Fighting Headwinds, Ice, Turbulence

Gus McLeod took off from Ushuaia, Argentina Friday morning, determined to cross the South Pole. According to Dr. Barbara Ganson, from Florida Atlantic University, Gus' departure looked terrific from the tower. "From the tower we had direct communication with Gus for about a half hour until he reached his first check in point at the end of the Beagle Canal."

It took him some time to reach 3,000 feet due to heavy rain and turbulence. Gus' intended route takes him through the treacherous Drake Passage, where he has to endure dangerous headwinds. Gus must maintain a safe altitude to avoid icing on the Firefly. The additional fuel onboard has made the plane heavy and maintaining altitude has proven to be a concern. Gus has been teetering between 2800 and 3000 feet with a ground speed of 120 mph with a position of 60 degrees latitude, 67 degrees longitude, about 3 hours south of Ushuaia.

During his earlier flights, Gus was averaging a ground speed of 141 mph but because of the headwinds and the weight of his additional fuel, Gus is flying slower and using up more fuel than expected. As the attempt got underway, he became concerned that he would not have enough fuel to make it back to Ushuaia, and was wearing his exposure suit in the event of an emergency landing.

However; ice did force him down enroute to the Pole. McLeod made an unplanned landing at Rothera Research Station on Adelaide Island after icing up. A spokesman, Josh Brooks, noted that it was "very uncertain" as to whether Gus was going to be able to continue his flight due to an expected blizzard. The Rothera landing came after McLeod made the decision to turn around, enroute, to affect the landing at the station.

Gus' original plan was to make the 3700NM flight to the South Pole and back to Ushuaia in a non-stop 30-hour flight. Beset by scheduling issues, and equipment teething problems, the flight has had to surmount a number of preparation issues that would have been mollified by more testing, development and "burn-in" time... but the deteriorating weather synopsis for the coming weeks showed a smaller window of opportunity that needed to be used in order to avoid scrubbing the attempt until later in the year.

FMI: www.gusmcleod.com