Hot Air Balloon

[Nick]

Anyone ever done a hot air balloon ride? I picked up some vouchers online for $150 on a Groupon or something similar the other day. Excited to go try it out, flights are about ~2 hrs.

Thinking this time of year is probably beautiful for it, particularly when the leaves in MA start showing more in the next couple weeks.

 

[deadheadskier]

yes

My uncle is a Pilot in Quechee, VT. $150 is a good deal

 

[Nick]

Yeah actually it worked out even better because if you refer 3 people you get it for free. So I referred my wife (haha) and 2 friends of ours, so it actually cost $150 for both of us

This one is out of Worcester... Bella Via Balloon Company. I've actually seen them flying several mornings on my commute to work down 295.

 

[deadheadskier]

My uncle flying under the Quechee Gorge Bridge. He doesn't do this with paying customers. :lol:

 

[Nick]

Wow! That's pretty cool!

 

[TheBEast]

The Quechee Balloon Festival was a lot of fun growing up. Going under the gorge bridge is CRAZY!!

 

[deadheadskier]

He has a newer balloon now that's much bigger that he's taken under the bridge as well. only 15 feet total of clearance.

 

[Nick]

He has a newer balloon now that's much bigger that he's taken under the bridge as well. only 15 feet total of clearance.

is it not really dangerous? I mean can you just go ahead and bump into the girders with the balloon with little risk?

I mean... it's not like there is any directional control in a balloon. It's up, or down.

 

[deadheadskier]

It's definitely dangerous, but calculated. When there's very little wind, a river will actually affect the wind immediately above it to travel down stream. I experienced this first hand. The one time I flew with him, the wind from the White River started carrying us down river when we were trying to land in a field on the opposite side. He landed the balloon on top of a tree at the edge of the river, grabbed onto the tree and let the weight of the balloon bend the tree over, he then cranked the fuel and effectively used the tree as a catapult sling-shotting us into the field he wanted to land in. :lol:

He's pretty experienced to do these types of things. Been a pilot for almost 20 years averaging about 150 flights a year.

 

[deadheadskier]

Picture he snapped of Killington from his balloon.

 

[Warp Daddy]

I actually ran a hot air balloon festival at our college for many years . It was part of a large anniversary celebration for the college originally and was such a success we continued several years as part of the Fall Parents Weekend program . I have been up and it is amazing . Up a 1000 ft you can still converse with ease and you move ever so slowly with the wind. We'd often drop down to a couplee hundred feet and talk with people in their back yards asking them for BEER :>)) .

Then landing there would always be a champagne celebration in the meadow with the farmer who owned the land . Usually appeases them for scaring the shit out of their livestock every time we hit the gas jet .

It was great over woods seeing deer and other animals scurrying thru the forest. A great experience -- try it !!

 

[spring_mountain_high]

i bungee jumped out of a hot air balloon...that was pretty cool

 

[Trekchick]

I was supposed to go to a Hot Air Balloon festival on my honeymoon 24 years ago. But I was over ruled and we went to a heavy equipment trade show instead. I guess helium balloons and free hot dogs while testing new hydraulic excavators is more fun than taking a Hot Air Balloon ride..................
harrumph!

I have a feeling that Phil and I will take a hot air balloon ride some day. Its something we'd both enjoy.


Spring mountain high, that sounds crazy, but fun!

 

[mattm59]

went for my wifes birthday

or our anniversary or something a few years back. It was pretty cool. I felt oddly serene when we snapped off a couple tree branches on our landing, grabbed a leaf and thought "It ain't MY boat." :grin:
Pix...fortunately, the other couple didn't forget their camera :roll:

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/572841172vqHkhm

 

[Nick]

Cool! I'm getting really stoked. For $150 it's hard to complain for two of us!

 

[Nick]

Wow, I didn't know this:

There are two kinds of pilots’ licenses available: private and commercial. A private license allows you to fly solo in a balloon, a commercial license allows you to take people on rides in a balloon (all commercial pilots must hold a private pilot’s license). The requirements for each license are outlined by the Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) Part 141. Training for a private license requires at least ten hours of flight instruction combined with additional hours of ground training and a written test. A commercial license requires more experience- pilots must have at least thirty-five hours of flight time with additional ground experience and must pass a much more stringent written test.

that's pretty rigorous. I've got a private pilot's license that I haven't used in (eight years?) maybe. Flying is a huge passion of mine, probably the biggest outside of skiing, but it's so cost -prohibitive (grr).

Flying hot air balloons would be an awesome retirement gig....

 

[mattm59]

retirement gig

yeah, that'd be sweet. Here in Ct. the price was a LOT more. Our flight was $250 a head. Lot of logistics involved, the date got changed several times due to weather, and the whole chase vehicle/support crew was pretty intensive. I remember Frank (the skipper) getting a little loud yelling to his wife and son when we were snapping branches off the tree, I guess wind gusts upon landing just upwind of a brick factory will do that to you :razz:

 

[darent]

I lived in tucson in the 70,s and took a ride down the valley early in the morning, what a way to see tucson, you could see all the coyotes running through the burbs attacking the garbage cans