[HN Gopher] The Unceasing Cessna Hacienda
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The Unceasing Cessna Hacienda
Author : ca98am79
Score : 69 points
Date : 2021-10-28 15:48 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.damninteresting.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.damninteresting.com)
| trelliscoded wrote:
| There's some memorabilia and artifacts from the flight, including
| one of the engine valves, at the flight museum in the pre
| security area at LAS airport.
| blamazon wrote:
| You can also spot the complete plane hanging above the baggage
| claim hall.
| h2odragon wrote:
| see also: https://hackaday.com/2021/10/25/the-longest-ever-
| flight-was-...
| amelius wrote:
| But how do you change the engine of a flying airplane?
| IntrepidWorm wrote:
| High altitude and quick hands, I imagine.
| NikolaNovak wrote:
| It's fascinating that the record, if I can understand it
| correctly, was effectively unbeaten for 5 decades. I guess even
| with technology and comfort and reliability improvements, nobody
| else wanted to spend 2 months cooped up in an airplane?
| JasonFruit wrote:
| I believe there were changes to American regulations soon after
| that made such flights more difficult. I can't find a reference
| to it, though.
| philshem wrote:
| The article/podcast states that this specific record keeping
| was stopped due to safety.
| iooi wrote:
| In my opinion this is probably due to cost. Not just how much
| this would cost today but the personal cost as well.
|
| Aviation is a pretty expensive hobby to get into nowadays.
| You're looking at $10,000 just to get your private license.
| This really limits the kind of people that can get into it. And
| the opportunity cost for those people to take 2-3 months off
| for a stunt like this is really high. Never mind the time that
| it would take to prepare for it.
|
| On one hand, you have a lot of folks that get into it as a
| career, so after their initial investment (mostly folks get
| money from their parents, some take out loans) you spend a lot
| of time teaching so you can reach the 1,500 required flight
| hours to become an airline transport pilot. These kinds of
| pilots are more interested in starting to earn a living rather
| than take months off to perform a stunt like this.
|
| On the other, there's a good number of older, wealthier, folks
| that are near or at retirement age. These kinds of pilots
| aren't the kinds of folks that would be able to sustain months
| of endurance flying and living.
|
| Then let's look at the costs. Cessna 172s are still being made
| so we can compare prices. In 1960 a 172 cost $9,450[1], which
| is roughly $87,000 adjusted for inflation. A new 172 today will
| cost you over $430,000! A lot of this price increase has to do
| with the exorbitant cost of insurance for manufacturers
| beginning in the 1980s.
|
| Just for fun I also looked at the gas costs, they weren't as
| high as I initially thought they would be. There's not many
| great sources besides anecdotes that I found, but aviation gas
| (avgas) was around .30c / gallon in 1965 [2]. A 172 in cruise
| will burn around 6 gallons per hour, so in 1965 two months of
| continuous use nets $2,500 ($23,000 adjusted for inflation).
| Today avgas is almost $5 / gallon, so that's over $40,000 just
| in gas costs.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cessna_172#Variants [2]
| https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/community/threads/avgas-cost...
| pc86 wrote:
| It's worth pointing out that the 1500 hour ATP minimum is US-
| only, and only for commercial airlines. You can guy paid non-
| airline jobs other than teaching (ag pilots, bush pilots,
| etc.) once you have your commercial (250h min), and if you're
| in Europe or Asia you can get an airline job at well below
| 1500.
| TylerE wrote:
| No one is buying 172s new except flight schools.
|
| Airplane values drop like rocks.
|
| Used 172s generally go for $60k-$120k... and there are plenty
| of planes just as capable that go for less...
| davidbanham wrote:
| No faster way to clock up 1500 hours than flying for 63
| straight days!
| kevin_thibedeau wrote:
| Not a great look when your log book only shows one landing.
| jrwoodruff wrote:
| It wasn't a particularly cheap stunt then, but it ended up
| being worth the publicity. I think a similar stunt now, in a
| world of highly reliable machines and always-on media, just
| wouldn't gather enough attention to make the cost worth it.
| Basically, I think they were on the tail end of people caring
| about this kind of thing.
| tusslewake wrote:
| As far as I can tell through a few searches, their record of 64
| days, 22 hours, and 19 minutes of continuous flying is still
| unbeaten:
|
| https://disciplesofflight.com/flight-endurance/
| MBCook wrote:
| Near the end of the article/podcast they say that the group
| that kept track of the records stopped allowing new entries.
| So officially no one can break the record.
| jaywalk wrote:
| I've seen that plane at McCarran so many times, but I had no idea
| about the history behind it. Fascinating article!
| upofadown wrote:
| The related Wikipedia article is nicely organized:
|
| * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_endurance_record
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(page generated 2021-10-28 23:01 UTC)