Balloons

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

"G. Sylvester" wrote in news:ksCxh.52308
:

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.

In 500 or so hours, I've seen at least 4 or 5 Mylar Baloons at altitude
(although I don't think at 10,000'). So you are about right.

In 500 or so hours, I've seen at least 4 or 5 Mylar Baloons at altitude
(although I don't think at 10,000'). So you are about right.

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...

I've seen quite a few R/C planes, but only when we flew over their
local airfield.

And we saw a humongous rocket, once. (It was NOTAM'd, and ATC warned
us about them...)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

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...

no reference the Larry the Lawnchair Man? There was a radio call from a
now defunkt airline (Eastern?) that checked in with SoCal Center
"Airline XXX, one four thousand, at my 3 o'clock and 5 mile there
appears to be a man in a chair attached to a bunch of weather balloons."
IIRC, Larry got fined $200 for no transponder. These days the guy
would get shot down and then nailed for about 20 offenses including jail
time. then again, his lawnchair weighed as much as a 152. ;-)

And we saw a humongous rocket, once. (It was NOTAM'd, and ATC warned
us about them...)

I really wish I flew down by Edwards to see SpaceShipOne go off. Their
next flight, I am definitely flying.

Gerald

("G. Sylvester" wrote)
no reference the Larry the Lawnchair Man? There was a radio call from a
now defunkt airline (Eastern?) that checked in with SoCal Center
"Airline XXX, one four thousand, at my 3 o'clock and 5 mile there appears
to be a man in a chair attached to a bunch of weather balloons."


http://www.clusterballoon.org/utah/utah_3.html
Good pics


Montblack
"You're gonna need a bigger boat."

On Mon, 5 Feb 2007 11:33:41 -0600, Montblack wrote:

http://www.clusterballoon.org/utah/utah_3.html
Good pics

The original Lawnchair Larry took along a pellet gun to shoot out the
balloons to descend. I wonder how this guy planned to do it.

--
Dallas

On Feb 5, 9:33 am, "Montblack" Y4_NOT!...
wrote:
("G. Sylvester" wrote)

no reference the Larry the Lawnchair Man? There was a radio call from a
now defunkt airline (Eastern?) that checked in with SoCal Center
"Airline XXX, one four thousand, at my 3 o'clock and 5 mile there appears
to be a man in a chair attached to a bunch of weather balloons."

http://www.clusterballoon.org/utah/utah_3.html
Good pics

My favorite is http://www.clusterballoon.org/utah/utah_79_L.jpg
The guy seems pretty happy, but notice where the helmet is. It works
best if you put it on your head.

-Robert

On Feb 5, 8:00 am, "Jay Honeck" wrote:
And we saw a humongous rocket, once. (It was NOTAM'd, and ATC warned
us about them...)
--
Jay Honeck

I've not seen a high-power model rocket from the air, but I do belong
to a club that actively flies them. We generally get an FAA waiver
for rocket flight to 12,000 feet one weekend a month (and the NOTAMS
do issue, I've had to fly around the launches several times myself).

The NOTAMS seem to have the unfortunate effect of bringing in curious
pilots. We spend a lot of time waiting for over-curious light planes
circling the launch to leave, so we can fly. It is sometimes a sore
spot, as the larger rocket projects generally have electronics with
finite battery life on board (altimeters, minimally, but often GPS,
still or video cameras, etc), the launch window is of limited
duration, and we have other fliers waiting for their turn at the
pads.

I add this here as a plea for pilots to not circle the NOTAM'd launch
area waiting to see something go up. If a plane is nearby, the
rockets don't fly. A 'typical' high-power model rocket might be 3 to
8 feet long, weigh 3 to 20 lbs, and hit a top speed of 300-400 mph on
it's way to apogee at 2000-3000' agl... Serious enough, but the
heaviest projects can weigh several hundred pounds, the fastest
rockets can top mach 2 (getting past mach 1 is a rite of passage for
many rocketeers, so someone is sure to have a supersonic project at
any launch), and the high fliers will hit at least a mile AGL, and
often two or three miles. The high-power model rocket altitude
record is about 37,000 feet, and a couple of years ago an experimental
amateur rocket (they operate under different regulations than the
model rocket crowd) finally crossed the 50 NM threshold which
typically defines 'space'. To minimize drift, the rockets usually
recover with only a very small drogue chute deployed (hard to see)
until they are perhaps 500-1000'AGL, when the main chute deploys.

These launches are a lot of fun to watch from the ground. Check out:
http://www.nar.org/ or http://www.tripoli.org/ for more information.
If you're in the Northeast, my club is: http://
www.metrarocketclub.org/

Gary

Maybe... They sell A LOT of Mylar balloons here in NY. They even sell them
at the local Pharmacy!

I don't think we're called Yuppies anymore, but the modern-day equivalent
of Yuppies don't like to bring anything home to the kids that doesn't last
a few days... I doubt there will be much Mylar out there today in this half
of the country. It's on the too-cold side of the icing curve out there!
Besides, who has parties anymore?

I saw an RC planes from the air only once that I can recall. It was big
enough, high enough, and close enough to the field that I thought it was in
the pattern.

Can't say I've seen any rockets from the air. I see 'em on TV sometimes,
but they are usually in Florida or Houston or something.



"Jay Honeck" wrote in news:1170680414.893628.128670
@q2g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

In 500 or so hours, I've seen at least 4 or 5 Mylar Baloons at altitude
(although I don't think at 10,000'). So you are about right.

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...

I've seen quite a few R/C planes, but only when we flew over their
local airfield.

And we saw a humongous rocket, once. (It was NOTAM'd, and ATC warned
us about them...)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Can't say I've seen any rockets from the air. I see 'em on TV sometimes,
but they are usually in Florida or Houston or something.

Yeah. We sometimes have really cool ones from Florida.

Peter ;-)
(Sorry. Couldn't resist.)