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Help Find Steve Fossett775 Pledges
Description:Issue: STEVE FOSSETT HAS BEEN FOUND. THANK YOU EVERYONE! YOUCHOOSE.NET OFFERS A $10,000 REWARD TO THE FIRST YOUCHOOSE MEMBER WHO PROVIDES INFORMATION LEADING TO THE RESCUE OF STEVE FOSSETT. TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE! PLEASE READ ON: On Monday, September 3, 2007, Steve Fossett, the first person to fly a plane solo around the world without refueling and the first person to fly around the world in a balloon went missing in Nevada. An airplane he was flying failed to return. No one has any idea where he is. Through the generous efforts of individuals at several organizations, detailed satellite imagery has been made available for his last known whereabouts. Belief:I believe that if we each take a little time looking at the satellite images and marking those that may have signs of Fossett in them, we could find him or determine what happened to him.
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To Mike B.
Oh yeah....Well I saw it. I can't explain it. I can't get Google to function properly with the KML images, or whatever. I download the thing from Mturk. Then I go to Places; Temporary Places and activate it. Then I go to Steve Fossett search and activate it. Then I switch on and off every **** item in that schedule and nothing changes,, at all. I take Mturks coordinates, paste them in the Fly to window and hit the Magnifying glass button and nothing happens. I can't do it manually because their coordinates make no sense. so I give up every day and search on my own. Today I did a theme search, assuming Steve was good to his word. I planned out a trip from Powell Canyon East to the Dry Lake in Garfield Flat. From there I went to Mina and then to the Dry Lake at Kibby Flat. Then South down towards Tonopah to the Dry Lakes at Desert Well and Alum Well which are just South of 6/95 Hwy at 38 03 117 37. I found a lot of possibles, but about then it dawned on me that I was working with old images from before 9/3. I have no way to tell. I have the coordinates for 15 sightings, Mike, but if I am correct about the images- forget it. Please check if you can and see if images in those areas are before or after 9/3 and I'll stash these numbers until I hear from you. One discovery! Everyone outside of the urban areas of Nevada owns an airplane.
T om S.
I'm looking at a big box outlined in thick red lines with a big X in the middle. Its Over Yerington and spreads west and North from Yerington. Anybody know what this is about?
Tom S.
In GoogleEarth, if you view the side panel to the left, you can check and uncheck boxes that will remove and allow different views. Hope that helps.
I heard the news about Death Valley, but if SF did that, he would have to get right past R-4811, and Area 51. I still like the area West of the ranch and East of 395 that, for some reason, they won't give us a kml file for. After 24 days, you would think they'd have us internet searchers looking EVERYWHERE. If it were me out there, I'd want to be found.
I didn't see anything on how much fuel SF took off with. How much did the plane leave the ranch with?
I checked out the Air Force report that stretched the search down to Death Valley, but I found more disturbing information. Had Steve had a full tank, according to the specs, he would have had enough fuel to take him 563 miles, or straight into the rough terrain at the North end of the Gulf of California and right into the Piancate Volcano. That would turn this into an international search.
How much fuel did SF have at takeoff?
A newbie here. I was looking in the water, and can see a plane on the water, with no shadows, about 1/2 mile off shore. Perhaps it has been mentioned before. It is at.38 37' 48.32"N, 118 44' 14.50"W
I did search the area using a recently downloaded free version of the Citabria for FS2004, and it works well. As many times as I've run this course, the best I can tell SF was using VFR and following the roads in the area. Every time I get into the area it seems if SF wanted to stay on CA-395 North from Sonora Junction and took Burcham Flat Rd. instead, he'd run into trouble right in the area of those campgrounds. Not being on 395 going North, if he made it through the rough spots I suggest, he may have spotted the way back to the ranch through Hawthorne. on NF-067 Rd.
I took another look in the kml files today and found one really obvious indication at 38 29 895 N and 119 24 498 W at an altitude of 7413 feet. It may have been mentioned before.
Two other possiblities not far from there are at 38 30 085 N 119 25 791 W
at 6691 feet and 38 30 947 N 119 25 876 W at 6501 feet. I tried looking for those co-ordinates before I posted this, and they may be old, but that first one is just too obvious.
The spots I mentioned are within the search area, but I still like the area in between, because in some spots, one good gust of windshear would lead to horrible results. Best of luck with what I've given you.
Also, to the left of the plane are what appear to be skid marks. It looks as though the plane skidded and then slid around to the left, bending the left wing, which is visible in the image.
I believe the reason no one has found Mr. Fossett yet is because they are looking in the wrong place. On Google Earth, I found what appears to be his plane, not debris but rather a damaged plane, at these coordinates:
38 21'13.49" N
119 17'30.13" W
I used the ruler function to compare this with the dimensions of his plane, and they match. I hope there is still time to find him alive. If this is his plane, he could have survived.
38°36'52.76"N
118°43'4.86"W
Crashed into water, near shoreline?
To Michael B.
Sorry about the jaunt South. I assume that's what you are referring to vis a vis the coordinates. I am very skeptical about the Air Force traces, but I wanted to look at how daunting the terrain is. I doubt that he would have had enough fuel to do anything but turn around and come back. I am wondering about some of the info we are getting. Who spotted his aircraft near Powell Canyon? Why even notice unless he was doing something unusual. Someone also said he didn't like Aerobatics. True? That would mean that he probably wasn't familiar with the Citabria because its sole reason for existence is to do Aerobatics. Therefore, Steve would probably not have knowledge of its fuel usage, particularly at a Normal Cruise setting , because the planes normal usage is at the high power settings used in Aerobatics.
I agree with you, Michael, that the search overlays should extend farther East and should be clearly labeled by date so that there is no confusion about what was seen when.
Tom S.
Therese D - I suspect that your comments earlier will turn out to be correct if and when Steves plane turns up. I don't think that he flew any further south than Powell Canyon. There seems to be some question as to whether he was on a pleasure flight or looking at flat sites for his upcoming land speed record. As they had already selected a site in Utah, I would say that he was on a pleasure flight. The Citabria has a range of 550 miles and cruising speed of 130MPH. This would give him around 4 hours in the air. However, Steve indicated that he would be gone max 3 hours. My feeling is that probably had flown over Lake Tahoe, then down to Yosemite and was then heading east to have a look at something beyond Powell Canyon. At this point, he had been in the air for 1 3/4 hours. If he made a decision to go to Death Valley, this would have added at least another 2 hours to his flight time. If he did this, not only would he be running low on fuel but would not be in his schedule.
The Citabria Super Decathlon is constructed of tubular aluminium covered in fabric and, in the event of a fire, burns very fast as we have seen from comments earlier. Further bad news - to facilitate negative-g flight, the fuel system incorporates a 1.5 gallon header tank beneath the instrument panel, not an ideal situation as it would probably go up even a minor crash, giving little time to make an exit. (I don't want to appear negative but We could be looking for just a scorch mark on the ground, as the only thing left would be the engine block.)
To sum up, I think that Steve flew no more than a few miles east of Powell Canyon then turned North/Northwest for home.
Anyone got any further thoughts on the matter?
I had been wondering last night about the plane's cruising speed, so thanks for that info.
My math isn't too good, but I'll give this a go ...
Based on the available information, he was sighted approx 30 miles south of the ranch at 10.30 and planned to return by the latest 11.30.
In that hour he could travel about 130 miles (depending on the terrain and the weather). Add the 30 miles from the ranch to the 130 he could fly in an hour = 160 miles. Half of that (80 miles) is the distance he would need to fly on his return journey to reach the ranch by 11.30.
Since he was already 30 miles from the ranch, he couldn't have flown more than 50 miles east from his last sighting before he needed to turn back?
If the AF plans to search down there, its what you call a target rich environment.
34 57 39 61 116 18 41 .02
34 58 00 98 116 18 44.16
34 58 37 79 116 18 49 26
34 58 45 19 116 18 51 .23
35 00 23 74 116 19 24 07
Seemed like I only went about 20 miles.
TomS.
Without the detail on these coordinates, they don't show up when I search GE for them - just the map moves to the west which is the wrong direction according to the info on Steve's website and the latest AF info.
Seems it would be best to use the add path tool and draw a line directly SE from the ranch for about 100 miles. Search about x number of miles either side of the line.
There are actually several interesting spots down there, but I'll bet on the red placemark. The yellow place marks are possibles only.
Tom S.
Therese D: The placemarks I put on the google image that contains the coordinates
39 09 18 76 119 06 02 49 . I thought they stayed there for all to see, but apparently not. Sorry..
Tom S.
New update on the search ...
http://edition.cnn.com/20 07/US/09/25/steve.fossett.ap/index.html# cnnSTCText
If this turns out to be something, will we all have egg on our collective faces. 39 09 18.76 119 06 02 49 White object down in the pit on the ouskirts (NE) of Yerington. Check it out.
Tom S.
Based on this message on 11th September from Steve's website ...
"The aircraft's last confirmed position on Monday (3 September) at approximately 10:30 A.M. local time showed Steve west of Powell Canyon (south of Walker Lake and southwest of Hawthorne), proceeding east towards the canyon. This location is less than 30 miles SE from his point of departure / expected arrival. Steve was expected to return to the ranch around 11:00 - 11:30 AM.", I've been working on the theory that when he eventually turned north to return to the ranch, he traveled along the east side of Lake Walker to enjoy the view. He crossed the northern tip of the lake to fly across the mountains and down into the valley towards the northern end of the ranch airstrip.
I surmised that he came to grief whilst crossing that area of the mountains, possibily hit by a strong gust of wind or even maybe a thunderstorm. That's what I've been basing my searches on. I've found some possibilities but sadly nothing that seems to have helped and I've just about covered all I can in that area now.
Whatever actually happened, I hope for the sake of his wife and family, that he's found soon. The waiting, the not knowing, must be awful.