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#1
March 25th 04, 02:04 PM
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Yes! And, although you might invent reasons to fly airplanes (commute,
work, etc), none of these stand up to analysis. There is only one reason to fly balloons -- it's just plain fun. But expensive, much more than airplanes. "Tony Cox" wrote in message hlink.net... 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/ 
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#2
March 25th 04, 02:46 PM
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My reason to fly aeroplanes...it's just plain fun.
Paul "William W. Plummer" wrote in message news:WFB8c.5641$gA5.90576@attbi_s03... Yes! And, although you might invent reasons to fly airplanes (commute, work, etc), none of these stand up to analysis. There is only one reason to fly balloons -- it's just plain fun. But expensive, much more than airplanes.
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#3
March 25th 04, 08:03 PM
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William W. Plummer wrote:
Yes! And, although you might invent reasons to fly airplanes (commute, work, etc), none of these stand up to analysis. There is only one reason to fly balloons -- it's just plain fun. But expensive, much more than airplanes. And there's always the pesky problem of filing flight plans. Destination....Downwind. Plus I had the opportunity to witness one of those things landing near my house once. They got pulled through two sets of trees, plonked on the ground and fell over, after which the basket got dragged for a further 30 or 40 ft. All part of the magic I guess.
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#4
March 30th 04, 12:09 AM
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gerrcoin wrote
Plus I had the opportunity to witness one of those things landing near my house once. They got pulled through two sets of trees, plonked on the ground and fell over, after which the basket got dragged for a further 30 or 40 ft. All part of the magic I guess. I've seen some balloon landings. When I finally got the chance to go up in one, I took it, of course - but I elected not to stay for the landing. And that's all I have to say about that. Michael
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#5
March 30th 04, 09:24 PM
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Michael wrote:
gerrcoin wrote Plus I had the opportunity to witness one of those things landing near my house once. They got pulled through two sets of trees, plonked on the ground and fell over, after which the basket got dragged for a further 30 or 40 ft. All part of the magic I guess. I've seen some balloon landings. When I finally got the chance to go up in one, I took it, of course - but I elected not to stay for the landing. And that's all I have to say about that. Michael Oh, now I'm intrigued. How did you manage that; parachute, James Bond style fall stopped by the timely intervention of the millenium dome (sorry, was watching that last night), Indian rope trick..... You can't just tease us like that.
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#6
March 31st 04, 05:31 AM
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gerrcoin wrote
Oh, now I'm intrigued. How did you manage that; parachute Yes, of course. Safest way to terminate a balloon flight, IMO. I'm not really joking, either. Those balloon landngs are scary looking. Not saying I wouldn't do it as a pilot - they also look way cool, and a balloon rating sounds like fun - but to go along for the ride as a passenger? Nah. Not for me. Michael
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#7
March 31st 04, 03:50 PM
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I flew hot air balloons for 12 years and never had a scary landing, but some
were quite interesting! I've landed in open fields, peoples back yards, golf courses, tops of trees, even on a boat once, but I never felt there was any real danger of serious injury. Landing a balloon, like landing a fixed wing aircraft is all about energy management. You want to dissipate that energy slowly, and a balloon has a LOT more energy to dissipate than a light aircraft because it has more weight. No way you say? Let me explain. The balloon I flew had a gross weight of 1660 pounds. Takeoff weight with me and 3 passengers was usually at least 1550 pounds, similar to a light aircraft. So we fly for and hour or so and burn off 125-150 pounds of fuel. Still sounds about like a light aircraft huh? What about that bag of hot air over your head? My balloon's volume was 90,000 cubic feet, that almost 4 TONS of air thats moving with you. So when it comes time to land and bring this thing to a stop you aren't trying to stop a 1500 pound aircraft, you're trying to stop over 9000 pounds!! Time to land, so we look for a decent field (actually we've been looking during the entire flight). Lets say its an afternoon flight and the wind is still 5 knots when it's time to land. We were hoping the wind would disipate as sunset approached, but these things happen. Ideally we try to find a landing spot sheltered by trees, but lets say we can't. We find an open field and decend slowly, after all 5 knots is only a brisk walking pace. When the basket touches down it stops, BUT the envelope (the balloon part) continues to move. Just before the basket touches down we pull the line attached to the parachute shaped valve in the top of the envelope to allow the air to start to escape, reducing lift (kinda like dumping the flaps on a short field landing). The basket tips and drags as we dissipate energy, all the while the envelope continues to deflate. Maybe we drag through some grass, bushes, or what have you but we are all safe and sound in the basket. Rarely would you drag over 50 feet. Most of the time though the wind has died down during the late afternoon flight and the conditions at ground level are near calm. A perfect stand up landing (ballooning equivilant of a greaser) or one or two little hops of the basket before stopping. Try it sometime, you might like it. Rick Commercial Pilot, ASMEL, Instrument
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#8
March 31st 04, 06:51 PM
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#9
April 3rd 04, 10:03 AM
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In article , Michael wrote:
gerrcoin wrote Oh, now I'm intrigued. How did you manage that; parachute Yes, of course. Safest way to terminate a balloon flight, IMO. I have taken a balloon flight. When I lived in Houston, if it was a nice Sunday, sometimes I'd get to do three categories of aircraft in a day - early morning, crew my friend's balloon, then fly the C140 to the glider club and go soaring. Best way to spend a Sunday, IMHO. I did get a ride in the balloon, and it was good fun. The landing was a non-event because the wind wasn't strong. But I've seen the other side of the balloon ride... Balloons have very low windspeed launch limitations - usually around 8-10 knots or so. I was crewing for a student balloon pilot one morning, and the wind was around 10 knots. She decided it was too much. However, one of the Alvin ballooners only flies when it *is* windy. Carla decided to fly with him to get the experience of high wind flight. Normally, balloon chasing is more balloon-sitting-in-a-gas-station-and-drinking-coffee. You drive the van a mile or so and get out the Thermos, and wait for the balloon to drift by. Then you start up, drive a bit more, and wait again. The pilot normally radios you when she's about to land, at which point you stick with the balloon. Well, there was no coffee this morning. After a rather frightening launch (we started tethered to the van, and the huge sail area of the inflating balloon seemed to want to take the van with it), off they went. Balloons look weird when they launch when there's a bit of wind - they sort of oscillate and billow like a vast blancmange for a while. Then the chase was on. The winds aloft must have been in excess of 40 knots. We couldn't keep up - the balloon of course going straight downwind, and us in the van having to follow the whims of the road. We were doing over 60 most of the time, and the balloon was still getting away from us. We got to the field they landed in after the fact, and there were deep drag marks in the grass for quite some distance. No one fell out of the basket. Carla said it was "exciting". -- Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net "Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"
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#10
April 3rd 04, 11:17 AM
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Dylan Smith wrote:
the balloon of course going straight downwind, and us in the van having to follow the whims of the road. Just out of curiousity Dylan, and to others with ballooning experience.... Just what sort of receptions have you run into, when landing on private property etc.
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