Goodyear blimp tour

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.

Very Cool.

I got to see the1997-built N2A "Eagle" up close and personal almost
the same way (they wouldn't let us sit in the cabin tho ) on it's way
back home to be decommissioned and dismantled since the envelope had
reached its end of allowed lifespan. Its amazing to see one up close
enough to touch it, but such a shame they only only let them live for
5 years.

Howdy!

Freeway Airport (W00) frequently hosts blimps when they are in the
Washington, DC area. I've watched the Goodyear blimp through a landing
and takeoff cycle.

The approach is a long straight-in upwind easing it down (and sometimes
forcing it down in steps).

The day I watched, they were taking poeple up for rides. They'd touch down
and the ground crew would hold on while they chucked people out of the cabin
and stuffed more in.

The ground crew then gathered around the gondola. They all grab the rail
and heave it a couple feed into the air. Next they slammed it back down
onto the wheel and scattered like cockroaches. The rebound took it about
six feet up. That's when the pilot nailed the throttles and aimed for the
sky. About 300 feet up, he leveled off and moseyed on.

That day, the wind was out of the SW, which put the power lines right in
front.

yours,
Michael


--
Michael and MJ Houghton | Herveus d'Ormonde and Megan O'Donnelly
| White Wolf and the Phoenix
Bowie, MD, USA | Tablet and Inkle bands, and other stuff
| http://www.radix.net/~herveus/

I've been lucky enough to score two rides in the Goodyear blimp. Way cool.
No seat belts, slow, noisy, and interesting. When it runs into a thermal
the nose pitches up, pilot rolls the big trim wheel forward, nose comes
down.

in article , Michael Houghton at
wrote on 7/29/03 5:04 AM:

Howdy!

Freeway Airport (W00) frequently hosts blimps when they are in the
Washington, DC area. I've watched the Goodyear blimp through a landing
and takeoff cycle.

The approach is a long straight-in upwind easing it down (and sometimes
forcing it down in steps).

The day I watched, they were taking poeple up for rides. They'd touch down
and the ground crew would hold on while they chucked people out of the cabin
and stuffed more in.

The ground crew then gathered around the gondola. They all grab the rail
and heave it a couple feed into the air. Next they slammed it back down
onto the wheel and scattered like cockroaches. The rebound took it about
six feet up. That's when the pilot nailed the throttles and aimed for the
sky. About 300 feet up, he leveled off and moseyed on.

That day, the wind was out of the SW, which put the power lines right in
front.

yours,
Michael

I witnessed a "low pass" at Santa Monica about a month ago.

I was driving in for a flying club meeting when I saw the blimp in the
vicinity from the freeway. To my surprise, it was coming really close to
the airport when I got out of my car, though I had no idea is was "coming in
for a landing" until it was almost right on top of me. It was surreal how
slowly it moved, and how it pitched down very steeply on "final" - plus, its
size seemed to dwarf the airport, and anything else I've ever seen in that
position before!

As soon as I started to wonder how and to where it would "taxi" off of the
runway, it pitched back up and started to leave just as slowly and
gracefully as it came in. The side banner was displaying a tribute to the
soldiers in Iraq...

What an interesting "visit" that was!

"Randy Wentzel" wrote in message
...
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.

In article ,
Marty Ross wrote:
I witnessed a "low pass" at Santa Monica about a month ago.

I was flying out by Livermore on Thursday, and the Goodyear Blimp
called in over the Altamont Pass for a low approach at LVK.
Livermore Tower asked how long the low approach would take, the
blimp responded 'about 3 minutes for the approach but we are 24
minutes out'. For those not familiar with the area, the Altamont
Pass is a standard reporting point about 8 miles out on the straight
in for 25L/R.

Even funnier was tower calling traffic to the Blimp.

LVK Tower: Goodyear Blimp 10A, you have traffic off your left wing,
umm, I guess you don't have wings. You have traffic off your left
side, a helicopter, I'm not talking to him, but I'd assume he sees
you.

We did four touch and goes and the blimp was still about 5 miles out.
I guess flying the blimp is a good way to build cross country time.

John
--
John Clear - http://www.panix.com/~jac

John Clear wrote:

I guess flying the blimp is a good way to build cross country time.

Dunno about that - you can fly five hours and it would still be a "local"
flight. :-)

George Patterson
The optimist feels that we live in the best of all possible worlds. The
pessimist is afraid that he's correct.
James Branch Cavel

Marty Ross ) wrote:

snip
As soon as I started to wonder how and to where it would "taxi" off of the
runway, it pitched back up and started to leave just as slowly and
gracefully as it came in.

Perhaps the pilot was practicing touch and go's. Do you think he flies
a perfect traffic pattern?


--
Peter












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