Hot air balloons
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: UK
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I once heard one on the radio in the Manchester LLR:
Man App: "Golf alpha bravo not above 1250 feet Manchester QNH 1015 whilst in the LLR please".
Golf alpha bravo: "Wilco. Altitude is all I can control in this".
Man App: "Golf alpha bravo not above 1250 feet Manchester QNH 1015 whilst in the LLR please".
Golf alpha bravo: "Wilco. Altitude is all I can control in this".
Thread Starter
What happens if you fly over them? Really bad thermals? Inadvertent acoustic weapon based on focused sound waves? Or something more mundane?
Tabs please !
The wake vortex or vortices can give the envelope quite a shaking. The crown of the balloon is sealed with a parachute valve that can become dislodge and allow the hottest air to vent leading to an unscheduled descent. Re-seating the parachute is no big deal and a bit of burning restores the lift however it's poor airmanship all round.
If you know any balloonists then trading an hour for an hour is always very welcome. Navigating at 10kts using OS maps is a rather different experience and skimming the top of the barley can be terrific fun too
If you know any balloonists then trading an hour for an hour is always very welcome. Navigating at 10kts using OS maps is a rather different experience and skimming the top of the barley can be terrific fun too
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: 23, Railway Cuttings, East Cheam
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Did an hour in a balloon once. Good fun, didn't go above 30' and that was to pop over power cables etc. Did the barley field skimming. Bit like aerial canal boating I thought.
Thread Starter
How far away do you need to keep from balloons to avoid the vortices disturbing them? Incidentally I'd have thought that flying besides the balloons (and perhaps slightly higher) would be a greater risk?
Last edited by abgd; 25th Feb 2014 at 21:17.
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Vienna
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What, you have to break away at 500' when you're pretending to strafe Hun observation balloons?
. May I recommend Try Rise of Flight! ?
When I was a kid I did a few laps around a balloon while flying a PA12. That calibrated my brain on what zero airspeed looked like aloft. Upon landing I was offered a ride in an RV4. The pilot saw the PA12 out flying, and did a few laps around it. The two speed differentials matched, and from the back seat of the RV4 it gave a strong illusion that the PA12 was floating along at zero airspeed.
Bryan
Bryan
