Balloons

Today, we went to the Sonoma County Hot Air Balloon Classic.  (http://www.schabc.org/)  We left the house a little after 4:00 AM (YIKES!!) to get there.  The balloons have to launch early, when the air is still cool to ensure the air inside the balloon is hotter than the air outside the balloon.  When we got there, about 4:45 AM, we were surprised to find a traffic jam trying to get in.  In fact, they had to delay the start of some launches because the balloonists were stuck in traffic.     

The first event was called the “Dawn Patrol.”  Four balloons were lined up and launched in the dark – lighting up along the way. 

Here are some pictures of the Dawn Patrol.

 

 

 

 After sunrise, about 30 balloons went up.  It was quite impressive!

 

 

 It was quite interesting watching them get the balloons together. It was also amazing that they let the crowd just wander about and get very close to the balloons and crew.  Here is a sequence of them getting a balloon filled with air.

This is the balloon stretched out on a tarp, which helps keep the balloon from being damaged on the ground.

 

And, here it is looking down from the basket...

 

Being inflated...

 

Going up...

 

And, up in the air.

 



 

 

 They start out by filling the shell with cold air using a fan.  Here a couple of guys are holding the bottom open.

 

This shot is looking through the bottom of the balloon as it is being inflated.  You can see a man adjusting the opening at the top, which gives you an idea of the size of these things.  They said a fully inflated balloon stands about eight stories tall. 

 

 

In addition to the colorful plain balloons, there were also some characters skulking about.

 

I think this bird is angry because the REMAX balloon is crowding him.

Because the balloons are driven by the wind, it is often difficult to determine where they will land.  If conditions are right, some of the better pilots can actually return to the same field they launched from.  Here is a pilot who landed very close to his launch point.  He is hovering about a foot off the ground and his ground crew is moving him into position to deflate the balloon.  By the way, balloon pilots are in fact real pilots.  Those qualified to take passengers must also be licensed by the FAA as fixed wing pilots.

 

I was curious about how much it cost to operate a balloon so I looked it up at: http://hobbies.whatitcosts.com/buy-hot-air-balloon-pg2.htm.  After the factual area, the comments were quite amusing.  Below are two of my favorites, but you should read them all to get the full effect.

imad • hi i wanna make a hot air balloones pls help me  I live in algeria

Guest  • Making your own hot air balloon is so easy. Just take some sheets and sew them together into a ball. and tie ropes to it and attach to a large basket. Then, build a fire in the basket and hold the balloon over the fire to inflate. Make sure you do this all outside because the balloon will inflate quickly and you don't want that happening in your house. That's assuming you have houses in Algeria. You might just have huts which would probably be worse, I don't know. Also, and this is very important, ensure that you have several gallons of gasoline in the basket before you start. Gasoline is important because it serves two purposes in a balloon. The first is for ballast and the second is that if your fire is going out, you can put some gasoline on it to light it back up again. Good luck to you sir!

ANIL GAUTAM• Hey every body... I wanna start hot air ballooning in Himalayas..but not sure as i feel himalayan weather would be too turbulent for this kinda enterprise...any comments plz ?

Guest - Yes, you will die.