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Route
See footnotes for route details.
Originally the route was going to be an anticlockwise track departing Council Bluffs, Iowa, heading north west to Washington and then tracking around in a race-track pattern around the USA, down to New Mexico, across to Florida, up to Maine and then westwards to finish near Chicago.
All best laid plans can rapidly change however! Bad weather to the north forced us to head south west on a clockwise track down to Texas, across to Arizona and up to California and Reno, Nevada on Day 1. Day 2 saw us head up to Washington and Idaho before eastwards across Montana. However, weather forced detours in Montana and en-route changes to airports as we zig zagged around a large wet weather system on the mountains. That second night saw severe thunderstorms with tornado watches forcing us down in Iowa's countryside for a night of refuge.
We could have continued east from there to head over to Maine before heading south down the east coast, but stormy weather was forecast for another two days in the north eastern portion of the track. Hence on Day 3 we headed south east down to Florida, and up to Georgia and eventually Virginia, effectively establishing a figure of 8 pattern around the USA. On Day 4 bad weather gradually cleared in the north east, allowing us to make airborne amendments to the route and press on to Groton New London, Connecticut, before heading up to Maine in quite marginal conditions, but enjoying some stunning low level flying around sunset. Then it was eastwards to Albany, New York and then try to finish the whole record attempt on Day 4. Again, flexibility was key. As we approached Cleveland, Ohio, a huge area of severe storms approached from the west so we had to put down for the night at Burke Lakefront Airport (a great spot) to seek refuge from storms once more. The following day we completed the record attempt flight at Kenosha, Wisconsin, just to the north of Chicago. It felt truly GREAT to finish within the existing record time!
Update Tue 16th June 9.30am CDT
The DF48 crew is getting ready to depart.
The route above may be changed, now traveling from Iowa to Nebraska to
Kansas City to Oklahoma to Texas more to follow.......
Update Tue 16th 10.30 CDT
The DF48 crew have changed the route and are now
flying in a clockwise direction. Please follow the GPS Tracking
system for details. Once we have a new route map available from the crew
we will post here on the website.