Another young lady circumnavigates

[deckofficer]

But instead of 5 to 6 kt average speed, around 300 kt. Amelia Rose Earhart is following her name sake's flight with hopefully a better conclusion. Left Oakland, California this morning and is currently descending from FL 250 for landing in Broomfield, Colorado.

She is flying a single engine plane, but that single engine is a turbine rated at 1200 shp. Some seats were removed to allow an additional 200 gallon fuel tank.

Good luck Amelia. As a kid I read every book I could find on her.

Follow her here...

Amelia Earhart Reenactment Flight - The Amelia Project

[letsgetsailing3]

It's simply not the same challenge now.

After looking at the web site, it seems more like a PR stunt than anything else. Nice glamour shots, though!

I'm just not a big fan of the "youngest" to do things that have already been done. The challenge often becomes more about getting sponsorship than about the deed itself.

[model 10]

Hey 64, what would be the range of a turbine Thrush with the hopper full of fuel?

[deckofficer]

Originally Posted by Guy

Hey 64, what would be the range of a turbine Thrush with the hopper full of fuel?

Well lets see, a 550 Thrush carries 228 gallons fuel and 550 gallons in the hopper. At 55% cruise has a range of 648 miles, so my guess would be around 2000 miles if the hopper had jet A in it.

[a64pilot]

Pretty close actually, but I'd take the aircraft I just got through certifying a couple of years ago. it's faster and more fuel efficient. S2R-H80 with the new GE engine. The 510 hopper can actually carry 489 gls of fuel, wings as deck officer said 228, at altitude she will burn 40 gls an hour and true out at 150 kts. So 228 + 489 = 717 gls of fuel and 40 gl an hour gives you 17.9 hours of endurance, traveling 150 kts is 2688 miles.
Now we have on our G-10 powered aircraft going to Australia in the past also stuck old A4 150 gl ea drop tanks under the wings, it's a pig performance wise but carries over 1,000 gl of fuel. Assuming a fuel burn rate of 45 gl an hour and 145 kts gives you a 3277 mile range.

Longest leg I have done was a little over 14 hrs, remember no auto pilot and you can't get out of the seat for any reason.

Back in the day ferry pilots used to pass on position reports on 123.45 to airliners who would relay for them. Jon Eggas one of our ferry pilots tells a story about just leaving California for Hawaii and passing on a position report that way, later on he requested a position report to be passed on again when he got closer to Hawaii, Pilot of the 747 wanted to know how many crop dusters there were out there in the Pacific. Seems the 747 pilot had been to Hawaii, spent the night and was on the way back. Jon of course had spent the night in the Thrush.

I guess I must have let on working at Thrush sometime or another?

[MarkJ]

The insanity of "youngest" achievements is that it ends in tears... Or death.

The young girls sailing circumnavigations were seriously jeopardising their lives, one run down by a ship the other nearly lost in the Indian ocean.

And flying?

What about the insane, stupid, moronic story of the little girl below being sacrificed, murdered, killed for the benefit of media and this stupid "youngest" achievement?


Dead at 7 years old: Jessica Dubroff, a 7-year-old student pilot from Pescadero, Calif., taking off on the second leg of an audacious quest to become the youngest person ever to complete a round-trip flight across the USA, was killed in 1996 when her single-engine plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Cheyenne Airport. 2 others were also killed.
Lloyd Dubroff said he was inspired by another young girl's cross-country flight several years ago, and when Jessica expressed an interest in flying, he asked her if she would like to try such a flight. Later the girl who inspired Lloyd, Vicki Van Meter, suicided at 26 partially due to Jessica Dubroffs death.

Mark

[a64pilot]

The kid wasn't actually flying, anymore than your kid who goes with you to the store is driving

[model 10]

I think she should have "maned up" and taken a Thrush then. Hell she can probably take a long dump and a snooze in the PC-12 on auto pilot.
You guy's should have been on this.

[a64pilot]

Thing is , it's done all the time. Several were just delivered to China.

All of this crap is just the rich showing off, it's nothing more than that. Yes, the PC-12 is actually one very fine luxury aircraft. Get up, walk around, use the head, cook a meal, and attend the press briefing where you tell of the hardships

[deckofficer]

Mark,

I headed the topic from my perspective as an old fart of 60+ years. Amelia Rose Earhart is 31 years young.

I remember the tragedy of Jessica, and the poor judgement of her instructor.

[Coops]

Amelia is not a ''kid'' either. ''for the past 8 years she has been working as a reporter'' it says about her. Let's not ''kid'' ourselves here.

Just beat me to it in the previous post I see.

Coops.

[a64pilot]

Just read about how Pilatus is having a 4,500 hour PC-12 instructor pilot fly along with her as a "co-pilot"
Yeah, right, a co-pilot huh?

[deckofficer]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Thing is , it's done all the time. Several were just delivered to China.

All of this crap is just the rich showing off, it's nothing more than that. Yes, the PC-12 is actually one very fine luxury aircraft. Get up, walk around, use the head, cook a meal, and attend the press briefing where you tell of the hardships

Having to bend down a bit to walk around would be the hardship, as cabin height is 4" 10".

[model 10]

The young women who sail around the world solo are in a different league than this. Over water in a single engine airplane is a big deal but it's over relatively quick.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Guy

The young women who sail around the world solo are in a different league than this. Over water in a single engine airplane is a big deal but it's over relatively quick.

Not when you have an expert "co-pilot" along, shes not solo, not by a long shot. No more difficult than flying in the back of an airliner, less maybe