Balloons

John Clear writes:

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

Brian Shul tells a story about passing a weather ballon in an SR-71 at
70,000+ feet while flying at several times the speed of sound. He saw
something flash by and didn't even realize what it was until he had
passed it. He had a bit of a chill thinking about what might have
happened if he had actually hit the balloon. There was absolutely no
time to react. It particularly made him aware of just how fast he was
actually going. (Normally the aircraft flies so high when supersonic
that it's difficult to get a clear idea of how fast it moves from
aloft.)

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.

Many times - including on my last flight, just over a week ago. Never
anything larger than a party balloon. They do startle you.

David Johnson

On Feb 5, 2:06 am, "G. Sylvester" wrote:
I had another close encounter with a (party / decoration-type) balloon.

Out here in the desert, the usual culprit is the plastic grocery
bag. With the strong thermal activity in the summer, it's not unusual
to pass one of these at altitudes up to 10,000 ft.

About 5 yrs. ago, a pilot called into the tower declaring an
emergency for engine trouble. I heard him on my handheld and strolled
over to the runway to watch him come in. As he was flaring, it was
clear that there was a plastic grocery bag stuck to his intake. As he
slowed and turned off the runway, the bag fell off. I went over to
transient parking and asked if he'd solved the problem with carb
heat. He was very interested in knowing how I had figured that
out. :-)))

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

You see balloons? Hope you don't see these:
http://www.clusterballoon.org/
--
Almost every man wastes part of his life in attempts to display
qualities which he does not possess.

- Samuel Johnson

"Bob Fry" wrote in message
...
You see balloons? Hope you don't see these:
http://www.clusterballoon.org/
--
Almost every man wastes part of his life in attempts to display
qualities which he does not possess.

- Samuel Johnson

"I'm not giving up my ice cream parlor that I built with my own two
hands...!"

- Howard Johnson

Jay Beckman writes:

"I'm not giving up my ice cream parlor that I built with my own two
hands...!"

- Howard Johnson

"Howard Johnson is right!"

- Olsen Johnson

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.

On Tue, 06 Feb 2007 04:18:30 +0100, Mxsmanic wrote:

Jay Beckman writes:

"I'm not giving up my ice cream parlor that I built with my own two
hands...!"

- Howard Johnson

"Howard Johnson is right!"

MX is just pawn in chess game of life.....

Ron Wanttaja