"2" Close calls today

4

47PILOT

Pre-takeoff checklist
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47PILOT
After thinking about it for a while, this may be more common than i thought.
Flying from CMA to L35 @9500' today just north of EMT encountered a balloon of my left maybe 20-40' away same altitude. At 157kts it came up so quick i only had a millisecond to react. It didnt help that it was silver in color and almost impossible to see. my first thought was "weather balloon on a cable"??. I cant find anything on the chart.
Then on the return trip, somewhat same vicinity @6500' saw ANOTHER balloon! This one was maybe 50-60' away and i could see it was one of those mylar type.
Is this more common than i thought???
 
You got to 40' away from a balloon before you saw it? 157 kts isn't an excuse. I fly at 250 down low all the time and haven't had an issue yet with balloons. They're really big and don't really move.

I'd suggest looking out more...
 
This is the problem with TV panels and traffic alerts, creates an unconscious assumption that traffic avoidance is covered. Still a bunch of stuff flying around out there 'off the radar.' Look out the window people, the life you save maybe your own.
 
Captain said:
You got to 40' away from a balloon before you saw it? 157 kts isn't an excuse. I fly at 250 down low all the time and haven't had an issue yet with balloons. They're really big and don't really move.

I'd suggest looking out more...
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At least not one you know about.

How many targets have you seen on TCAS and had a hard time locating.

Really big? These were maybe 24"-36" silver against a silver-blue hazy background.
 
Didn't the OP state that the color made it almost impossible to see?
 
Unteathered weather balloon perhaps? They're sometimes silver, I think, and NOAA (or whoever is responsible these days) launches plenty of them.
 
I've had one close encounter in my Archer with a small mylar party balloon about 10 years ago at low altitude under the St. Louis Bravo that came so close that I could tell it was a multi-colored butterfly with several trailing strings of ribbon attached to it. :eek:
 
I've seen quite a few balloons in the air at various altitudes. Normally they are more prevalent around the time of sports or holiday events. Flying north of the race track in indy and you'll see bunches of balloons from time to time. There is the 500 track, a drag strip and a small oval where races are held fairly often. Flying near Albuquerque you occasionally see balloons from the various malls, fairgrounds and other events. The mountains create a airborne box where the balloons cruise back and forth across the valley for hours. In the LA basin I've seen balloons on the few trips I've made through there, no doubt due to some event going on somewhere. Mylar shiny, regular rubber of all colors and even some of the oddball plastic bag types. Just dodge like you would any other obstacle. They don't seem to show up on radar or traffic reports though we often report clumps to ATC when possible. You never know when they have miles of string attached so avoidance is best. On the other hand we try to hit them at some fly-ins because they don't normally have anything attached and pop on contact with a prop or bounce off any other parts.

Just my 2 cents.

Frank
 
47PILOT said:
At least not one you know about.

How many targets have you seen on TCAS and had a hard time locating.

Really big? These were maybe 24"-36" silver against a silver-blue hazy background.
Click to expand...


Sorry, read your post and thought I saw Hot Air Balloon in there. Clearly an incorrect assumption on my part. Yeah, I've had close calls with small balloons too. I figure something that small probably won't hurt the plane though...
 
I assumed it was a manned balloon as well. Wonder how many people are doing those balloon diy electronics packages to the edge of space? Could have been one of those, someones iphone or gopro has a picture of you flying by...
 
I've "nearly hit 'em" a couple of times in the LA basin as well. In both cases I could see them clearly for less than a second, but I think they were clusters of mylar party balloons.

I've been involved in launching the DIY stratosphere balloons too. It's unlikely to be those, because in most cases the operators notify ATC, and also the ascent rates used get them into Class A within a few minutes of launch, unlike the mylar party balloons that reach their superpressure altitude and hang around in the teens or below.
 
The recent runs of various TV commercials with idiots launching large balloons with boards strapped to the bottom and their cell phones attached with their "credit card points" and other things, **** me off.

Having worked with folks who've launched their large stuff legitimately for decades, seeing a dumb TV commercial show folks exactly how NOT to do it... (Not to mention your stupid cell phone will freeze...)... annoys the hell out of me whenever those commercials come on.

www.eoss.org - great folks. ALWAYS notify ZDV and recently have provided them near-real-time tracking data for many recent flights.
 
I hit one in Tennessee a few years ago with my RV. The string wrapped around the leading edge of the right wing and the balloon came loose from the string and separated. The string however stayed with me until entering the pattern to land. Turns, climbs, and descents were not enough to shake the thing loose. It was interesting because it was just above the skin on the top of the wing except for the end or the string which was buffing a shiny spot in the paint. This was worrying me thinking it would wear through the paint before we landed. Here is a picture of it. The string is hard to see, but look just before the red paint near the tip and you can see it wrapped around the leading edge.
turkstrip074it7.jpg
 
I encountered one on my long solo cross country as a student pilot (Sept 2012) going from KEEN to KSFZ at 4500ft. I saw it about 15 seconds ahead of time at 110kts. Couldn't figure out what it was, so made an abrupt course change around it. It was a red shiny mylar balloon.
 
brywd said:
I hit one in Tennessee a few years ago with my RV. The string wrapped around the leading edge of the right wing and the balloon came loose from the string and separated. The string however stayed with me until entering the pattern to land. Turns, climbs, and descents were not enough to shake the thing loose. It was interesting because it was just above the skin on the top of the wing except for the end or the string which was buffing a shiny spot in the paint. This was worrying me thinking it would wear through the paint before we landed. Here is a picture of it. The string is hard to see, but look just before the red paint near the tip and you can see it wrapped around the leading edge.
Click to expand...

The relative airflow for 'turns, climbs, and descents' are all straight on. If you want to dislodge something I'd opt for slips and skids.
 
Sounds like it was a weather balloon. Years ago I was monitoring a PAR student doing an approach for a T-38. A target showed up in front of him that looked like birds or clutter. Student asked if he should call traffic and I said no. Well on roll out the IP said he narrowly missed something on final. I went downstairs to talk to him and he reported something like a silver saucer shaped object. I called weather and they said it was one of their balloons. The thing got blown from Miramar right on to final for rwy 24. You'd think they'd take better precautions in launching those things.
 
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brywd said:
I hit one in Tennessee a few years ago with my RV. The string wrapped around the leading edge of the right wing and the balloon came loose from the string and separated. The string however stayed with me until entering the pattern to land. Turns, climbs, and descents were not enough to shake the thing loose. It was interesting because it was just above the skin on the top of the wing except for the end or the string which was buffing a shiny spot in the paint. This was worrying me thinking it would wear through the paint before we landed. Here is a picture of it. The string is hard to see, but look just before the red paint near the tip and you can see it wrapped around the leading edge.
turkstrip074it7.jpg
Click to expand...

Tailslide
 
During one of my student solo cross countries, I had to dodge something I thought was a tethered balloon. It looked like a long green ribbon, and I thought it could be identifying a tether. It scared the **** out of me. Once I landed and talked to my instructor, I determined it was a corn shuck or part of the plant anyway. It was late summer/early fall, and apparently out here in Iowa during the harvest, those things can get carried away by the winds and thermals. I think I was at 3500 feet!
 
I started a thread once about party balloons, they're uncannily common. I usually see one every 5-10 flights. They're usually pretty easy to see. They're also not going to do much damage if you hit one, either. It's the atmospheric equivalent of space junk, although a lot less worrisome.
 
ClimbnSink said:
I assumed it was a manned balloon as well. Wonder how many people are doing those balloon diy electronics packages to the edge of space? Could have been one of those, someones iphone or gopro has a picture of you flying by...
Click to expand...

 
ummmm yesterday was mothers day. Probly got away from someone on the ground
 
Brad Z said:
I started a thread once about party balloons, they're uncannily common. I usually see one every 5-10 flights. They're usually pretty easy to see. They're also not going to do much damage if you hit one, either. It's the atmospheric equivalent of space junk, although a lot less worrisome.
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All depends on where it hits and what it gets sucked into or wrapped around. Closure rate counts, too.

It was just a chunk of foam that killed everyone aboard Columbia... They just hit it hard with a vulnerable spot on the airframe.

A big chunk of Mylar through an induction system could probably ruin your whole day. Or jammed in a movable control surface along with the tether.

Hard to do, but... Stranger things have happened.
 
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