Let’s have some balloon flight stories

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Viewing 11 posts - 16 through 26 (of 26 total)

  • Derek1948
    Participant

    Some years ago in the 1980s my wife and I took a hot air balloon trip in The valley of the Kings in Egypt. Getting up at un unearthly hour., crossed the Nile on a grossly overcrowded ferry, I even paid a backhander to steer the thing. Balloon was piloted by a mad American pilot who actually dipped the basket inthe Nile whilst crossing it,. Hovered in front of the Hilton (I think) rooftop terrace and then setdownsomewhere north of Luxor for a champagne breakfast. I didseem to enjoy it and have some great pics. Notsure I’d di it again being older and wiser.


    TiredOldHack
    Participant

    Dipping in a river is called a ‘splash and dash’. They had a horrifying big crash at Luxor a few years ago, I recall.


    Derek1948
    Participant

    They did indeed have a big crash there some years agter we went up. That’s another reason I wouldn’t do it again.


    TiredOldHack
    Participant

    Balloon crashes are incredibly rare. I think the only form of aircraft that’s safer than a balloon is a commercial jet.

    Basically, they’re unbelievably over-engineered, the power system is as simple and reliable as it gets, and even if you have a total power failure, unless you’re very high, you won’t hit the ground very hard.

    The few crashes have almost all been due to pilot error: hitting power lines, colliding with another balloon, or a fire in the basket due to cack-handed changing of gas cylinders.


    MrMichael
    Participant

    Not done a ballon, but did do a Glider around the Solent last year out of Lee on Solent air station. Awesome…..loved every second of it.

    Martyn, I might be up for it (balloon flight) if around the £125 mark as TOH suggests and is in the South East. I am the adventurous type….and a bit of risk is good for the heart!


    LuganoPirate
    Participant

    Never been in a balloon while it sounds wonderful I don’t think I’d have the courage.

    For those interested there’s an annual festival in Switzerland, In Chateau D’Oex not far from Gstaad. It’s really quite spectacular to watch.

    http://www.chateau-doex.ch/en/ballons_icon


    TiredOldHack
    Participant

    Yes, the Swiss one is interesting. I’ve not flown there but know people who have. Because it’s in midwinter, at altitude, it presents special problems for the pilots. Specifically, the gas pressure is low because of the cold and you have to pressurise the tanks with nitrogen. Every pilot watches the gas gauges like a hawk.


    Tom Otley
    Keymaster

    Very interesting thread.

    I recently read a book about the history of ballooning
    Falling Upwards: How We Took to the Air by Richard Holmes
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0007476515

    In addition, though not strictly about ballooning, I thought this was typically brilliant by John McPhee

    The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed by
    Link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005EHQEWW


    TiredOldHack
    Participant

    I’d like to add another story. A few people from the British Balloon & Airship Club went to fly at the first-ever meet in Russia, in the early 1990s. It was in Lithuania, and it had been agreed that Russia would let Lithuania become independent, although they were (at the time) still in charge there.

    It was a 10-day meet, encompassing two weekends, and a couple we knew, Rob & Julia, said they flew every single slot, morning and evening. The retrieves were done by Russian Army 6×6 off-road trucks, and navigation was made difficult by the fact that key things like airfields were not marked on the maps for security reasons (!).

    They had space in the basket for passengers, and their rule was: “Children first, shady apparatchiks back of the queue”. The Lithuanians went wild with delight.

    Anyway, towards the end of the meet, their interpreter/minder approached with a diffident-looking grey-haired bloke, and explained: “This man cosmonaut! He has flown everything in Red Air Force, and also Soyuz, but he has never flown in balloon. Is OK?”

    They agreed it was indeed OK, and took him up. He watched them closely as they operated the controls (basically, burner for up, dump valve to let hot air out to go down).

    I ought to explain that you’re not drifting along silent for much of the time, You’re always putting short bursts of burn on, to keep the envelope at the right temperature, to maintain altitude.

    Anyway, the cosmonaut (who, unusually, didn’t speak much English), asked if he could take control, and they shrugged and let him, and he maintained height perfectly. Then he pointed to a very small field ahead, and asked: “I land there?”

    They said it was a very small field, but thought what the hell, if he cocks up the approach, we’ll simply climb out and find somewhere else….

    And he flew it down, in a perfectly executed series of steps (burner off, let it descend, arrest the descent with a burn, let it cool and drop again, arrest the descent, etc etc) and plonked it plumb into the centre of the field. They were amazed. OK, so he was an ace pilot, but a balloon is like nothing else. Or so they thought…..

    When their minder caught up in the retrieve truck, they expressed their admiration and also surprise that he knew how to do such a textbook descent.

    There was a rapid-fire exchange in Russian with the beaming cosmonaut, and then the minder explained: “This man trained on Russian lunar landing simulator for Russian moonshot that was cancelled after Apollo 11. He say descent in balloon exactly the same technique.”

    Which, if you think about it, it would have been….

    Oh, and there was one solitary Russian balloonist there with a home-made balloon made of plastic sheets heat-welded together, and a home-made basket under it. Like a gigantic bin liner. He sat under the envelope with a large weed burner which he waved around to heat the thing up.

    The other balloonists were mightily impressed, and to a man (or woman) refused all invitations to be a passenger in it. Some Yank apparently bought it on the spot, and it’s now in a museum in the US somewhere.


    LuganoPirate
    Participant

    Fascinating story ToH, thanks for sharing.


    Globalti
    Participant

    Yes, fascinating.

Viewing 11 posts - 16 through 26 (of 26 total)
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