Some trivia regarding the flight:
- Bob Ferry's flight launched at about 2pm local in Culver City and landed at about 8am the next day in Ormond Beach (15 hours and 8 minutes, of which 8 hours were on oxygen)
- Bob wore slippers instead of flying boots for warmth and comfort, and a leather flying cap. His preparations for the flight also included losing 20 lbs.
- The aircraft's weight was in excess of 3000 lbs at takeoff (possibly as high as 3200 lbs); the OH-6's overload gross weight at the time was 2400 lbs
- The flight profile was cruise-climb as fuel was burned off, the Loach reaching 25,000 feet towards the end of the flight
- The Army's original goal was to set eight records; they ended up with 23 over a 26 day period
- Bob passed away in January 2009, at the age of 85. His career included 90 operational missions in Korea, and he also piloted the first flight of the AH-64A (with Bud Fletcher) in September 1975.
From a previous thread (
Record cross country flight in a H500, 1966). Bob is sitting in the aircraft; his crew chief Dick Lofland is on the left.
There were a couple of plans for attempts to beat the YOH-6A's endurance record a decade ago, one by a tour operator in a JetRanger and another by the late Steve Fossett in a Bolkow (
BO 105 - Good, Bad or just Ugly?), but neither came to fruition.