Re: TAM 5 is on the way

OK I'm back i just see the map has been updated, looks good, its 1/2 way there excellent , been flying ( I think, almost 20 hours?)

If nothing else they have blow away the F3A No.142 record for straight line distance of 832.43km (517.25 miles). Way to go TAM Team.

Red S.

Yeah, noticed that. Congrats to all of them. Just out of curiosity, Is the satellite data enough for the books, or would it be unofficial if the plane didn't make it all the way?

He has to land within (I think) 100 metres of his chosen destination. The destination has to be declared in advance.

I believe they got some favoritism to allow this to stand as a record. The rules were fairly clear about being under the control of the main pilot for more than 50% of the time.

Of course, it could be a record unto itself and not affect any other fully controlled records.

They have to land at a spot named in advance. If they don't make it there, it isn't an official record.

Last ever update I fear. :-(

Not quite!

Tam status report: Tam 5 Crossing status:

Message to TAM crew at 0800 UTC

We received no position data from our satellite system for over three hours, from 0344 UTC to 0656 UTC. This long silence had us convinced that the airplane had gone down, for we usually hear once every hour and a half, and most of the time, more frequently. We were in the middle of telephoning our Irish crew to turn around and go home -- there was no airplane. When bingo!! A new set of satellite data came in at 0656 UTC. At this time, the airplane was 1608 miles into the flight, and the total flight time was 32.6 hours.

The engine and stalling business seems to have cleared itself. We see no evidence of porpoising anymore. Unfortunately, the ground speed is only 43 miles per hour, which is the speed of the airplane in still air in tests back in Maryland. Apparently we have no tailwind whatever. All of our sources of wind data are currently not functioning. We are trying to get wind data from our friends in Ireland now.

The bottom line is that we have still 280 miles to go and at 43 miles per hour that's another 6.4 hours left. That adds up to the fact that we will have to have fuel for a total of 39.4 hours. That's on the upper limit of what we can expect. But we can hope! If the engine problem in the middle part of the flight was a lean mixture, maybe it will make it.

Our crew here has missed a lot of sleep. We're tired but excited.

Cheers!

Maynard Hill