
Flying a Cessna 172 for 65 days nonstop - johncole
https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2008/march/01/endurance-test-circa-1958
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codezero
Awesome story but I’m really disappointed in the lack of photos. Does anyone
have any good links?

Some fun facts: They refueled twice a day

They bathed by using a bottle of water

They didn’t sleep well and once overslept and ran on autopilot

They refueled from a truck that drove under them. They hoisted a hose up.
Their generator died half way through and they had to use a hand pump the rest
of the time.

It was really boring up there.

~~~
jokoon
The cessna take off speed is 100Km/h, does that mean that refueling truck had
to go around that same speed, or maybe a little slower since the airplane did
not have to rise?

Or did they have a modified wing?

~~~
cjbprime
Am not a pilot, but why would they need takeoff speed, rather than to just
stay above the minimum speed before stalling? That $V_s0$ speed is more like
65Km/h.

~~~
JshWright
Also important to note that's airspeed, not ground speed. If they're
driving/flying into a headwind, the ground speed (the speed the truck cares
about) is even lower.

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whamlastxmas
I can't help but wonder how they went to the bathroom? Did they have a little
cassette toilet in the back that they had to dump out every couple days?

Having flown a 172 for a couple hours I can't imagine wanting to live in one
for two months. I'd go insane.

~~~
cyberferret
From another article posted above:

> This also inevitably leads one to the question: how did they use the
> bathroom? Well, because the Cessna 172 doesn’t come standard with a toilet,
> and there was no room to install a permanent one, Timm and Cook had to rig
> their own system. This took the form of a folding camp toilet and plastic
> bags. Once they had been used, the plastic bags were then disposed of over
> unpopulated areas in the desert around Blythe. According to Mark Hall-
> Patton, the administrator of the Clark County Museum system in Las Vegas, “I
> once asked John’s widow if they handed down the waste during refueling runs.
> She said, ‘No. That’s why it’s so green around Blythe.’ ”

~~~
cf498
Steep face rock climbing has the same problem. If you climb for days on a
vertical cliff, there is really just one directs where all the waste has to
go. Better watch out that it doesnt hit your rope or some climber below you.

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callumprentice
This line made me smile "There was no way they could cheat and land at another
airport to refuel without getting caught. Shortly after takeoff, a guy sitting
in an open Ford Thunderbird convertible had painted a white stripe on the
landing wheel, and that could never be reached from the cockpit, even with the
little platform attached."

~~~
JorgeGT
Said procedure could be repeated at the other airport though. Blockchain
refills opportunity?

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sparkzilla
Video:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKZyy9FZRWY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKZyy9FZRWY)

~~~
rzzzt
Illustrated version:
[https://youtu.be/3TDk34hnSXc](https://youtu.be/3TDk34hnSXc)

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tmountain
Seems like blood clots could be an issue since there’s no way to effectively
get your blood circulating effectively in such a small space.

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njarboe
I was wondering how they did the re-fueling. It's via pickup truck on a
straight road near Blythe California twice a day. That would have been a sight
to see.

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cornellwright
I've always really liked this story.

As it mentions at the end of the article you can see the airplane hanging from
the ceiling in the Las Vegas airport. There's a little mini air museum in
there too with a few other aviation related artifacts. If you have a long
layover it's worth seeing even though it's outside security.

~~~
ourmandave
The movie script writes itself.

Our heroes, trapped in a zombie filled Vegas airport, must somehow get the old
172 flying again to make their escape.

~~~
TomK32
In that Zombie scenario I'd rather work for the ground crew doing the twice-
daily refueling....

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thom
Can anyone explain the thinking around the alcohol injection system?

~~~
lmm
Water-methanol injection was used in some early aeroplanes (and even cars) to
improve performance, and reduced carbon buildup was a known side effect.

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utopkara
Fantastic story! Looking forward to following the new breed of aviation
pioneers and adventures in space!

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modzu
pics or it didn't happen

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lurkertroll
I wonder what would happen if they flew for more than 90 days putting them in
violation FAR 61.57

> (1) Except as provided in paragraph (e) of this section, no person may act
> as a pilot in command of an aircraft carrying passengers or of an aircraft
> certificated for more than one pilot flight crewmember unless that person
> has made at least three takeoffs and three landings within the preceding 90
> days

~~~
userbinator
This was in 1958. FAR 61.57 was first created in 1999.

[http://rgl.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Guidance_Library/rgFAR.nsf...](http://rgl.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Guidance_Library/rgFAR.nsf/HistoryFARPart!OpenView&Start=1&Count=200&Expand=30#30)

~~~
ohazi
Even then, it'd probably be fine if the passenger was (for example) a flight
instructor.

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sv12l
Awesome story, how did they manage the fuel?

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armadsen
If you read the article, you’d learn that they refueled twice a day by
lowering a hose down to a speeding truck.

~~~
anoncoward111
We shouldn't downvote for this reason. Some of us are on such a limited and
remote internet connection that verbose HN comments are our only gateway to
the article's knowledge.

~~~
jsjohnst
Say what? If the page loaded enough for someone to know it was an awesome
story, then they’d know how it was refueled if they read the article. That
said, GP shouldn’t have said “if you read the article” that way (I’m guilty of
it too though), it’s demeaning and is called out in the rules not to do it.

~~~
anoncoward111
Agree with everything you said, but someone else described how they flew
without landing. I appreciate this, because I specifically can't read the
article :)

Also my score is -1 on that comment

