A massive air search for part-time Beaver Creek resident and world aviation record holder Steve Fossett was hampered Tuesday by high winds and Nevada’s rugged terrain.
Fossett failed to return Monday from a recreational flight from the Flying M Ranch, 70 miles southeast of Reno.
The 63-year-old was flying alone and had four hours of fuel aboard the single-engine, two-seat Citabria aircraft, said Maj. Cynthia Ryan of the Nevada Civil Air Patrol.
“We are looking for a needle in a haystack,” she said. “This is an area of mountains, high desert and sagebrush. There is no way around that reality.”
Fourteen aircraft searched a 600- square-mile area in Nevada and California on Tuesday afternoon before the search was suspended at dusk. It will resume this morning.
Fossett has homes in Colorado, California and Illinois.
Ken Keith is a neighbor of Fossett’s in Beaver Creek, in the same neighborhood where the late President Ford and his wife, Betty, owned a home.
“We see him working in the yard and riding his bike or hiking around,” Keith said of Fossett. “He is a regular guy.”
Keith said Fossett also snowboards and skis.
Keith, who said he has known Fossett for about nine years, recalled Fossett meeting his two children several years ago at a neighborhood function when the children were about 12 and 15.
“He wanted to talk to them more than he did us,” Keith said. “He wanted to find out what was fun, and he just kept asking them questions. He was really interested in them.”
Keith, 51, is a pilot and has been flying since he was 17, he said.
“Even if the engine quit, it’s the type of aircraft you can still glide, and you can sit it down in all types of good places,” Keith said of the Citabria. “Hopefully, he is just sitting under the wing” waiting for someone to come and get him.
Describing Fossett as an “explorer,” Keith said, “We kind of see Steve as a mentor, setting a positive, forward direction for all of us in the U.S. and around the world.
“We look forward to having him home.”
Fossett in 2002 became the first person to fly around the world in a balloon. Three years later, he became the first person to fly a plane solo around the world without refueling.
Merlin Sagon, owner of Camelot Balloons in the Vail Valley, taught Fossett how to fly hot-air balloons 12 years ago.
“He is quite a wonderful man,” Sagon said. “Although he has done all these adventures, he is a pretty conservative pilot.
“He is really kind of a quiet guy. You look at all his accomplishments, and it’s not what you’d expect,” Sagon said.
Sagon added that Fossett was an enthusiastic pupil.
“He had an ulterior goal he didn’t tell me about, and that was flying around the world,” Sagon said, chuckling.
Fossett took off from the Flying M Ranch, owned by the Hilton family, about 9 a.m. Monday but failed to return to the ranch for a scheduled appointment three hours later, said Edward York, also of the Nevada Civil Air Patrol. The ranch launched an air search but failed to find Fossett.
The ranch notified Nevada state authorities about 6 p.m. Monday, and they then notified the CAP.
Ian Gregor, a spokesman with the Federal Aviation Administration, said the plane Fossett flew is equipped with an emergency location transmitter.
“If there is a hard landing or a crash, it activates a beam or a signal to the Rescue Coordination Center in Langley, Va.,” Gregor said.
The center, run by the Air Force, did not contact the FAA to say it had received such a signal, Gregor said.
Although the Citabria is often used for aerobatics, Fossett was taking a recreational flight, Ryan said.
Fossett had a radio, but no distress signals were detected. He didn’t file a flight plan.
“It is always desirable,” she said. “But in this case, it is not surprising he didn’t. He was flying in a remote part of Nevada.”
Despite that, York sounded a note of optimism.
“He has a lot of experience,” said York, who added that the search-and-rescue pilots “are very elite and also have a lot of experience.”
York and Ryan said Fossett’s family is at the Flying M Ranch. A spokesperson at the Flying M Ranch said: “We are not commenting. We would like privacy.”
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
Record setter
July 2007: For his record-setting exploits, Beaver Creek resident Steve Fossett is inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame. Vowing to keep flying, Fossett said: “I’m hoping you didn’t give me this award because you think my career is complete, because I’m not done.”
2006: Fossett completes the longest nonstop flight in aviation history, more than 3 1/2 days, with an emergency landing in southern England. His voyage breaks the airplane distance record of 24,987 miles, set in 1986 by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager.
July 2005: Fossett and his co-pilot successfully fly a biplane across the Atlantic Ocean, landing on an Irish golf course before a cheering crowd.
March 2005: Fossett becomes the first person to fly a plane solo nonstop around the world – 67 hours without refueling. He began and ended his 23,000-mile journey in Kansas.
July 2002: After five previous failed attempts, Fossett becomes the first person to steer a hot-air balloon around the world solo. His two-week, 19,428-mile odyssey broke the 1999 record held by duo Bertrand Piccard of Switzerland and Brian Jones of England.
1998: Fossett claims a record for the fastest ski trip from Aspen to Vail – 60 hours on an 89-mile odyssey. A year later, ski instructor Dawes Wilson shaved 15 hours off Fossett’s time.
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