Pontius,

IIRC it was 'just' the trimmers that were misconnected on that Shack. Otherwise, the pilot might have noticed when he tried to raise the tail during the take-off roll.

My longest so far was 8:15 from Bahrain to Bruggen post GW1.

Happy New Year to all.

Does Nicholas Patrick qualify. He learnt to fly with UAS. 12 Days 20 Hours 45 Mins ?

I wonder if either Dick Rutan or Jeana Yeager have read this thread...? ;)

PBY-Catalina
 

Before my time, but following previous mention of the Catalina's exploits, thought this worth a mention. During WW II the RAAF / Qantas used to operate a 'regular' Perth - Columbo flight ... up to 32 hours. Passengers received the "Order of the Double Sunrise"

See http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histo...trol-book.html

regards
layman

MR1 Shackleton flights
 

Not sure if you're still looking at airborne times but here is one for you. My dad flying a MR1 Shackleton WB827 on Dec 9th 1958 did 16hrs 15 min looking for Shackleton VP254 which had crashed in the South China sea. Over the next 6 days he logged 73hrs 20 min (and that's airborne time!). He left the RAF high tone deaf! good old shackletons.

RAF 7th August 1971 - Britannia XM496 (Now at Kemble) Thule - North Pole - Brize Norton 11h.25m.

Civilian 2nd April 1993 - Boeing 767 300ER OE-LAW Munich - Los Angeles 12h.16m (2 FD crew! 10 CC)

not me but always worthy of a mention on these. Must be about 12-15 years back now there was a SAR seaking flight from the Falklands to just off South Georgia which I understand was about 16 hours with 2 deck refuels and 2 hover refuels to recover someone off a cruise ship.

Truculent Turtle
 

Bear with me! When I was a very young spotty schoolboy I had a copy of the Guinness Book of Rrecords which included, inter alia, this tale of the exploit of Truculent Turtle which was the 3rd production Lockheed P2V-1 Neptune

"Loaded with fuel in extra tanks fitted in practically every spare space in the aircraft, "The Turtle" set out from Perth, Australia to the United States. With a crew of four (and a nine-month-old gray kangaroo, a gift from Australia for the Washington, D.C. zoo) the aircraft set off on 9 September 1946, with a RATO (rocket-assisted takeoff). Two and a half days (55h, 18m) later, "The Turtle" touched down in Columbus, Ohio, 11,236.6 mi (18,083.6 km) from its starting point. It was the longest unrefueled flight made to that point - 4,000 mi (6,400 km) longer than the USAF's Boeing B-29 Superfortress record"

The longest ever refuelled flight may come as a bit of a suprise too!

Longest flight ever: “Amazingly the record for the longest airplane flight dates back all the way to 1958 - 1959. On December 04 1958 Bob Timm and John Cook left Las Vegas, NV in a Cessna 172 and didn’t land again until February 07 1959. In the 64 days 22 hours 19 minutes and 5 seconds they were airborne they manage to cover a distance comparable to flying six times around the Earth. During the trip they were constantly refueled in flight and swooped down to grab water and food from a chase car that followed them.”

Shackleton MR3, XF707, 7/8 September 1960, 22.00hrs Farnborough-Farnborough. Each day of this Farnborough show a Shackleton took off as the last item of the display to then land as the first item of the following days show. We could, of course, have simply landed somewhere else to reappear the next day, but, we actually flew at endurance speed to, as I recall, Lisbon, Canary Islands, Azores and back. Extra tank in the bomb bay.
Same month, 15 September, Shackleton MR3, WR979, 17.10Hrs, SAR for B47 down in the Atlantic.
RV

longest Flights? What about highest flights too?
 

Balloon: 30min. 100'
Glider: 5hrs 15min. 13,500'
Hang Glider: 6hrs 15min. 14,100'
Tornado GR: 7hrs 55min. 41,500' (not for long!)

Longest without going to the toilet: 7hrs 30!

What's your highest?
:ok:

Balloon: 1100', (the gauge failed on the way up to 800' so four of us got to jump from 1100').:ok:

1 September 1953, Shackleton Mk I WB 857, 19hrs. 20 mins. Ballykelly, around Iceland and up the Greenland coast to 76*N, down to Jan Mayen Island and back to Bally-bloody-kelly. Fuel load 3,292 gallons/23,700 lbs/ 10,750 kgs.

June 17, 1970....CH-47A...twist Bu Dop in Vietnam and some LZ inside Cambodia....flight time about 25 minutes total....maybe.

About ten minutes into the flight....hit by a .51 MG and a hydraulic fluid fire in the cockpit started as one of the pedals departed for parts unknown fortunately leaving my foot behind.

"Centuries" went by before the fire went out after all the contents of the Utility Hydraulic system had been consumed. Playing the Weinie Roast scene as the Wienie is best avoided if possible.

My claim to flame.....errrrr.....fame.

Nomex helps....but isn't the absolute cure.

Definition of Time and Distance are contingent to what activity is ongoing!

An excuse to dig out the old log books - great!

Andover C1 XS603 10 June 69: Gander - St Mawgan 8:45
With an extra tank on board admittedly.

Hercules C1 XV301 26 Jan 77: Calgary - Lyneham 13:30

VC10 C1 XR808 22 Oct 86: Nairobi - Lossiemouth 10:15

Nimrod MR2 XV243 17 Apr 95 SAROPS ex Kinloss 8:40

Plus too many others withh AAR!

trex450:
If you're talking about the casualty winched from M/V Explorer on 03 Nov 98, then I'm afraid it wasn't quite that long - it was 9 Hrs 25 Mins all told, refueling on Gold Rover and HIFR'ing from HMS Sutherland. Not the longest flight I've done, but long enough in a stripped-out Sea King!

Good point Biggus.

Their 1986 flight in Voyager was the first successful circumnavigation of the planet, passing the equator twice, non-stop, non-refuelled. It was 9 days, 3 minutes and 44 seconds, from Edwards AFB to Edwards AFB.

He described the flight as like being dragged in a telephone box on its side by a huge unsilenced tractor over rough fields - for nine days. And that didn't mention their personal problems, which were not insignificant.

There was a Radio 4 programme a couple of years later called 'Flight from Love' with the frank inside story from both of them.

airsound

Year: 1952
Route: Malta to London
Carrier: Hunting Clan
Aircraft: Twin prop Vickers Viking
Duration: 11 Hours

Well er, we had to land at Nice to refuel. Over France I was invited up to the cockpit to take over control for a few minutes, which was a 11 year old schoolboys dream come true. My Mother realized what was going on & was having the proverbial "kittens" at the back.

Ah, the memories!

Nimrod MR2: 21 Jul 2000, SAR Top cover Tenerife to Kinloss, 8:50
C-17: 7 Aug 2002, Accra-Norfolk,VA, 10:55

Both normally aspirated, many longer with AAR.

Longest Flight
 

20 seconds, top of the White Lady,on skis, strapped to a hand glider during the early 70's. thank goodness i crashed as i didn't have a clue what to do, but it seemed a good idea at the time :O

BORING BUT NECESSARY
 

Early 1990's in the days when we jet swapped the ac in MPA by flying them down. 10hrs10min Coningsby to Ascension. Followed by ASI -MPA, MPA TO RIO,RIO TO ASI, ASI TO CONINGSBY. The jets taken down were specially tested for oil consumption. not so sure about the ones we brought back for major servicing. The south atlantic is one big old place when your PNR on the tanker is fast approaching and the fuel line says Africa 900nm South America 800nm