Old skool fun'n'games

This video probably shows the best use of a balloon burner when the pilot is too drunk to fly.

It was also a good way to test pilot light reliability in wet and windy conditions.

Not much else to say other than I probably should not mention Justin's name.



For more of Justin's ballooning videos, search for growingupisoptional on youtube.

Car parks and drop lines

I just spent the weekend down in Canberra doing some private instruction for a friend. She is very close to getting her private pilots certificate and we just need a few more flights to get it finished.

Unfortunately the weather only gave us one flight on the Saturday morning but it was good to get another hour done and a good excuse for me to get out of Sydney for the weekend.

The interesting thing though was that this was a city flight and the landing was in a car park - not really an issue, indeed two other balloons landed in the same car park that morning. We very successfully used a drop line to make sure we got in, talked about what was going on and how to control your crew and fly the balloon, the risks and times to try it and when not to. All very important stuff and a great experience for the student.

What was interesting was in the flight debrief, there is no box to tick for handling line use. It appears that there is no need to know how to use one or as an instructor, no need to talk about it. Very odd. Even weirder that I have never noticed this before with other students.....Anyhow, now I have a question to pass onto the ABF Operations/training manager.

Relaxation in far north Queensland

So what is a guy to do when the wind kicks in and the flight is canceled on the field as it was today? Go shooting of course!

But Back to the cancellation for a moment. You probably read in my previous post how great the weather is up here and how they don't normally miss but a few flights per year. Well I got one today. After waiting for a rain storm that never really made it over the ridge, we decided that it was not going to get us and it was time to go. Half way through the inflation (6 balloons for Hot Air and 4 for Raging Thunder) we got whacked by a 90 degree wind change and an increase in speed on the surface that made sure we were not flying. The panorama shows it all once it had settled down. We had been about to start the hot inflation just moments before. It all looks calm in the picture but when balloons this big start flogging about, it too exciting even for me.

Anyhow, so after getting down to cairns it was time to go shooting with a friend of John Medlock's (my very generous host and another one of Hot Air's pilots). The fun thing here is that I have not done much shooting for years and I have never played with hand guns - they just don't exist out side of the police, gun clubs and armed robbers in Australia.

We started off with a laser sighted 22 semi automatic which was light and easy to handle. We followed this with a 9mm semi Auto which again felt very light, had open sights and in my untrained hands seemed deadly accurate.

It was time for bigger metal. Out came a Ruger 357 magnum with a laser sight. It feels heavy and deadly. The others felt like toys by comparison. Being a revolver it spits flame and smoke as it bucks in your hand. It is also very loud even with hearing protection. The rounds must be expensive as you only get 3 shots with this one.

Then the grand daddy. The Smith and Wesson 44 magnum, again with laser sight. Bigger again and heavier still. This gun was made famous by Clint Eastwood in the Dirty Harry movies (without the laser sight). The dude must have wrists of steel to fire it single handed - well done Hollywood. I have a couple of dry fires to get the feel before loading it up with the full six rounds. It is now heavier still and the potential of this hand canon sits heavy too.

The kick is not much more than the 357 but the noise is immense and the weight requires two hands to get a good aim.

In the end I am pretty chuffed, every shot of about 30 in total over all the guns are within the 8, 9 and bulls eye rings so my eyes still work and hand is reasonably steady. I think I may look into joining a pistol club in Sydney when I get home - it was good fun in a sad macho way.

I used to shoot 22 prone competition about the time I finished school and did ok at it too. The focus and the relaxation to do it well was almost like meditation. I was surprised at how that same feeling came back today. Right up until the 44 went BANG! Then I just grinned like an idiot for a bit, cocked it and squeezed again.

Note: having just re-read this and looked at the photos I see a scary resemblance to David Hicks as portrayed in the Australian media....heres hoping I don't get a one way ticket to Guantanamo Bay for looking like a seditious gun nut...

PS: All this fun took place at CRM Gunsportrs, 293 Draper St, Cairns, Qld 4870
Phone : 07 4031 4440 - and ask for Tony

Year of the Pig

It is the year of the pig (DingHai) and the Chinese are partying hard here in Australia.

I have come to Cairns for a week and a half to fly passengers for Hot Air, in what has to the largest passenger operation here in Australia if not the world. Chinese new year brings huge numbers of tourists into this area for a few crazy weeks of adventure activities and shopping on top of the already steady stream of tourists coming out to see the Great Barrier Reef and Daintree rain forest.

The flying takes place up on the tablelands at Mareeba, about a 60km drive over the range from Cairns. Up here the weather is generally kind for 340 days a year and pilots go to work on a roster like any other 9-5 job. Hot Air and Raging Thunder both regularly have 3 or more 350's or 400's or 450's out for double hops. Right now it is more like 6 or 7 for Hot Air which is why I am here. I probably can't go into detail on numbers but if you work backwards from the above with each balloon getting through between 30 and 40 passengers per morning you can get the idea of just how big these businesses are.

I have to say it is quite good fun and even challenging getting two half hour hops into a valley that will easily be 45minutes wide if you are not smart about your flight. The guys up here are absolute professionals at all levels and it great fun when a bunch of these big balloons all use the same field for our change over and then all land in a smaller one for the final landing - every one within a minute or two of the perfect half our hop.

Right now it is very hot and muggy which is best cured by lounging in a pool when not flying. Quite a nice way to spend a break from my day job at the factory and a great chance to keep in touch with how our big balloons are put work day in day out.

The Skywalker Project

So I obviously don't have enough going on right now and have started another project at work because enough people have finally asked and it is one I have always wanted to do.

The Skywalker as I am calling it for now (Hi to all the Lawyers that work for George Lucas...) is also known as a Cloud hopper. This is a single person balloon designed to be light weight, fun to fly, easy to transport, fun to fly, perfect for people with no friends but wanting to attract friends and of course fun to fly.

So far I have done the initial design work on the envelopes that we will offer. As of now they are 25, 31 and 35,000 cu.ft models based on the B type Kavanagh shape. They are 24 gore envelopes with a reduction in panel 1 and 2 so there is only 12 rigging points. The first design images are shown above.

Take a step back in time..

Before this all started up, many many years ago I made a really rough little toy from scrap fabric. This envelope known as "Luke" was a 21 also based on the B type shape but with a full 24 gores and straight cut panels - it has no bulge in the gores and is not anything like the production models I am now working on.

It was drawn and cut in about the same day and sewn together over a few more days between everything else that goes on in the factory. It was flown over a very old T&C bottom end lent to us by Kiff Saunders.

We made it so we could take some video of Smart Vents opening and closing for a court case that also happened in the deep dark past. It was also used for looking at new innovations in deflation systems that have not been stolen yet. Honestly, I have moved on..

Anyhow, lots of folks have requested photos of the 21 so here they are. Unfortunately there are not many pictures as a) it was never certified and as such has only ever been tethered here at the factory and once in Leeton back in 2004 and b) the whole point was to take pictures and video from it and as such it was never the star of the show. There are however a few classics of me next to a 350 or 400 (I could look it up but...) at the factory as well as Tem having a play in Leeton.



When looking at the above photos I can not stress enough, it was not ever done as a production balloon and had none of our normal attention to detail in the patterns or design and as such has all those nice wrinkles and stress lines at the mouth. The colours are literally are as they came out of the scrap bin. Despite all that, it flew really well.

Sky Orchestra wrap up

So back to the real world for a few days at least. The Sky orchestra flights are over and we did pretty well with the weather - 5 flights out of 6 scheduled days. Not bad for a Sydney summer which is normally hot and windy.

I had some fun on the second last flight having finally got around to sorting out my suspended camera rig. It is probably a bit vain taking pictures of myself while flying but hey, worth doing just so I could get the following image after I fell out of the basket! The photos were taken with my 350D mounted in a plastic tool box and suspended on two lines from the envelope. I can raise or lower the camera and also bring it back to the basket if I want.

It was great the way that everyone was working as a team after only a few flights and by the last morning if you were not touching envelopes then you were working hard to get back to the pack. The last flight provided a box so we were able to cruise out over Parramatta, climb up and come back to the park. Some people landed back in Parramatta Park, others of us kept going for a bit longer.

All the feedback has been that it was a great success so I guess we will see if we get an invite to do it again next year.

Steve an Di Ireland did a fantastic job on the organisation side along with the team from Sydney Festival. All we had to do was turn up and fly which was great. The tracks from my flights are on the following map of Sydney showing the suburbs we flew over.


It looks like I am off to Melbourne for a promotional flight for a radio station on Thursday and then the 26th of January will see us out at Parramatta Park for Australia Day. Nothing like city flying to keep you sharp (or scared).