Steve Fossett Sets Glider Record
Steve Fossett has set yet another aviation record, this time in a glider. Steve and copilot Einar Enevoldson were able to ride air currents in their glider over Patagonia reaching 50,699 feet. The unpressurized glider was released from tow at 13,000 feet for the ascent. Steve and Einar were wearing pressurized suits to survive the climb and help block the -70° temperatures outside the glider.
During the flight Steve and Einar collected meteorological data for NASA who are studying the polar vortex, described by the AP as a pattern of high speed winds circling in the stratosphere.
At one point in the flight Steve spotted a commercial flight cruising well below their altitude.
“I couldn’t understand how the Chilean controller described us in Spanish to the airline pilot,” he said in the statement. “But I understood the answer by the pilot: ‘Wow.’”
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POSTED IN: Aviation Technology, aviation
1 opinion for Steve Fossett Sets Glider Record
Major Tom Slee
Sep 19, 2006 at 18:52 \261\u\Tuesday\u
Back in 1947, I was an 17 year old Air Scout from Chickasha, OK and attended the International Soaring Society’s meet at Shepard AFB, Wichita Falls, TX. I was assinged to the FRENCH Crew. While there I met the President of the USA Soaring Society. I don’t remember his name except that he set records that summer and also set altitude records later. I must have made an impression on him, also, as the next summer, on his way to Elmira, N.Y., he stopped by in Chickasha to pick me up to take me to Elmira to crew for him. I didn’t know this untill my mother called me that he had stopped in Chickasha. I had graduated from high school and had left for a summer job. We never met again. We corresponded a couple of times but then the Korean War came along and I enlisted. I still can’t recall his name.
The rest of the story - I went to Pilot Training - graduated and got my wings and went to Korea. Came back and instructed. Then I went to Florida State University and got a degree in Meteorology and went to Zaragoza AB, Spain with duty as ‘Chief Forecaster’ there. ( I had a chance to attend the Spanish AF Glider School north of Zaragoza; then the AF wouldn’t let us go) There were Mtn Waves coming off the Pyrennes and the mountains of Spain - I read all that I could at that time and saw where my friend from Witchita had done some flights out at Bishop, CA in research of “the Bishop Wave”. Then I later was sent back to the cockpit to C-124’s at McChord AFB, Tacoma, WA. I retired here and stayed. Now at times we get some of the most beautiful pictures of Lenticulars coming off of Mt. Rainier and stacking up to the troposphere at sunset. If you should want a picture, let me know.
Major Tom Slee, USAF ret
10101 111th St Ct SW
Lakewood, WA 98498
253-584-1223
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