Winter 2007-2008
On this page, we will provide updates as Adventure of the Heart's latest mission progresses.
January 20, 2008 - 4:30 AM CST
LANDED Rich landed on the frozen surface of Big Doctor Lake, just outside of Siren, WI at around 4:30 this morning (time approximate), out of fuel after approximately 19 hours 10 minutes in the air. We spoke with him by phone about two hours later, and he was still flying, energized by the flight and the "rush" of the night landing. Rich says that the expected fuel efficiency was not achieved, probably due to higher than expected temperatures. A more thorough investigation will follow.
Rich was in good spirits, and even somewhat amused by the fuss his middle-of-the-night arrival engendered. The Siren, WI fire department insisted on being the ones to escort Rich off the lake while the crew walked the equipment off the ice. Rich and crew are on their way to Minneapolis and breakfast, and they some well-earned rest. "A good flight" said Rich, "We had a good flight, maybe even a distance record-setting one."
11:15 PM 1/19/2008
Rich continues to fly through the Minnesota night and the crew continues to follow. Rich is currently a few miles west of Emily, MN. According to the crew, Rich is in good spirits and enjoying the ride. Latest air temperature check was several hours ago and Wayne reported was -15°F. The crew is busy dodging and navigating around the "State of 10,000 Lakes" and this is keeping them on their toes.
January 19, 2008 - 10:15 PM CST
Since the last posting at 4:45, Rich has been running a few hundred feet higher than had been planned, in order to steer back to the southeast and away from the Boundary Waters area in northern Minnesota. Travelling over more heavily wooded areas at this time, Rich has been able to drop down a bit and still stay headed in the right direction. The hope is that once he's gone far enough south that Lake Superior is no longer a factor with a turn to the east, Rich can drop further still and conserve fuel. He's now flying on the second large tank.
January 19, 2008 - 4:45 PM CST
Rich's track is now taking him northeast over the open farmland between Crookston and Red Lake Falls. He's been aloft about seven and a half hours now. Brad Temeyer has suggested that Rich take Adventure up a bit higher to get back into the northwest winds to avoid heading in the direction of Lake of the Woods and stay over the farmlands.
January 19, 2008 - 3:20 PM CST
If you've been following the flight tracking map over the last hour, you've seen Rich's path do some very unusual wandering over the east side of Crookston. Even at -5°F, you can still find thermal activity, especially as low as Rich has been flying. The thermals have been tugging Rich back and forth, so that he's decided to climb again just a bit to get out of the boundary layer and pick up a bit of the northwesterly flow to get out of town. At 3:10 PM, Adventure was back over the river bottom land west of town, moving ESE at about 2 kts.
Matthew reports everything is going according to plan, and the crew is getting set for the night portion of the flight.
January 19, 2008 - 1:15 PM CST
Rich had more or less dropped into a "hole" just to the southwest of Crookston and slowed to a crawl, covering only a 1.5 miles in the last two hours in the northerly, low-level flow. Just a few minutes ago, he's had to climb just a little bit to change course and avoid flying into the steam plume from the sugar beet processing plant, the only cloud in an otherwise crystal-clear sky. Matthew reports the temperature at the surface is -10°F, and that Rich is "doing fine, in fact a little overly warm" due to the chemical heat packs he's carrying inside his down suit.
January 19, 2008 - 11:42 AM CST
Matthew and crew have Rich back in range after a break for breakfast. Rich is southwest of Crookston, MN, and seems to have slowed down a bit over the last half-hour.
January 19, 2008 - 11:05 AM CST
Rich's "chase crew" is earning the name this year. During 2007's flight, it took Rich nearly 8 hours to cover as much ground as he's flown in the first hour and forty minutes of this flight. As of 11:00 AM, we estimate he's flown 17 miles.
January 19, 2008 - 9:20 AM CST
HE'S ALOFT!! Adventure of the Heart launched at 9:20 AM CST from the parking lot of the Grand Forks Country club this morning in a flight that Rich has called "a commemoration of Ed Yost and Steve Fossettt, who encouraged us all to become adventurers." Crew chief Matthew Grote reports it was an uneventful inflation, using the flight burner, in near calm conditions. Rich is moving slowly south-southeastward and into Minnesota.
January 19, 2008 - 8:41 AM CST
Rich Jaworski has powerd up the tracer in preparation for launching Adventure of the Heart and a bid for a third world record-setting flight. Temperature at launch was -18°F with light west winds at 4. Rich expects the flight path to take him toward Minneapolis, MN and, it is hoped, once again into the record books.
January 18, 2008 - 11:03 PM CST
Received this message from Rich: "Just about everything is in place and ready for the flight. We are in Grand Forks, ND with a confident forecast for a great flight towards Minneapolis, MN. At the motel this evening, we activated the GPS Tracer to check it out. We expect to launch from a golf course three miles south of Grand Forks. Watch the tracker at: Flight Tracking Map."
January 18, 2008 - 6:00 PM CST
Night is falling (and so is the temperature) in Grand Forks as Rich and crew (Gary, Matthew, Wayne, and Orv) assemble Adventure of the Heart inside a hanger at the Grand Forks airport. Overnight temperatures are forecast to drop to -22°F, nearly as cold as at the start of last year's flight. Wind will be a factor, albeit minor, this year as a high pressure dome slides southeastward out of Saskatchewan into western South Dakota, before settling near Kansas City. Rich will be riding a ridge of high pressure tomorrow, with northwest winds of 5-7 knots dropping the windchill to near -40. Thankfully, once Rich is in flight and moving with the wind, he'll stop experiencing a windchill factor.
January 17, 2007
In search of some of the coldest temperatures of this winter season, Rich and crew are headed into northern North Dakota this weekend in hopes of taking to the air in sub-zero temperatures and bettering the 23 hour flight success made in February, 2007. He plans on making a flight this weekend, Saturday, January 19th from northern North Dakota where the forecast is for temperatures lower than -10°F.
December 27, 2007
After modifying the mouth of the envelope to eliminate the accumulation of ice in the annulus between envelopes, a test flight was made. This two-hour flight confirmed that the modification which closed the opening to the annulus between the inner and outer envelopes was properly configured and the system of envelopes would continue to function acceptably. The flight, from Blair, Nebraska, was sandwiched between the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, a busy time for everyone.
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Last updated 5:31 PM 2/2/2008.