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The longest ever flight was 64 days in a Cessna 172 (2021)

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Re: The longest ever flight was 64 days in a Cessna 172 (2021)

#71

Post by ufmace »

bombcar wrote: post #7
angelmm wrote: post #3

For me, it's crazy they were able to stay that long time with the engine noise. Also, there's no that much space to stretch and doing some exercise. As the article says, most likely there aren't more people who want to try to beat it.

It really likely is one of those "never will be beaten" records because anyone sane would do it in a B-52 bomber and have some room to stretch out - but everyone would immediately know it wasn't quite as "real" as being stuck in a plane the size of a Volkswagen bug for 2 months.

B52 seems a little overpriced. I'd think you'd want something like a C-47/DC-3 - enough room to walk around in, shower, cook, etc, but hopefully not too crazy expensive to operate.

Re: The longest ever flight was 64 days in a Cessna 172 (2021)

#72

Post by OliverJones »

And I thought a four-hour flight I once took in a 172 was far too long!

Good little airplanes, they are.

I suppose they chose their engine airspeed to achieve the lowest fuel consumption rate https://www.se.edu/aviation/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2020/... See pdf page 132, book page 5-18. It looks like they could use as little as ~6 gallons/hour at 1900 rpm. You can save a lot of fuel by flying more slowly; handy to know if you need (heaven forbid) to stretch that 45-minute reserve when your destination is socked in.

Re: The longest ever flight was 64 days in a Cessna 172 (2021)

#73

Post by mandevil »

akiselev wrote: post #54

This is by far the most interesting part of the story: > Refuelling was handled by lowering a hook via a winch down to a fuel truck that would trail the plane on a straight stretch of road, usually twice a day. The winch would then pull up a fuel hose from the truck, which would be used to fill the belly tank in around three minutes. The same system was used to regularly pull up food, oil and other supplies like towe…

Two decades earlier, a previous record holder, the Curtis Robin Ole Miss, stayed in the air for 27 days using real aerial refueling: https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/curtiss-robin-... Fred and Al Key, brothers who owned an airfield together, flew the record plane, two other men (James Keeton and William Ward) flew the refueling plane. In order to make the refueling safe, the Keys had designed a breakaway spill valve to prevent a disconnection from spilling fuel, the forerunner to the modern aerial refueling system.

The trickiest thing to me about what the Keys did was oil changes, which they needed to do every three days. They rigged up a metal catwalk around their engine, so that Fred could walk out and change the oil from the outside while the plane was still flying (they had two oil systems, each of which could lubricate the entire plane, so every three days they turned off the oil system on one side, Fred climbed out, drained the oil out on the ground- it's the 1930's, no one needs environmental impact statements!) closed the valve and refilled the oil tank, then they turned on that side and turned off the other side and did it again a few hours later when that oil had cooled.

Both Fred and Al joined the USAAF during World War Two and flew bomber missions over Germany. Al stayed in the Air Force after the war and ended up as a Colonel.

Re: The longest ever flight was 64 days in a Cessna 172 (2021)

#74

Post by jacquesm »

walrus01 wrote: post #53
blueside wrote: post #36

Pilots are truly some of the craziest people around. Just last summer, a guy flew a Cessna 172 from California to Hawaii. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N490NW/history/20220820/...

People fly small single engined planes from Nunavut to Greenland to Europe on a fairly regular basis.

A friend of mine did this for a living in his early 30's, he said those flights are probably the most dangerous things he's done in his life. He'd fly commercial to Canada, scout around for a good plane, arrange the sale and the various bits and pieces of paperwork, strip it down as much as possible, install extra fuel tanks and some other gear, then go to Halifax, check the plane over once more and then start puddle jumping hop by hop until reaching continental Europe. You could not pay me enough to try a stunt like that, let alone several times.

Re: The longest ever flight was 64 days in a Cessna 172 (2021)

#75

Post by walrus01 »

jacquesm wrote: post #74
walrus01 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People fly small single engined planes from Nunavut to Greenland to Europe on a fairly regular basis.

A friend of mine did this for a living in his early 30's, he said those flights are probably the most dangerous things he's done in his life. He'd fly commercial to Canada, scout around for a good plane, arrange the sale and the various bits and pieces of paperwork, strip it down as much as possible, install extra fuel tanks and some other gear, then go to Halifax, check the plane over once more and then start puddle…

If he was flying Halifax-Newfoundland-Greenland-Europe the planes must not have been too small, because the Newfoundland to the next hop distance is quite large. The absolute shortest single leg distances involve going through Iqaluit and then Greenland.

Re: The longest ever flight was 64 days in a Cessna 172 (2021)

#76

Post by mandevil »

bombcar wrote: post #7
angelmm wrote: post #3

For me, it's crazy they were able to stay that long time with the engine noise. Also, there's no that much space to stretch and doing some exercise. As the article says, most likely there aren't more people who want to try to beat it.

It really likely is one of those "never will be beaten" records because anyone sane would do it in a B-52 bomber and have some room to stretch out - but everyone would immediately know it wasn't quite as "real" as being stuck in a plane the size of a Volkswagen bug for 2 months.

Oil changes for a Stratofortress in flight would be a real trick. You could do what the Keys Brothers did and build a catwalk for wingwalking out to the engines- not recommended!- or you could do more like what the Hacienda did and run oil lines from each engine into the crew compartment so you can change it from inside, but that's a LOT of extra oil to pump. Going from the #1 engine all the way to the fuselage would be a long way to pump.

Re: The longest ever flight was 64 days in a Cessna 172 (2021)

#77

Post by jacquesm »

walrus01 wrote: post #75
jacquesm wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A friend of mine did this for a living in his early 30's, he said those flights are probably the most dangerous things he's done in his life. He'd fly commercial to Canada, scout around for a good plane, arrange the sale and the various bits and pieces of paperwork, strip it down as much as possible, install extra fuel tanks and some other gear, then go to Halifax, check the plane over once more and then start puddle…

If he was flying Halifax-Newfoundland-Greenland-Europe the planes must not have been too small, because the Newfoundland to the next hop distance is quite large. The absolute shortest single leg distances involve going through Iqaluit and then Greenland.

Interesting, I don't know what planes he was ferrying, and we lost contact years ago (I moved to Canada myself, he moved somewhere else in NL) so I can't ask. Possibly he did what you suggested, it would make good sense. Quite possibly Halifax was mentioned as the last stop before the end of civilization in terms of repairs and spare part availability, but I'm very sure he came through there.

It is an interesting thing though, the same planes that go fairly cheap in Canada are worth a fortune here in Europe so there definitely is money to be made.

Re: The longest ever flight was 64 days in a Cessna 172 (2021)

#78

Post by gavanm »

jeffrallen wrote: post #55
bitwize wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Entire life of the engine. After 1800 hours total operation, the engine should be overhauled: taken apart, cleaned, each part examined and replaced if necessary. Note that per FAA regulations in the USA, only actual flight time counts toward this limit, not time spent taxiing on the ground. It'll take a normal private pilot a few years to reach 1800h of operation, so it's more economical if you're not flying the plan…

Electric airplanes are already used in training in Europe. They are less expensive to operate on an hourly basis just because of fuel/energy cost. But they are probably also cheaper to overhaul; the Emrax motors in Pipistrels are relatively simple, and it would probably cost less to buy two and swap one out (sending the other one back to Emrax for a new bearings) than to do one thermal engine overhaul. And almost no…

Is there anything you can share regarding the electric plane? I had a look at your profile and couldn't see any links beyond your keys.

Re: The longest ever flight was 64 days in a Cessna 172 (2021)

#79

Post by NickNameNick »

kqr wrote: post #68
flavius29663 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can only imagine the control systems that go into these gliders. Fun fact, most planes are inherently stable, just like paper planes. If there is a disturbance, they will self correct most of the time. For example, glider pilots, if they do something stupid, are instructed to just let go of the controls, and the glider recovers on its own very quickly. Few ways this can go wrong: the wings start to "flap" by vibr…

As you said, stable is not necessarily good. A fully developed spin is incredibly stable to the point where you might not recover from it even if you try, but it also reliably takes you into the ground with too much vertical speed.

For conventional layout aircraft, with a suitably sized tail, stable mostly means nose-heavy. Which implies constant negative lift on the tail, and corresponding excess positive lift on the wings. Which means additional induced drag. All of which adds up to an efficiency and performance penalty.

And if the tail controls aren't suitably sized, then the pilots won't have enough control authority to move of of the very stable ballistic arc the plane wants to travel on.

Re: The longest ever flight was 64 days in a Cessna 172 (2021)

#80

Post by waste_monk »

mmastrac wrote: post #20
robga wrote: post #14

Just this year, an uncrewed Airbus Zephyr 8 High Altitude Pseudo-Satellite crashed just 4 hours shy of the time aloft for this crewed record. It’s 82 feet long but only 166 pounds, and solar refuels it’s batteries. Hardly the same class, but interesting nonetheless. https://www.overtdefense.com/2022/08/20/airbus-zephyr-crashe...

It didn't crash, it just "experienced circumstances that ended its current flight", hah. I realize we'll never hear about it, but I'd be very interested to see what caused it.

Reminds me of the good old "rapid unplanned disassembly".
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