Over the weekend I had a Cloud Nine trip, but we spent some time looking at balloons and getting some ideas of what we want and don't want. As usual, scope creep occurred, but not too much.
First thing we've learned is that most people seem to own a bunch of balloons. It's not uncommon for people to say they own anything between 3-5 balloons. Because of how easy it is to swap components on balloons (and many people owning multiple balloons), most of the "complete package" balloons seem to be people putting together all the stuff they don't want and trying to sell that together. After talking to a few sellers about some balloons, we are thinking we'll likely need to focus on a good envelope or good basket and then the other will be less good (or just buy things separately).
One thing I wasn't clear on that I now have learned is that the envelope is considered to be the "aircraft" and the N-number attaches to it. That makes sense, I just wasn't sure which was considered the "aircraft".
We had been looking at Firefly balloons as they are popular for training and they're economical, plus have the benefit of being US-made (which many balloons are not). So when you need parts, you can get them a lot quicker.
There are a few things about them that I think have made us change our mind on wanting something else, though. First, Firefly balloons have a triangular basket. By itself not a big deal although less useful overall. But with the triangular basket means they attach to the envelope at 3 points instead of 4, making for a more bouncy, less stable ride, especially when people move around.
Additionally, Firefly balloons don't have a gimbal mount for the burner, so the flame can only go "up". Obviously this gives you less control of the flame, which is less desirable. Our instructor said you can work with it, but it's definitely less preferable and he thinks we'd be happier having a gimbal. We tend to agree with him. We do want two burners (because we like twins) but each individual burner is still redundant so that's less critical than in a standard powered aircraft, still trying to understand that more.
One thing that I did decide to go do was reserve the N-number from my old Aztec, N6927Y. I've been wanting to reserve that tail number to put on another aircraft, but wasn't sure which aircraft. I wasn't going to just reserve it without an idea of where to use it and changing the tail number on any of the fixed wing aircraft I've flown would be a pain to do. But here, I think it makes sense. It'll be nice to have "Balloon 6927Y", even though I won't be talking on the radio with it much.
