Balloons

("Jay Honeck" wrote)
Must be a Left Coast thing. I can't say that I've seen more than one or
two party balloons in the 1600 or so hours Mary and I have been
airborne...


http://www.clusterballoon.org/minnesota/minnesota_1.html
Minnesota

http://www.clusterballoon.org/iowa/iowa.html
Iowa: This way you could go for an (in-flight) lunch outing.

http://www.clusterballoon.org/states/states.html
Other states

"We're going for a picnic this afternoon."

"Where?"

"Up."


Montblack
After school, Joe, don't forget to pick up your parents over in Illinois.

I remember seeing balloons on two separate occasions and hearing a balloon
report to Center on one other occasion. The last was a report from
commercial traffic inbound to ORD reporting the balloons up around 12,000ft.
Center nonchalantly acknowledged and the pilot clarified: "No, I don't mean
these are just some little party balloons, these are BIG, like from a mall
grand opening or a car lot!" This brought an immediate broadcast advisory
from Center about the location and altitude.

Jim
(slayer of 2 birds, 0 balloons)


"G. Sylvester" wrote in message
. net...
I had another close encounter with a (party / decoration-type) balloon.
I was flying back to SQL with 3 passengers in an Archer at 2500
AGL/MSL when out of the corner of my eye this black thing flew (no pun
intended) by. I asked a passenger what it was and they said it was a
balloon. I think this is the 3rd or 4th time out of ~250 hours that
I've been very close (less than 100 feet) to a balloon. One of the
times it was at 10,500 feet over Los Angeles. Any else see balloons all
the time? I'm guessing they can't do too much damage unless they go
into the engine air inlets or hit the ADF antenna. Now that would be
bad luck.

At least birds stay out of the way....unfortunately not all of the time.

Gerald

("Jim" wrote)
I remember seeing balloons on two separate occasions and hearing a balloon
report to Center on one other occasion. The last was a report from
commercial traffic inbound to ORD reporting the balloons up around
12,000ft. Center nonchalantly acknowledged and the pilot clarified: "No, I
don't mean these are just some little party balloons, these are BIG, like
from a mall grand opening or a car lot!" This brought an immediate
broadcast advisory from Center about the location and altitude.


http://www.clusterballoon.org/
Fun site


Montblack

On Feb 5, 4:06 am, "G. Sylvester" wrote:
I had another close encounter with a (party / decoration-type) balloon.
I was flying back to SQL with 3 passengers in an Archer at 2500
AGL/MSL when out of the corner of my eye this black thing flew (no pun
intended) by. I asked a passenger what it was and they said it was a
balloon. I think this is the 3rd or 4th time out of ~250 hours that
I've been very close (less than 100 feet) to a balloon. One of the
times it was at 10,500 feet over Los Angeles. Any else see balloons all
the time? I'm guessing they can't do too much damage unless they go
into the engine air inlets or hit the ADF antenna. Now that would be
bad luck.

At least birds stay out of the way....unfortunately not all of the time.

Gerald

Flying low level traffic reporting, I've seen probably 6 or 7 party
balloon in a thousand hours. When solo, it was an opportunity to
dogfight...and surprisingly difficult to intercept.

....and before someone says it...no, the string is not going to wrap
around prop hub and seize the engine.

G. Sylvester wrote:
I had another close encounter with a (party / decoration-type) balloon.
I was flying back to SQL with 3 passengers in an Archer at 2500 AGL/MSL
when out of the corner of my eye this black thing flew (no pun intended)
by. I asked a passenger what it was and they said it was a balloon. I
think this is the 3rd or 4th time out of ~250 hours that I've been very
close (less than 100 feet) to a balloon. One of the times it was at
10,500 feet over Los Angeles. Any else see balloons all the time? I'm
guessing they can't do too much damage unless they go into the engine
air inlets or hit the ADF antenna. Now that would be bad luck.

Balloons are aircraft, just the same as airplanes. They should be
talking to local ATC towers etc, and getting winds aloft from FSS.
Typically, flights are just above tree tops for a good view, seeing the
deer, finding calm areas for landing, etc. But LTA craft need to be
exceedingly careful about power lines.

In Eastern MA and Southern NH it is not unusual to see a half dozen
balloons in the air just after sunrise. Landing in the afternoon is
possible but there is diminishing light making power lines hard to see,
landing spots are harder to pick, winds can be difficult and of course,
fuel will be low. Then, having landed you can have a hard time locating
all your equipment such as gloves, shrouds, etc in the dark.

The ballooning community is very active here. I suspect everywhere, in
fact. Take a look at some of the ballooning web sites and you will
locate where the local groups launch. Start hanging around with them.
Pitch in and maybe you will earn a free flight (take awhile!).

On 2/5/2007 11:51:47 AM, Stubby wrote:

Balloons are aircraft, just the same as airplanes. They should be
talking to local ATC towers etc, and getting winds aloft from FSS.
Typically, flights are just above tree tops for a good view, seeing the
deer, finding calm areas for landing, etc. But LTA craft need to be
exceedingly careful about power lines.

I believe the OP was referring to party balloons, not hot-air balloons.

In my case, I also once passed a party balloon at about 8,000 feet.

--
Peter

I believe the OP was referring to party balloons, not hot-air balloons.


I believe the same.

Threads sometimes drift in their own hot air. ;-)

Peter
(That's all, I promise...I really turned on the computer to do some work.)

Peter R. wrote:
I believe the OP was referring to party balloons, not hot-air balloons.

correct. And for clarification I'm also not referring to that big
silver thing that says "Good Yeer!" sic

Gerald

In article ,
G. Sylvester wrote:
I had another close encounter with a (party / decoration-type) balloon.

I've passed bunches of ~10 balloons several times over San Jose at
3500ft or so. From the size of the clusters, I'd blame the car
dealerships for them, since they seem to be the ones that use
balloons in their advertising the most.

It is a real "whoa, what was that?" moment when the balloons streak
past you at 120kts.

John
--
John Clear - http://www.clear-prop.org/

("John Clear" wrote)
It is a real "whoa, what was that?" moment when the balloons streak past
you at 120kts.


Those are fast balloons. g


Montblack