CLOSED - THANKS to all customers for the last few years

Opto - Sleep well ............zzzzzzzzz puts a
nice warm blanket on opto and adds a log to the fire.

Why is this full Guiness standing here,
opto didn't you see it? Fundy had his tea :-)

....... and to think I missed the warmth of your
company .... another time maybe.

Night all.

Steve Fossett and global flyer is now at 45000 feet over the pacific about 1000 miles north west of Honolulu, I guess he will be making the decision whether to stop in Hawaii in the next hour or so. It must be very lonely up there so far from land.

"TWA 2341, for noise abatement turn right 45 Degrees."

"Centre, we are at 35,000 feet. How much noise can we make up here?"

"Sir, have you ever heard the noise a 747 makes when it hits a 727?"

chocolat ;-) all the noise will be below global flyer !

Steve Fossett is still going .... you will
be pleased Spaceman. It is getting lots of
TV coverage now.

jj, yes I am pleased, they found some good jetstream winds and they now have a chance of making it, here is an intercept photo from near Hawaii



It will be great if they make it.

I am a bit peckish, any nibbles in here anywhere. I could have fish fingers but I have had them every day for the last 2 weeks ;-)

So the girlfriend's birthday didn't go well then Spacie?

Afternoon All - it is incredibly cold out there!!!
jacket tattie for me with coleslaw and grated cheddar!

P ;-)

Well the news on global flyer is much much better now, it looks as though they will succeed, the aircraft has now crossed the Pacific and has just passes Los Angeles. They have about 2 hours to go to make the airport in Salina. The tail winds across the pacific were good and in addition they reduced the speed of the aircraft and therefore its fuel burn and it looks as though they have enough.

Steve Fossett the pilot is a remarkable man who made his money as a trader, he holds a large number of records including non stop balloon flights and sailing records.

Well I hope they do, it's a lot of 'investment' of all types
to get a project like that off the ground.

Some interesting stats from the globalflyer website which help explain why its so hard to get onto it !

NASA reporting 1 million hits per hour being served from their image snapshot server. They have upgraded their web infrastructure to a cluster of Cray SuperComputers.
- 80 Megabits of data currently being served per second from the GlobalFlyer website

Well you couldn't complain about that level of 'service'
now could you - wonder if we could get that good in the coffee
house kitchens! ;>)

I hope they make it too. But it's a shame that the first I heard about this was in Lamby's Lair for Lounge Lizards. You couldn't move for wall-to-wall Beagle coverage. I wonder if there is an element of it being an American venture that means it doesn't get much coverage in the UK media?

Gingerbread is on the cooling rack and lots of fresh, French butter in the dish.

Fresh pot of tea, anybody?

Tea would be good Priscilla - thanks :>)

Tea and gingerbread, fantastic.

Yes Priscilla, the only reason I come to Lamby's Lair
is to be educated!!!!!! LOL

Actually, if you watch Children's Newsround, GlobalFlyer made it on to
that too, so you can see I have a vast range of intellectual points of
contact :-))

P and JJ, Yes I am surprised it hasnt had more coverage, although the designers, builders and pilot are Americans, Richard Branson has paid a lot of the bills. He was "Reserve Pilot" but I dont think there was ever any chance of him flying it.

I like Branson, he's a good guy, does quite a lot that isn't always
publicised, has helped a lot of small businesses too apparently get off
the ground with investment. A true adventurer as well and always it seems
happy to back other true adventurers. I bet he would have loved the
chance though to fly it!!
:>)

How's he' getting on then, Spacie? When is he expected to 'cross the line' or 'land' as us techies would say?