Around the world, almost

Sharat Pradhan in Bariar-Shah, UP

Abandoning a $ 300,000 project midway would leave anyone heartbroken. But for 52-year-old American stockbroker Steve Fosset, who set out on a non-stop round the world ballooning expedition, the forcelanding in India this week was "not a bad deal at all."

"I would have been happier had I accomplished my long cherished mission of ballooning around the world at one go, but I am glad to have broken two world records -- covering the longest distance and for remaining afloat for the longest duration," Fosset told Rediff On The NeT, while gathering various components of his balloon at Bariar-Shah village in former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's parliamentary constituency, Amethi, about 150 km from Lucknow.

Fosset landed in the village six days and two hours after he had set out from St Louis in the United States. "I kept hovering over this place for some time, so that I could break the existing record of non-stop ballooning for six days," the balloonist said, adding with pride, "and by covering a distance of about 13,000 km. I left my own record of 8,500 km far behind."

The stockbroker took to ballooning not very long ago. "It was about four-and-a-half years ago that I switched over from piloting planes to ballooning," he recalled. Within the next two years his feat of crossing the Pacific Ocean had won him entry into the prestigious Guiness Book of World Records. With that as a morale booster, Fosset made up his mind to achieve the impossible -- a balloon voyage around the world.

Fosset did not look for sponsors and invested his own funds into the enterprise. Spending as much as $ 300,000 on the mission has brought "no regrets" to the man, for whom "adventure is the essence of life."

During this, Fosset's third long solo flight, he managed to achieve a maximum speed of 125 knots. "However, it was the frequent variation in altitudes ranging up to 8,000 feet, that consumed more of my fuel than I had estimated, compelling me to call it a day well before my target of 15 days," he said.

It was not as if all his fuel was exhausted. There was still some 35 per cent of the fuel left in his cylinders. "But that was not enough to see me through the remaining part of my proposed journey across China, Japan and the Pacific back to Chicago where I belong," he explained.

He could have concluded his journey a few days later. But that would have involved the risk of crossing the Himalayas -- flying at higher altitudes raises fuel consumption --which was inadvisable without sufficient fuel. "I did not have the permission to fly over China; and even though I was hopeful of getting that by the time I reached there, one could not have ventured there, knowing there wasn't enough fuel to turn back," Fosset points out.

The failure of his cabin heaters also dissuaded the adventurer from attempting a journey over the Himalayas. "Due to the sudden failure of my cabin heaters my 4x6 ft cabin would often freeze. I therefore considered it wise to conclude my trip here," he added.

"This expedition involved a flight across the Atlantic, Africa, the Arabian Sea. But it was an even greater experience landing in the heartland of India," Fosset said.

Language was initially a barrier. No one spoke English in Bariar-Shah village. To the villagers, Fosset was literally a man who dropped in from the heavens. But once he explained who he was and his mission -- all in elaborate pantomime, of course -- help surged in from all quarters. Someone offered milk, someone tea and snacks, while everyone was at hand to collect the strewn remains of the balloon.

When the villagers in this remote hamlet saw the 35 metre tall shimmering object descend near their mustard fields, the wildest of guesses were only natural. "Many of us thought it was a temple descending straight from heaven," observed 15-year-old Shiv Kumar Misra. Others in the village took the balloon for some kind of a missile from outer space and Fosset as some militant. Yet no one attempted to attack the stranger in their midst.

Fosset's friends, Joe and Molly Riche, who had followed him in a twin-engine four-seater Cessna Conquest aircraft all the way from the US, were the first to inform Varanasi air traffic control about the likelihood of Fosset's balloon landing in Varanasi. But strong winds took the balloon elsewhere until the adventurer managed to stabilise his jalopy over Amethi.

Despite his best efforts to avoid trees and electric cables, he finally landed the balloon between a cluster of trees. "Since I managed to avoid the cables and fields, where the crop would have suffered damage, I would consider it a smooth landing," he said.

The torn balloon was later loaded onto a police truck, courtesy the local administration, onwards to Varanasi airport for shipment back home.

Fosset is not giving up ballooning just yet. "I am not giving up my passion to be the first to balloon around the world," he says. "Maybe next winter or perhaps a year later I will make another attempt."