On Feb 22, 10:50*am, Orval Fairbairn
wrote:
In article
,
*Dudley Henriques wrote:





On Feb 22, 12:05 am, Orval Fairbairn
wrote:
We had a very important visitor at Spruce Creek after Saturday's NASCAR
races: the Goodyear Blimp! We all had a good time -- they were her about
1/2 hour.

Some of the guys arranged an escort for it and are shown in the
videos:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2x1EaXqDsA

There are also some other videos from German TV when they visited a
couple of years ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dv6T1...eature=related

Hi Orval;
Had a great and funny experience with the Blimp once. Don't know if
you've ever read this but I've pasted the story in below;

The following "aerobatic conference" on the Goodyear blimp took place
during
a break
in the preflight brief with the Blue Angels at Reading in 74, after we
all
watched
the thing fly past the office window and Jerry Tucker announced, "Hey
look,
ain't THAT a gas?"

It was decided by all present that some initial modifications should
be made
before aerobatics were attempted in this vehicle. First of all, Ps or
ability to convert energy had to be looked at seriously. We all agreed
that
in it's existing configuration, the blimp has the aerodynamic
properties of
a brontosaurus. Tony Less agreed with me that this might just be a bad
situation for akro, although both of us agreed that it's ok if you're
a
brontosaurus.
I suggested we use a belt that we could put around the blimp in the
middle;
sort of on a ratchet that could be tightened up by the crew inside the
gondola. The result would pinch it in at the middle so we could
utilize the
advantages of the area rule. This just might reduce some drag if we
could
only get the speed up a bit more. Getting the speed up was solved when
someone suggested that at the moment of takeoff, ground crew could run
around to the backside and poke the blimp with a fork right at the
exact
center between the fins.
Now the crew would have to be specially trained for aerobatics.
Vertical
maneuvers especially would require constant coordination by the crew.
In a
loop for instance, all crew would have to wear magnetic boots and
stand on
metal plates attached to the floor. As the blimp went inverted at the
top,
the Captain would have to shout the command,"NOW"...and all crew would
instantly extend their arms to hold the pillows in place on the sofa.
Something would have to be done about the roll rate. We all decided it
was
totally unacceptable. Air show time restraints really conflicted with
the 13
days required to do a slow roll, although we all thought we could live
with
the high speed pass, IF the announcer was required to make the
following
announcement."Ladies and gentlemen, the Goodyear blimp is now
beginning a
high speed pass over the field. Those of you at lunch at the cafateria
have
two hours to return to the flight line before the pass has been
completed...Thank you!"
The choice of maneuvers was unanimous. The routine should begin with
two
exciting and crowd pleasing "whale rolls". This would get the crowd
really
up and running. Then, a turn around,[while the Thunderbirds take off,
do
their show, and return] into the "poop loop". Finally, after lunch,
the loop
is completed, and about 3PM, we have the finale!!! The death defying
pull
into a left "bagover", followed by an "inverted hissout!!!"

After careful consideration by everyone present, we all decided to
keep this
to ourselves. There is only so much excitement an airshow crowd can
stand,
and we felt that this might give Goodyear an unfair advantage over the
Blues.
:-)

That sounds about like an accurate assessment! I must say, however, that
all present (several hundred) appreciated the visit.

As did we at Reading. It's a fascinating vehicle for sure and a lot of
fun watching it. Handling it takes a lot of skill. We had the chance
to sit down with the Goodyear guys and exchange a round or two that
year and all of us left with a healthy respect for their mission and
their skill in accomplishing a difficult schedule with weather
involved.
D