PUENTA ARENAS, Chile, June 27 (UPI) -- Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett late Wednesday headed for the Andes Mountains en route to the Atlantic in his sixth bid to fly solo around the world in a hot-air balloon.
Fossett narrowly averted a possible flight ending disaster when a weather pattern sent the balloon up and down like a yo-yo, mission control said.
The Bud Light Spirit of Freedom reached Chile's west coast at 6 p.m. EDT, just north of the Gulf of Penas. Once he crosses the Andes, he'll be near the halfway mark in his epic flight.
"He already has begun to pick up speed," Mission Control at Washington University in St. Louis said in its latest update.
Assistant meteorologist David Dehenauw said Fossett should be able to pick up the jet stream and increase his speed to more than 100 mph in the days ahead. His current speed is about 67 mph.
The 58-year-old former Chicago securities trader made an unscheduled satellite telephone call to Mission Control Tuesday night after the balloon suddenly lost altitude.
Fossett said the autopilot compensated for the abrupt fall with a full blast of all three burners and the super-heated balloon rocketed dangerously close to its ceiling, where its helium envelope could have ruptured.
The balloon then plunged as it cooled and the burners came on again repeating the up and down elevator ride for three hours. Fossett finally stabilized the balloon but missed a jet stream north he had hoped to ride to the west coast of Chile.
Mission Control Director Joe Ritchie said the oscillations may have been caused by a downdraft. Ritchie said Fossett must conserve fuel because of poor landing conditions in Punta Arenas, near the southern tip of South America.
Chief Meteorologist Luc Trullemans found a new route with slower upper level winds that are expected to intensify across the Atlantic to just south of Cape Town, South Africa.
At 7 p.m., the balloon was flying at 24,800 feet. Fossett had traveled 9,058.7 miles since leavign Northam, Australia, eight days ago.
The "yo-yoing" as Fossett called it was the second harrowing experience for the millionaire balloonist, who came within 400 feet of plunging into the Pacific as he maneuvered to dodge violent rain squalls four days ago.
