William Durant, founder of General Motors, once said, "Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what you're going to do now and do it." These words apply directly to the 63 year old American millionaire and adventurer Steve Fossett.

As I further explored the Internet, I learned to admire this man. At the age of 63 he was always searching for the next world record to break. He was born to be a "doer", a man of action. I learned yesterday, that Steve Fossett took off in a small plane from a ranch in Nevada last Monday and has not returned.

Fossett was piloting a Citabria Super Decathlon, a plane capable of aerobatics, with enough fuel for four or five hours of flight. The purpose of the flight was to scout dry lake beds as locations for a future attempt to set a world land speed record.

Even though he had radio communication on his plane, he had not made any contacts with his people back at the ranch, or anywhere else. The FAA said the Californian did not file a flight plan, and one was not required. It said Fossett had not been in communication with air traffic controllers and no distress signal had been received.

At a news conference at Minden-Tahoe Airport about 47 miles south of Reno, officials said 13 aircrafts were searching the desert for Fossett's plane. But increasing winds could cause the search to be called off for the day. The rescue mission would continue on Wednesday weather permitting.

Steve Fossett has lots of trophies hanging from his life's wall. These are some of them:

* In 2002, Fossett became the first person to fly around the world alone in a balloon. In two weeks, his balloon flew 19,428.6 miles around the Southern Hemisphere. The record came after five previous attempts — some of them spectacular and frightening failures.

It is among dozens of firsts claimed by Fossett in his life as an adventurer, which he embarked on after earning a fortune as a financial trader.

* He set marks for speed or distance in balloons, airplanes, gliders, sailboats — even cross-country skis and an airship, according to his Web site. In March 2005, he became the first person to fly a plane solo around the world without refueling.

* Fossett also has experience as an outdoors man, climbing some of the world's best-known peaks, including the Matterhorn in Switzerland and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

* He also swam the English Channel in 1985, placed 47th in the Iditarod dog sled race in 1992, participated in the 24 Hours of Le Mans car race in 1996 and broke the round-the-world sailing record by six days in 2004.

Having all this adventure experience, I trust Steve Fossett is found alive and well to continue adding more trophies to his life's wall. Persons like him should live forever---they are greater than life.




Pilot and adventurer Steve Fossett on board his lightweight experimental plane,
Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer

Related article: Branson fears missing Fossett is injured




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