Guam-KJAX in Lancair!

Mike I

Mike I

Line Up and Wait
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Mike I
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Awesome, unfortunately the good Lord did not bless me with balls that big.
 
I have been following him too.... Lancair 4 with a IO-550 and 400 gallons of fuel....... he is going to attempt a round the world, non stop flight polar to polar... The guy has balls for sure.....

Hope he can stay safe..:yes:
 
Forget the fuel... how does he get his balls into the airplane?

Seriously... I'm right on the edge between "isn't THAT cool" and "isn't THAT friggin' stupid".
 
Jeebus, look at the history on Flightaware. That's some serious single engine flight time for one week. Did Bill do all that? Gimme summa dem drugs!
 
Bill attended Wings 5 years ago with his Lancair 320. Being interested in Lancairs, I went up and talked to him, and before he left he gave me a ride in the plane. He's a retired American Airlines captain, and this is how he spends his retirement. Back then, he was still working on building the Lancair IV. I had remembered him saying he was building a IV-P, but it might just be a straight IV.

With the 320, he had set a bunch of records as well. He could get it down to 140 KTAS @ 4 GPH (which he demonstrated for me). He and his wife flew it to Europe, over the Gulf of Mexico, and a bunch of other places.

Not only a great pilot with some incredible nerve, but also a great guy. Just thinking about that fun flight he took me up for makes me smile as one of the highlights of my flying career, 5 years and 2,000 hours later.

Now I want a Lancair again. :)
 
That's an awfully long time to be airborne and not have to clear customs when you land.

Edit: Spoke too soon.... from Wiki:
Since Guam is outside the United States customs jurisdiction, passengers from all arrival flights go through GCQA inspection. Passengers bound for Honolulu (currently the only Stateside flight) go through a normal USCBP customs inspection upon arrival.
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Wow. This must beat Max Conrad's Cairo to LA record, no?
 
:dunno::dunno::dunno:.

Flightaware shows him landing at Reno over an hour ago..:dunno::dunno:.

Maybe a Flightaware hiccup ??
 
N801BH said:
:dunno::dunno::dunno:.

Flightaware shows him landing at Reno over an hour ago..:dunno::dunno:.

Maybe a Flightaware hiccup ??
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FlightAware seems to have been broken with this trip for a while. It said "result unknown" when it wasn't even to Hawaii yet. I don't think it's designed for a trip that long.

We'll find out the real story. :)
 
Been watching the green line on flightaware this morning, continues a steady march, currently just short of Utah's eastern border.
 
Cat is right - that line is still pushing along! I missed it - Ben pointed out Reno, I saw the line towards eastern Utah. Now he's in Colorado.

The man who broke FlightAware. :D
 
Just hit Oklahoma now - probably going to be sometime this afternoon.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Just hit Oklahoma now - probably going to be sometime this afternoon.
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I just called one of the FBO's at KJAX to find out what time he was expected
to arrive and all I got was the quote "We can not give out that information".
I thought it would be nice to welcome him to Jacksonville but I'd rather not spend
the afternoon trying to figure out which company he'll be using upon arrival.
 
I'm sure there will be a crowd of some sort, shouldn't be too difficult to find.
 
Glad to see he is still on the move.... I woke up a 2 am ready to plow snow and I checked his progress.. Flightaware showed his dot at reno and the comment " landed over an hour ago" Since it wasn't snowin I hit the sack and wake up to progress....:):):)...

So.. the current score is

Flightaware = 0

Bill = 1

Someone should tip off the media like Fox or Speed Tv and hope they latch onto the headline " Retired airline pilot flys his homemade plane built in his garage, halfway around the world without stopping for fuel":yesnod:
 
Anyone know what happened? FA track ends at the far West tip of the OK panhandle..

?!

-Mike
 
Looks as though he just landed, Spidertracks has him on the taxiway at 13 knots. Wow!:goofy:
 
After reading about this I can't cry about how long it takes me from Camarillo to Montery in my 172.
 
My butt hurts thinking about sitting for that long. Very VERY cool flight though and awesome plane.
 
Besides being a proficient pilot, and knowing both your body's and your aircraft's limitations inside and out, how does one simply stay awake and alert for that period of time. That must take serious training itself. I once spoke to a guy who piloted a boat (no idea what kind) solo across the atlantic, and he said it was something like 40 hours. He said he would get into a trance like state for hours on end.
 
I drove for 40 hours straight once. Yeah, it's hard.
 
Redbull! It would be tough for sure. Awake and Alert are to different things also.
 
I would think he slept. Maybe just an hour or two with an alarm clock for position reports. It's not like there's any low altitude traffic over the middle of the Pacific and there's nothing to hit.
 
My limited experience staying up all night studying in college was that hunger was much more effective at keeping me awake than energy drinks.
 
Alexb2000 said:
I would think he slept. Maybe just an hour or two with an alarm clock for position reports. It's not like there's any low altitude traffic over the middle of the Pacific and there's nothing to hit.
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He would have to be monitoring HF (which is full of background BS) unless he had a SELCAL, I do believe.
 
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