to Jacksonville, FL (KJAX). That trip set a distance record for homebuilt aircraft and took 38+ hours. But that too was a practice run.
His next trip is to attempt to circumnavigate via the poles. That trip I think is about to begin shortly. Here's a couple links to follow it:
He is a retired AA Captain with 20,000+ hours and he spent 8 years building this plane, so he's got a significant amount of experience. He doesn't have a blog for the trip or seek publicity but knows it will follow him, so there isn't much online about him. Bill is slated to appear at EAA Airventure with the plane this summer. I did find one Beechcraft forum in which one of the posters claims to be a friend of his and had some inside information about/during his Guam trip so that's where I got my info from.
Bill flew from Stafford VA up to Bangor yesterday - and BGR is a typical fuel stop for long haul trips. This morning, I learned he plans to leave BGR and head south to Recife, Brazil (SBRF) which if true would be the first leg as he heads toward the South Pole. Departure time is allegedly 1500z today but the flight disappeared from the tracker. Maybe a delay, I don't know.
PlaneInsomniac From Canada, joined Nov 2007, 612 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (2 months 6 days 3 hours ago) and read 2826 times:
Topic has been discussed here about a week ago (although I must admit that this OP provides a lot more info): One Long Lancair Flight! (by 71Zulu Mar 6 2013 in Civil Aviation)
[Edited 2013-03-13 09:36:31]
Am I cured? Slept 5 hours on last long-haul flight...
RDH3E From United States of America, joined Mar 2011, 1059 posts, RR: 0 Reply 2, posted (2 months 6 days 3 hours ago) and read 2813 times:
Quoting Bruce (Thread starter): He is a retired AA Captain with 20,000+ hours and he spent 8 years building this plane
Please do not forget to recognize his wife and co-pilot who helped build the aircraft and flies every trip with him and is a retired UA Captain. It is just as much her accomplishment as it is his.
Bruce From United States of America, joined May 1999, 5025 posts, RR: 17 Reply 4, posted (2 months 6 days 2 hours ago) and read 2701 times:
Yes, his wife also has significant experience so together they can pull this off. She's not flying with him on these record trips, the passenger seat has been replaced by a fuel tank. I'm sure she's coordinating things from the home base.
As far as I know, he submitted the details for verification to become an official record but I don't know what the result is or if they have ruled on it yet. Its an unofficial record in the single, homebuilt categories so far.
Bruce
Bruce Leibowitz - Jackson, MS (KJAN) - Canon 50D/100-400L IS lens
Aesma From France, joined Nov 2009, 4768 posts, RR: 9 Reply 5, posted (2 months 6 days 2 hours ago) and read 2645 times:
The Lancair IV falls into Class C-1d in the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale classification system (landplane, internal combustion powered, 1,500 to 3,000 kilograms).
No mention of homebuilt (most records use at least modified planes anyway).
New Technology is the name we give to stuff that doesn't work yet. Douglas Adams
Bruce From United States of America, joined May 1999, 5025 posts, RR: 17 Reply 8, posted (2 months 5 days 19 hours ago) and read 2298 times:
I really don't know. Nobody has interviewed him indepth. That would be a good question to ask if I meet him at EAA.
The Lancair is not a very big cockpit. I'm also thinking about sitting in one spot for 38 hours. Even some people who fly on long haul commercial flights for like 10 hours in Y class have leg or muscle problems so they say to get up and stand or walk the aisle a little bit. Not even astronauts have to stay belted in for that long.
Updated flight plan is now filed. He's leaving BGR for Recife tomorrow morning at 10am EDT and flightaware estimates it at 23 hours.
Bruce
Bruce Leibowitz - Jackson, MS (KJAN) - Canon 50D/100-400L IS lens
rfields5421 From United States of America, joined Jul 2007, 6140 posts, RR: 25 Reply 9, posted (2 months 5 days 18 hours ago) and read 2248 times:
Erik Lindbergh did a 75th anniversary recreation of his grandfather's flight - in a Lancair Columbia 300. The flight was 17 hours and 7 minutes long. Lindbergh has two artificial knees partially due to rheumatoid arthritis, which made sitting on one position in the small cockpit, while wearing a cold water survival suit, a real challenge.
Bruce From United States of America, joined May 1999, 5025 posts, RR: 17 Reply 10, posted (2 months 4 days 23 hours ago) and read 1960 times:
The flight is underway.... first leg to Recife. The entire routing as it stands now is supposed to be: KBGR-SBRF-SCCI-NZCH-PHNL-PAFA-KBGR, which would be 20,646nm on the Great Circle. While not a true cross-polar route its still impressive. Its impressive what this guy put into his little plane and the efficiency & range it can make.
Flightaware won't be able to track it over International waters, but he's got a public page on SpiderTracks which will:
https://go.spidertracks.com/fleetpro/public/zqpilot/tracks
Bruce
Bruce Leibowitz - Jackson, MS (KJAN) - Canon 50D/100-400L IS lens
n801dm From United States of America, joined Sep 2004, 99 posts, RR: 4 Reply 11, posted (2 months 3 days 16 hours ago) and read 1641 times:
I met Bill and his wife in 2004 in BGSF when I was on a charter trip. They were flying from there home in Florida to Ireland on a week long getaway. We thought it was amazing but could not believe how long they flew for at a time! Very Impressive!
Bruce From United States of America, joined May 1999, 5025 posts, RR: 17 Reply 13, posted (2 months 3 days 12 hours ago) and read 1545 times:
Yes. I'd imagine that could be a problem in a cramped tight cockpit for 22 hours straight, as in this recent leg, or even the Guam to Jacksonville 38 hour segment. Some people can do it, but they'd likely have to be in very good physical shape before hand.
Bruce
Bruce Leibowitz - Jackson, MS (KJAN) - Canon 50D/100-400L IS lens
Bruce From United States of America, joined May 1999, 5025 posts, RR: 17 Reply 14, posted (1 month 4 weeks 1 day 23 hours ago) and read 1182 times:
From a current update.... N6ZQ is still parked in Punta Arenas, Chile waiting on a cold front in the southern ocean to move. There's a 100% chance of icing if flying into that, and as heavy as he'll be that can't happen. Probability of clearing on Wednesday.....then its over the Antarctic region to Christchurch, NZ. Antarctic winter is getting closer so good weather days will be harder to find!
It looks like the next stops have been modified from Honolulu to Hilo, and from Fairbanks to Nome.
Bruce
Bruce Leibowitz - Jackson, MS (KJAN) - Canon 50D/100-400L IS lens
maxpower1954 From United States of America, joined Sep 2008, 854 posts, RR: 5 Reply 15, posted (1 month 4 weeks 1 day 19 hours ago) and read 1099 times:
Just an amazing journey, thanks for keeping us up to date Bruce. I'll be checking here often for progress reports.
Bruce From United States of America, joined May 1999, 5025 posts, RR: 17 Reply 16, posted (1 month 3 weeks 1 day 14 hours ago) and read 753 times:
Well, the excellent adventure had to be aborted this time. The weather in the Southern Ocean was not cooperating, its getting closer to winter. He spent a week waiting for a hole, but decided to give it up this time.
So, his return trip was another long haul. He flew non stop up the pacific coast of South America, crossing Panama, up the Gulf between Cuba and Cancun, then hang a right and up to Key West. 27 hours!
Hopefully we'll see more adventures from him soon.
Bruce
Bruce Leibowitz - Jackson, MS (KJAN) - Canon 50D/100-400L IS lens
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