2010-09-03 15h55 GMT

Yes! He's done it! With only seconds to spare, Steve has aced it! (I have just confirmed this with people on the ground at Southend.)

2010-09-03 14h44 GMT

Hooboy! Just over an hour and fifteen minutes to go and there's only 2 minutes in it for the record on this segment!

2010-09-03 14h00 GMT

This is harrowing! Pedal harder, Steve!

2010-09-03 13h04 GMT

Something very interesting to bear in mind: Although Steve looks set to break the overall round-trip record, he is also trying to beat Chalkie's times for each of the two legs (London to Cape Town and Cape Town to London). London to Cape Town is already in the bag but, to beat Chalkie's time for the Cape Town to London leg, Steve needs to land at Southend before 15h56. If you keep an eye on the ever-changing ETA shown above you'll see that this is a very tight race! The ETA shown above is based on distance still to go and current ground speed.

2010-09-03 10h42 GMT

Just spoke to Steve on the satphone. He's doing great, if somewhat tired, and looking forward to getting home.

2010-09-03 10h19 GMT

Back out over the water. I'll bet that's a welcome sight.

2010-09-03 07h41 GMT

Steve has no further refuelling stops. Chalkie will stop for fuel in Algiers.

2010-09-03 06h33 GMT

Well into the last leg now and going great! The weather's looking good today too, after some rough stuff last night.

2010-09-02 20h03 GMT

Looks like Steve's got some headwinds up there, judging from his reduced ground speed.

2010-09-02 16h20 GMT

And there he goes! Off into the blue yonder once more.

2010-09-02 15h56 GMT

Steve should be on his way again any minute now.

2010-09-02 15h08 GMT

Folks, please accept my apologies for the lack of lively commentary. I currently have swine flu and as funny as it sounds it really does knock you out. Please be assured that any news of great importance will be posted here promptly even if they have to dig me up to do it! :-)

2010-09-02 11h33 GMT

Just received some interesting info from Gill Courage, a member of Steve's team. She says: "Steve should actually be slightly ahead of the ETA as calculated by the tracker.......his strategy calls for maintaining power on descent (he won't be short of fuel) to take advantage of the extra airspeed. A small rate of descent over thousands of feet can increase the speed over a long distance and chop quite a few minutes off each leg."

2010-09-02 09h35 GMT
Thanks to the clever guys at IndigoSat we can now show you destination and ETA. These are calculated from straight-line distance from the aircraft to destination, at the last reported speed. Therefore the ETA does NOT take into account descent and approach slowing down and landing.

2010-09-02 05h58 GMT
He's well on his way again! In terms of comparing Steve's progress to previous flights, Chalkie's "plane" will rest in Cape Town for the same amount of time as he actually rested in Southend originally (Chalkie flew Cape Town - Southend - Cape Town). Steve has a good head start and an excellent chance of breaking the record!

2010-09-01 15h45 GMT

And that, as they say, is how you do that!

Well done, Steve!

Hope you actually do manage to get some rest.

2010-09-01 15h34 GMT

Current ETA is 15h50 GMT.

Just 15 minutes or so to go.

2010-09-01 14h58 GMT

Only about 45 minutes to go. Steve's going to be enjoying a good rest after that!

2010-09-01 09h25 GMT

Chalkie Stobbart, who broke Alex Henshaw's record in May last year, commented that it looks like Steve hs this sector in the bag and he's looking forward to welcoming Steve in Cape Town later today.

2010-09-01 09h23 GMT

The weather looks good and Gill Courage from aerodynamics has reported a nice tailwind from Windhoek, which will help increase Steve's ground speed.

2010-09-01 09h17 GMT

Everyone's getting involved! Syd Buxton, a British Airways pilot en route from Nigeria to London, was able to chat to Steve on the radio and pass along weather info. There's a great spirit of cooperation and a desire to help, it's really great!

2010-09-01 08h30 GMT

Directly from Steve, via satphone: He's doing well, just tired and looking forward to using the full 10 hours scheduled for his stop in Cape Town to rest. The plane is performing beautifully.

2010-09-01 05h01 GMT

Up, up and away! This is the last leg to Cape Town.

2010-09-01 03h05 GMT

Yup. On the ground now at Brazzavile. There will now be frenetic activity to get the plane fuelled, checked over and ready to go again sometime in the next hour or two.

2010-09-01 03h03 GMT

Looks like he's just landed at Brazzaville, putting him 30 minutes ahead of schedule.

2010-09-01 02h55 GMT

Should be on the ground in 5 minutes.

2010-09-01 02h33 GMT

Going great guns at the moment. Should be landing at Brazaville in around 40 minutes or so. Should be on the ground for about an hour and a half and then off again to Cape Town.

2010-08-31 16h14 GMT

And he's off again!

2010-08-31 16h10 GMT

All refuelled, flight plan filed and ready to go. Steve should be airborne again any minute now.

2010-08-31 15h16 GMT

We have now added altitude to the available data. The LATEST DATA RECEIVED window (above) now includes altitude as does the pop-up you see when you click on any waypoint.

2010-08-31 14h40 GMT

Steve has just landed at Tamanrasset for refuelling.

2010-08-31 13h20 GMT

The huge lead that Steve has over Chalkie right now is due largely to the fact that Steve has not yet stopped to refuel whereas Chalkie stopped in Algiers. The difference will become smaller once Steve has refuelled at Tamanrasset about an hour from now.

2010-08-31 08h20 GMT

The two ghost planes, representing Alex Henshaw's flight and Chalkie Stobbart's flight, are now working as they should be and appear as white icons on the map. They will fly the route according to the actual times they flew when they each did their flights. This allows you to see how Steve is doing relative to how Alex and Chalkie did.

2010-08-31 06h23 GMT

The tracking unit has now been reconfigured to send a position update every 6 minutes instead of only every 12 minutes.

2010-08-31 05h18 GMT

Steve isn't really hovering, it's just that the tracking unit is only sending a position update once every 12 minutes at this stage.

2010-08-31 04h40 GMT

And he's off!

Steve's up and away, on schedule.