Ballooning!

I had the joy of logging my first 0.2 hours in a hot
air balloon last weekend over the Jean dry lake (near
Las Vegas). It's interesting how much fun you can have
with just one control -- a little lever which switches on
the burner. Strangely, it wasn't that difficult to control
the vertical velocity - well, when you consider that that
lever actually controls the first derivative with a 3-second
time delay that is.

Here are some things that surprised me.

1) Hot air balloons use about 15 gals of propane/hour,
which isn't vastly different from my 182 burn.

2) Wind shear, in this case at about 500 AGL and again
at 1500AGL was extraordinarily strong even on a calm
day. A full 10 knot blast as we ascended, when the canopy
caught the wind before us humans transitioned into the
zone too.

3) Wake turbulence from ground traffic (a truck in this
case) is noticeable even if you are 100 ft up.


All in all, a fun day. Give it a try if you have a chance!

--
Dr. Tony Cox
Citrus Controls Inc.
e-mail:
http://CitrusControls.com/