Balloon circumnavigation of globe - Konyukhov Fedor Filippovich
 

Reported in the "West Australian" newspaper 20:13 AWST

A Russian balloonist looks set to smash the world circumnavigation record set by the late Steve Fossett 14 years ago.
He will even slow down so he doesn’t arrive back in WA at night.
Depending on wind conditions, Konyukhov Fedor Filippovich, 64, is expected to land somewhere between where he left - Northam 95km north-east of Perth - and Kalgoorlie on Saturday morning.
That would mean he will have flown his hot air balloon around the world non-stop in 11 days, breaking Mr Fossett’s 2002 record of 33,000km in 13 days and eight hours.
Mr Konyukhov’s son Oscar said the adventurer had covered more than 30,000km by mid-afternoon Friday and would have to ease off on his current speed of 220km/h so he could safely land after sunrise.

A record breaking solo round the world flight. I am sure Mr Fossett would have approved as records are there to be broken so well done that man !


I look forward to reading that HCAP will give this man an award for a remarkable achievement that was totally above board. (If HCAP are reading this, his name is Fedor Konyukhov).

Fedor Konyukhov
 

A noble right on inspiring adventure. More than ever our sad modern world needs men like Fedor Konyukhov and the Russian people have every reason to be proud of him. The name of his balloon says much, it certainly infers amor patriae.

O.P.

Very well done, sir.:ok::ok::ok:

This guy has 2 solo row boat around the world records and one yacht solo around the world also.

Fantastic! Well Done!
 

Full flight:
https://s26.postimg.org/v96bntk5l/balloonfull.jpg

Winds for last couple of days:
http://s26.postimg.org/72r2yy8nd/Balloon_Winds.jpg

Landing: he flew right over his departure point at Northam...
http://s26.postimg.org/a5weg2czt/balloonfinal2.jpg

Fantastic achievement.

How is a circumnavigation specified? Is there a latitude limit or perhaps a minimum distance flown?

Another news video with more detail (Channel 7 Perth):

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa...-flight/#page1

Great achievement indeed. How come the first we here of this is when he landed ? Media interest in Russian affairs a little lopsided these days . Soyuz comes and goes to ISS with fantastic reliability and minimal fanfare or media interest (although Tim Peake naturally warranted a major effort in UK).

Despite geopolitics, would be nice to acknowledge now and again the good things they do in the aviation and aerospace world.

Where's the publicity machine ?
 

Exactly, Phantom Driver.
I started the thread precisely because the achievement was going largely unnoticed and unheralded.
The only mention I could find in PPrune was as an aside in a post from Dick Smith complaining about ADSB regs.

I would dearly like to know whether his final leg, directly over Perth and then precisely (again) over Northam was the consequence of precision flying or pure good fortune.
I didn't think that the path of a balloon was controllable to that degree; and certainly not after flying 30K++ km.

I can tell you that as he left from, and landed near Perth, there has been heaps of publicity here.

More:

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I can tell you that as he left from, and landed near Perth, there has been heaps of publicity here.

It is astonishing that anyone in a balloon, trapped to some extent in the whims of the wind, can depart, fly 40,000km's over nearly 2 weeks, and return close to the start point. The 'miss distance' as a % of the distance flown is an inner bull and amazing.
The comment about slowing down: will those more expert explain that; is it a case of descending out of strong winds? But that might alter the track as well. What's the secret?

First of all - CONGRATS!

As to the maneuverability of a hot air balloon (or a Roziere, as in this case). Many years ago I had the great pleasure to do several flights in hot air balloons with one of the best balloon pilots of the time, an Austrian guy named Starkbaum. You would be amazed, how much the course of a balloon can be influenced by a skilled pilot! And I have no doubt, that Mr. Konyukhov is just that. Well done, great achievement.

PS: agree WRT the non-reporting. If this had been Steve Fossett (RIP), it would have been all over the news. Then again, there was a surfeit of very bad news over the last couple of weeks, might have contributed to drowning out this one.

Phantom Driver
Re press. We are apparently all very parochial in our outlook, and press/media seem to reflect that (or maybe they promote it as well).
Also press/media are a bit lazy or perhaps under resourced, and will report stuff if it is given to them on a plate. Maybe the support team didn't give press/media enough packaged small bites of material during flight.

While I would not wish to belittle this achievement, can someone enlighten me on what constitutes a definition of "round the World" for these purposes?

If one does not have to pass through two diametrically opposite points, or even, it seems, pass through the Equator then "round the World" could be literally as short as you wish.

No doubt there are important technical / meteorological reasons why the last two round the World records were set in entirely in the Southern Hemisphere (while the first circumnavigation was in the Northern Hemisphere), and I realise that an Equator crossing by balloon may not be feasible . Shouldn't "round the World Northern Hemisphere" and "round the World Southern Hemisphere" constitute separate records?

Dont Hang Up,

The FAI define what is a record and the classes that apply for all sorts of different aeronautical categories.

If you go to the link below and then go and download section 1, you will have the section on Aerostats. Have a read of clause 4.8.3 and you will find that the distance traveled can not be as short as you wish.

DOCUMENTS

I am now enlightened. Thanks to no one ;)

Because of existence of high mountains on the way in Northern?