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Aviation History
1965
1965 - 0101.PDF
63 FLIGHT International, 14 January I96S "7P03Y Max Conrad's record-breaking Twin Comanche "Let's Fly" has eight times the type's normal fuel capacity ... SPORT A N D BUSINESS More on Max Conrad's Latest Record, briefly reported in last week's issue of Flight. Departure of the Twin Comanche from Cape Town was at 2min past midnight (American Eastern Standard Time) on December 24. Some 56hr 48min and 7,868 Great Circle miles later, it landed at St Petersburg, Florida, on December 26 to establish (subject to FAI confirmation) a new distance record for Class 4 aircraft (1,750kg to 3,000kg gross weight). The distance achieved was 200 miles more than Max Conrad's previous best, established in 1959 in a Comanche from Casablanca to Los Angeles. The Twin Comanche's standard 75 Imp gal tankage (good for over 1,000 miles) was augmented for the attempt by a further 525 Imp gal system of tanks. The plan was to exceed the previous record by at least 1,000 miles; but things don't always work out, even for Conrad and his Piper. A night of "solid thunderstorms" on Christmas Eve over the South Atlantic, resulting in lengthy detours to the west of the straight-line course early in the flight, dashed Conrad's hopes for achieving the maximum distance. After the prolonged night of "not just four or five severe thunderstorms, but a continuous series of them," a landfall was made on the Brazilian coast south of Recife. A circuitous route was then followed around the bulge of Brazil—costing additional mileage. The planned Great Circle route was a course of approximately 330° straight up the South Atlantic, and involving one of the longest continuous overwater flights—some 6,600 miles—ever attempted, by any kind of aircraft. The route passed 400 miles south-west of Ascension Island, past Brazil, across the Equator, and up the Caribbean to Barbados and Puerto Rico. At one point Conrad felt he would have to abandon the flight because of the time and mileage lost through the South Atlantic thunderstorms. He contemplated landing at San Juan but before getting there he was in radio contact with a group on Elwell Island who said they were just sitting down to Christmas dinner and invited him to join them. He circled the island once, then made up his mind to continue. Passing Nassau he calculated he had 4hr of fuel left and indicated he would land at St Petersburg. Later he felt his fuel state would permit continuing to New Orleans. An hour out over the Gulf of Mexico, as dawn came, with the entire Gulf Coast shrouded in fog and fuel running low, he decided to return to St Petersburg, where he landed at 8.49 a.m. (EST) at the Clearwater - St Petersburg International Airport. Ironically, when the tanks were officially inspected after landing, Conrad discovered an unexpected "good two hours" remaining in one of them, enough for 300 more miles. For sustenance, the grand master of endurance flying carried four Thermos flasks of hot water, but no food. His legs were a little "rubbery" when he got out of the aircraft, but he was otherwise in excellent shape. Observers who had been on hand at Los Angeles after Conrad's Casablanca flight were impressed with the fact that he was in better shape after this latest flight. After talking to reporters he napped for a couple of hours on a couch in the airport office, then was up at noon. He then worked around his aircraft, checking tanks and removing the two official barographs which had been installed in a bed of foam rubber in the rear of the left engine nacelle. •.. weighing 4,3201b, the con- sumable load is equivalent to 25 people (left), or slightly more than could be contained in 13 46 Imp gal drums (right). Max Conrad stands by the nose of "Let's Fly"
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