By ANDREW LAXON
High over the coast of New Zealand, Steve Fossett discovered an ingenious new use for his army rations.
Until then, the ready-to-eat packet meals had been getting mixed reviews from the American millionaire balloonist, who at each meal would remove his oxygen mask just long enough to shovel in the next spoonful.
The macadamia nuts were good, he reported to his mission control team at Washington University, St Louis. The three-bean salad wasn't bad either, but as for the mashed potatoes ... "I'd like to say it's good, but it isn't."
But four days into his round-the-world solo mission, Fossett found that the ration packets had another unexpected benefit - they could be used in emergencies to control altitude.
The 58-year-old noticed after switching on one of the balloon's three fuel burners that the valve was malfunctioning, stopping him from turning off the flame.
Left on at full force, the flame would take only minutes to lift his balloon, the Spirit of Freedom, above the mission's 10,000m ceiling, forcing irreplaceable helium out of the main gas cell.
Fossett shut down the fuel line and prepared to repair the burner. But he soon realised that the problem lay in the freezing temperatures, which had frozen the burner's valve in the open position.
The former Boy Scout reached for one of his flameless ration heaters, a mix of magnesium-iron alloy, sodium chloride and silicon oxide, resembling a large cracker in a bag.
Adding 80ml of water to the bag would spark a chemical reaction, producing hydrogen gas and - in normal circumstances - enough heat to raise the temperature of a 370g ready-to-eat meal by 38C within 12 minutes.
Fossett decided to use the heat packet as a defrosting system instead. He poured water into the bag and taped it around the electronic valve controlling fuel flow to the burner.
The trick worked and he avoided a potentially dangerous solo climb outside the cabin to repair the burner.
After that the trip passed almost peacefully - by ballooning standards. Fossett had to plunge from 6100m to as low as 120m over the Pacific to dodge bad weather and the balloon began yo-yoing uncontrollably as it approached South America.
But by the time the Spirit of Freedom cleared South Africa, it was clear the worst was over.
Thanks to the team's Belgian meteorologist, Luc Trullemans, who last Sunday night spotted a jetstream in a low-pressure zone, the balloon raced across the Indian Ocean to Australia at almost 320km/h.
And at 1.40am NZ time yesterday, Fossett - who began his sixth attempt at the first nonstop solo balloon journey around the world from Northam, near Perth, on June 19 - finally achieved his goal, crossing the invisible start-finish line of 117 degrees east longitude. It was a starlit night with clouds covering the ocean below, he told his cheering support crew of technical experts and St Louis university students in the control room.
But apart from a brief plug for his balloon's sponsor Budweiser - "I do have a couple of bottles of Bud Light but there's no one to drink it with" - he warned that it was too early to celebrate. He still had to land the balloon.
Last night, Fossett was resigned to another night in the air as 40km/h winds swept across his preferred landing site in South Australia.
He has achieved several other landmarks in his long quest to meet the challenge first raised in fiction more than a century ago by author Jules Verne.
He travelled more than 31,000km, breaking his own solo record of 22,904km in 1998, and spent more than 13 days in the air - ahead of the 12-day, 12-hour, 57-minute mark he set in his attempt last year.
British tycoon Sir Richard Branson, who has made three unsuccessful round-the-world attempts himself, acclaimed his fellow millionaire and former ballooning partner's effort as "superhuman", "the last great aviation challenge" and "far more difficult than Lindbergh's crossing of the Atlantic".
But as Fossett's own mission control director, Joe Ritchie, admitted yesterday, there have plenty of embarrassing failures along the way - enough to make many critics dismiss the whole thing as a rich man's folly.
Fossett's first attempt in 1997 was cut short when he crashlanded in Russia. He nearly died on his fourth expedition in 1998 when a violent thunderstorm ripped a hole in his balloon and he plummeted 8800m into the Coral Sea off northeast Australia.
Last year's mission ended ingloriously when Fossett - exhausted from two sleepless nights limping over the Andes and then dodging thunderstorms over Argentina - reluctantly obeyed an email from his control team and landed on a cattle ranch in southern Brazil.
Yesterday's success also cannot disguise the fact that the biggest prize has eluded him. Since 1996 Fossett had wanted to make the first balloon flight around the world, but he was beaten by Swiss psychiatrist Bertrand Picard and former British RAF pilot Brian Jones. In 1999 the pair took off from the snowy Swiss village of Chateau d'Oex and landed 15 days later in the Egyptian desert, circling the northern hemisphere and covering 40,814km - roughly the distance around the equator.
In a backhanded statement of congratulations yesterday, the pair described Fossett's trip as "much more than a second round-the-world tour; it is the proof that dreams are realised through perseverance and courage".
At first glance, Fossett's trip does look like a dubious candidate for the record books. He took six attempts, finished second in the main race and even took the short route by travelling as close to the South Pole as possible.
(This does not officially count against him, as international ballooning rules say a round-the-world flight must cover at least half the length of the equator and stay at least 30 degrees latitude clear of the North and South Poles).
However, Fossett's achievement is remarkable for its old-fashioned toughness. Picard and Jones made their 1999 flight in a spaceship-style pressurised cabin, with an air-recycling system that added oxygen and removed excess carbon dioxide. Fossett travels in an unpressurised cabin, which forces him to wear an oxygen mask nearly all the time.
Other top balloonists interviewed on his website (www.spiritoffreedom.com) find this approach borders on masochism.
"The mask is a constant irritation," says Joe Kittinger, who made the first solo crossing of the Atlantic in 1984. "It just adds stress. It wears you down and affects your judgment."
Kevin Uliassi, the only other pilot to make a recent round-the-world solo attempt, agrees: "Above 30,000 feet is the most difficult. The low pressure really has an effect. You're dryand need a lot of liquid andyour food doesn't seem to digest quite right.
" The mask is irritating, and I had a dull headache much of the time. And, of course, you have to constantly think about the oxygen supply."
Fossett simply regards this as part of the challenge: "It's like mountain climbers who scale Everest without oxygen."
Conditions inside Spirit of Freedom could best be described as spartan. Fossett's cabin is about 2m long, and 1.6m wide and high ("smaller than a prison cell", as his website explains) and his toilet is a bucket.
He sleeps about four hours a day, usually for 45 minutes at a time, and communicates with his control team through email on a laptop computer, which transmits via satellite.
He has to climb outside the capsule alone, into temperatures well below zero, to change fuel tanks or repair burners.
Some comforts are provided by a cabin heating system which keeps the temperature between 4C and 21C. A moisturiser reduces the dryness.
Fossett, a self-made millionaire and adventure sports addict, has made his name by tackling big challenges and repeatedly refusing to accept defeat.
In 1986 he swam the English Channel after failing three times. In 1992 he finished 47th in the 1866km Iditarod sled dog race in Alaska after dropping out once before.
Other successes have come more easily. Fossett is the world's most accomplished speed sailor, holding the seven fastest official world records. Last year he shattered the transatlantic record by 43 hours.
He has had a close relationship with Washington University in St Louis. He graduated with an MBA there and has become a trustee. "Mission control" is actually Room 300 of Brookings Hall, the university's main administration building, and 18 student interns have worked round-the-clock shifts on the Spirit of Freedom website.
After leaving university, Fossett went to Chicago and made his fortune in the securities business, eventually founding his own firm, Marathon Securities. His business success has allowed him to spend large amounts of time and money chasing his dreams.
His next challenge is to fly a glider into the stratosphere (18,000m above the earth). If that works, he hopes to help design, build and fly a glider which will go to 30,000m - the edge of space.
Ritchie, director of the balloon mission and Fossett's friend for more than 30 years, confesses he will be giving this project a miss.
"I'm going to watch from the cheap seats from here on out. I'm going to talk to him about this next thing he's doing, because it scares me, quite frankly."
New Zealanders will soon get a chance to judge its safety for themselves as the new mission, dubbed the Perlan project, is based here.
Fossett is expected to fly in next week to join an international group of gliding experts at Omarama, a small settlement at the southern end of the Mackenzie Basin.
The group are relying on strong waves of cold air from the South Pole to lift their glider into the stratosphere.
They can also count on a blast of worldwide Steve Fossett-style publicity. Organiser and Queenstown glider pilot Bill Walker says he has already been contacted by 15 television shows, including Lunchtime America.
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