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I guess it all depends on your perspective. I have flown across the 
Atlantic in a plane as small as a  Cessna 172, single engine, four 
seats, (and had the engine quit a number of times in the middle of the 
ocean in the middle of the night, whew!) while using my trusty A-10A to 
shoot stars and the sun in order to find Flores in the Azores so as to 
be able to refuel.

gl

douglas.denny@btopenworld.com wrote:
> Regarding  Sir Francis Chichester:
>
> Dr. Kolbe has it right.
>
> I was referring not his astonishing navigation for which I have the very 
highest regard indeed, but to the fact he was willing to put his life on the 
line with an aeroplane that he describes in his book already had various 
problems such as having fitting floats without checking if they leaked or 
not, and an engine that had already given him problems, and in the run-up 
check before leaving for Norfolk Island he says:- 
>
> "I could only get 1780 revs, forty less than I expected, and my spirits 
sank. I should never get off with a full load with a motor like that, but 
said nothing to the CO about it.  The seaplane was launched. I faced her into 
the wind, and opened the throttle; to my surprise she left the water as 
easily as a sea bird..... ".
>
> The man must have been mad or very determined, or both.
>
> To cross the Tasman Sea - a nasty stretch of water notorious for bad 
weather, two thirds the width of the Atlantic, in a single engined float 
plane with engine in dubious condition is more than reckless.   But got away 
with it.
>
> My impression from reading his books is he was what we would call a "loose 
cannon" and contemptuous of any advice or authority.  From reading about him 
it seems he must have been a truly remarkable person but not very 'likeable'.
>
> Douglas Denny.
>
> Chichester. England.
>
>
> >
>
>   


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