I was bumming around STS (Sonoma County Airport) yesterday evening visiting
a friend at his hanger when we noticed that the Goodyear Blimp was "docked"
across the field in a rural part of the airport. We decided to hike on over
after the airport closed (and becomes uncontrolled) and take a closer look.
We half expected to get chased off as the sun had already set and the blimp
wasn't docked in public accessible area. We were wrong though...

We were greeted by the blimp's crew chief, Tony, who immediately handed us
brochures and welcomed us to take a closer look. What we ended up getting
was a 45-minute personal tour of just about every aspect of the blimp and
it's operation. We sat in the gondola for a good 1/2 hour and just shot the
breeze as the blimp rotated back and forth a bit on it's mooring like a big
windsock.

The controls are nearly identical to a modern twin, with the exception of no
yolks and the addition of a big "elevator wheel." and a few other mystery
controls. :-) See: http://www.sonic.net/randyw/goodyear.../DSC01047.html

Tony couldn't have been more accommodating. At no time did we feel rushed
and he insisted on giving us a tour of the support truck too. I never
thought much of blimps (Zeps are another story) before last night, but now
I'm a little awe-struck.

Here are all the photos if you are interested:

http://www.sonic.net/randyw/goodyear_blimp (ignore the mixed-in Fiat and
Porsche photos)

Best,

Randy Wentzel
Sonoma County CA.