Thinking about a Hot Air Balloon

Ted DuPuis said:
Our annual bonfire works pretty well for that too:

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I was thinking the balloon burner would be a great way to start the bonfire! :D
 
Picked this up today:

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The trailer is an 8x16, 6 ft or so tall inside. It's not sitting properly because I need to get a different height hitch than what I have, easy enough there.

The reality is the trailer is significantly larger than what I need. The "best size" trailer would be a 6x10 and one with a fold down/ramp back. This one is bigger and has barn doors in the back, so I would need to add ramps to it or else lift the basket up into it. Oddly, it has 14.5" wheels and tires, something I've never seen before. The axles are beefy, and they have brakes (which aren't hooked up).

I bought it cheap enough that I could flip it and make a profit. It does tow well, but really it is too big for the balloon. It could fit the Cobra in it, though, which could make it a multi-use trailer.
 
If you think you have fear of heights, don't let a ballon ride stop you. Go find a Breezy like the man who gave rides for years at Fon du Lac. There's not fuselage and you sit in a simple chair with the only thing between you and skydiving is one measly seat belt.
 
Looks like "mobile home" style axles.
 
lowtimer said:
Looks like "mobile home" style axles.
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Ted may have thought about a mobile home once or twice back in the day. Now he might be thinking of a mobile home park.
 
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lowtimer said:
Looks like "mobile home" style axles.
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Yeah, I was thinking semi truck/school bus, but the beefier style of wheels and axles. Single tire axles.

Sac Arrow said:
Ted may have thought about a mobile home once or twice back in the day. Now he might be thinking of a mobile home park.
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What I'm more thinking about is a bus converted into a mobile home. You know, to tow the balloon to rallies.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Yeah, I was thinking semi truck/school bus, but the beefier style of wheels and axles. Single tire axles.



What I'm more thinking about is a bus converted into a mobile home. You know, to tow the balloon to rallies.
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The Youtube bus guy could probably hook you up with a nice two stroke diesel bus.
 
Sac Arrow said:
The Youtube bus guy could probably hook you up with a nice two stroke diesel bus.
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He only does repairs, he doesn't really do brokering or sales.

The thing I've come to the conclusion of is that the 6-71s don't have enough power, I don't like the sound of the 8V71/8V92s as much (especially the turbo ones) and the only busses with 12V71s from the factory were MC6s, which are rare and mostly in bad shape.

So realistically, we'll be looking for a Class A of some sort when the time comes that meets what we want more or less as-is. My favorite engines there are Cats, and plenty of Class As are Cat powered, but the Cats in those are some of the smaller and less-good ones. Prevost is my favorite bus manufacturer, but they're all either 8V92T or Series 60.

It's a ways off so I'm not yet at the "thinking about" stage.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
He only does repairs, he doesn't really do brokering or sales.

The thing I've come to the conclusion of is that the 6-71s don't have enough power, I don't like the sound of the 8V71/8V92s as much (especially the turbo ones) and the only busses with 12V71s from the factory were MC6s, which are rare and mostly in bad shape.

So realistically, we'll be looking for a Class A of some sort when the time comes that meets what we want more or less as-is. My favorite engines there are Cats, and plenty of Class As are Cat powered, but the Cats in those are some of the smaller and less-good ones. Prevost is my favorite bus manufacturer, but they're all either 8V92T or Series 60.

It's a ways off so I'm not yet at the "thinking about" stage.
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I really think you should re-visit the idea of buying a tank, getting an M113 instead, and you can use it to run around the property pulling out tree stumps. Then you can get your 6V53 on plus have something that drives like a dozer.
 
Sac Arrow said:
I really think you should re-visit the idea of buying a tank, getting an M113 instead, and you can use it to run around the property pulling out tree stumps. Then you can get your 6V53 on plus have something that drives like a dozer.
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Find me one for a reasonable price and you might be on to something...

The real problem is that with a weight of 12 tons (according to Wikipedia - I'm sure you could tell me a more accurate weight) I'd be looking at needing to buy another semi to haul the damn thing. And my wife has said no more semis. :(
 
One of these days I'll do an add on for my balloon rating. Last I checked its only 10 takeoffs and landings and an hour solo.
 
KSCessnaDriver said:
One of these days I'll do an add on for my balloon rating. Last I checked its only 10 takeoffs and landings and an hour solo.
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We're doing commercial so it's a bit more, but yeah, it's still not bad to do the add-on.

Of course a takeoff and landing isn't quite the same as touch-and-gos in a 172.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
We're doing commercial so it's a bit more, but yeah, it's still not bad to do the add-on.

Of course a takeoff and landing isn't quite the same as touch-and-gos in a 172.
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Mine would be just a class add-on, so its quite simple.
 
asicer said:
No XC so you can do it in still air?
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I guess in theory, that would be correct. Reading 61.63(c), I wouldn't have to meet the time requirements. It had been a while since I actually looked, turns out I would need 2 flights as PIC in a balloon, 1 flight to 3000 ft above takeoff elevation and 2 solo flights. At least I think that's the case.

Mind you, a few years back I had spoken to some people about it, and the answer was that no DPE's would know how to do it that way, even though it was legal, and I would probably end up meeting all the requirements anyway.

The number of people that my situation applies to is certainly less than 100, for what it's worth.
 
KSCessnaDriver said:
One of these days I'll do an add on for my balloon rating. Last I checked its only 10 takeoffs and landings and an hour solo.
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You would be amazed at the things that can happen after ten simple takeoffs on an otherwise still morning. :D :D

Early one morning I was driving solo chase to pick up my friend's dad on a planned flight from the Sandia foothills over the Crest. My brother was riding along in the balloon.

I was heading for turnoff at Bernalillo to go around the mountain, when they called me on the radio. He liked to fly as close as possible to the granite faces on the North end of the Sandias, and an uncooperative tree had snagged the envelope. It was now deflated and hanging on the trees.

They had to walk out, it took six hours. The next day or so some employees hiked down to the balloon from Sandia Crest and bagged it, and a helicopter was rented to lift it out.

Somewhere along the way, the cargo hook malfunctioned, and the basket and envelope fell about 2,500' to the mesa below. The basket was a mass of aluminum tubing and fiberglass about 16" tall, and the envelope split into pieces.

The new balloon was much bigger and nicer. :D :D
 
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I took an air balloon ride once as a kid. Very cool! Good luck in your endeavors!
 
3393RP said:
You would be amazed at the things that can happen after ten simple takeoffs on an otherwise still morning. :D :D

Early one morning I was driving solo chase to pick up my friend's dad on a planned flight from the Sandia foothills over the Crest. My brother was riding along.

I was heading for turnoff at Bernalillo to go around the mountain, when they called me on the radio. He liked to fly as close as possible to the granite faces on the North end of the Sandias, and an uncooperative tree had snagged the envelope. It was now deflated and hanging on the trees.

They had to walk out, it took six hours. The next day or so some employees hiked down to the balloon from Sandia Crest and bagged it, and a helicopter was rented to lift it out.

Somewhere along the way, the cargo hook malfunctioned, and the basket and envelope fell about 2,500' to the mesa below. The basket was a mass of aluminum tubing and fiberglass about 16" tall, and the envelope split into pieces.

The new balloon was much bigger and nicer. :D :D
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By no means am I saying I'd be anywhere near safe to be alone in a balloon that fast, but it sounds fun. I know a guy that if I were going to do it, I'd call him and see what he thought would be the best route. Honestly, it would more of a trophy rating than anything else for me.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Picked it up today. Very excited, now we just need to start learning how to fly it!
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Cool! Your signature line made me wonder, though: What's the fuel economy of your hot air balloon?
 
asicer said:
Cool! Your signature line made me wonder, though: What's the fuel economy of your hot air balloon?
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About 20-25 gph of propane is what I’ve heard.

Matthew said:
Next time the wind is out of the south, swing on by.
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The part I’m definitely the least comfortable with is landing out. Of course we know you’ll always be happy to have us drop in!
 
Supposed to have my first ground lesson this afternoon. More than anything we’ll do a check over of equipment and fire things up if we can. Make a shopping list and go from there. Hopefully we can do a hot inflate.
 
Zeldman said:
I would guess that the first lesson would include how to fold/unfold.??
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Yeah, that's basically what we're going to do today. Work on getting everything out, set up, learning how to unfold/refold. We might do a warm inflation if there's propane in the tanks (I think they're empty). I might try going by Tractor Supply to refill the tanks as they fill by the gallon, which is what I need. I didn't fill up the gas tank for the inflator fan, but that had gas in it currently so it should be fine. If I go by Tractor Supply and the gas station before leaving I might unhook it and fill it up just to make sure.
 
I know you're presently thinking about a balloon, but with your land and the local landscape, I can't believe you haven't thought about a powered paraglider as well.
 
Bill Jennings said:
I know you're presently thinking about a balloon, but with your land and the local landscape, I can't believe you haven't thought about a powered paraglider as well.
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Believe me, I have and would love to. Laurie is not a big fan of ultralights. Maybe after we get our balloon ratings and get the runway further along she'll be interested in the idea.
 
powered parachute might be the only flying machine more wind sensitive than a balloon. at least in a balloon there is *something* between your feet and the ground when you land...
 
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Bill Jennings said:
I know you're presently thinking about a balloon, but with your land and the local landscape, I can't believe you haven't thought about a powered paraglider as well.
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Speaking of landscape, just SW of New Century is what looks like an old airport being used for loading containers onto railcars and trucks. Was that once an airport, or just look like one?
 
Bill Jennings said:
Speaking of landscape, just SW of New Century is what looks like an old airport being used for loading containers onto railcars and trucks. Was that once an airport, or just look like one?
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That's the intermodal rail yard. Amazon and a few other companies use it - trains from the coast full of stuff from China come in, it all gets moved onto trucks and scattered across the US. It's great for picking up thermals in a glider. It used to be farm land.
 
This afternoon we were able to meet the instructor for our first "lesson". There was no flying involved (or even hot inflation) but we did get everything out, assembled, fired up the burners, checked everything for functionality, and we did a "cold inflation" of the balloon. Everything works and this thing really is pretty neat and in good shape. Now we start looking at weather and hopefully find a good day to fly.
 
Completely off subject, Ted, but I have a friend who just took a job with Garmin, a bit up the road from you. One of Garmin's employee benefits is that they will help (cover?) the cost of ground school for your PP. I'll have to let him know about POA. Just what we need, another Kansas pilot! :D
 
Ghery said:
Completely off subject, Ted, but I have a friend who just took a job with Garmin, a bit up the road from you. One of Garmin's employee benefits is that they will help (cover?) the cost of ground school for your PP. I'll have to let him know about POA. Just what we need, another Kansas pilot! :D
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I’m aware of that benefit. ;)
 
You wouldn’t need to light the burner if I was around, Ted. I’m full of enough hot air to get us both off the ground.
 
With all the cows around Kansas I would think it would be possible to use ''alternate gas'' instead of propane...
 
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Ted DuPuis said:
You've been waiting for a new "thinking about" thread, well here it is!

Ok you weren't waiting for it, but here it is anyway.

Laurie and I have been thinking about getting a hot air balloon. Really we've been curious about it for a few months, and going to the balloon fiesta in Albuquerque had us more interested. She's taking the lead with this one and is really into it. I am, too. While I normally am one for varying levels of more controlled flight, I've always found balloons intriguing. Especially flying the MU-2 in such a highly controlled, IFR, high up environment (and for Laurie in the Challenger she's literally flying twice as high) ballooning will offer a nice balance to that. After seeing the balloon fiesta in ABQ we found ourselves thinking this would be a good idea.

From what we can tell so far ballooning is a world that's got a lot of differences from powered flight. For one, there's now CFI-LTA, if you have your commercial LTA then you can instruct. It's a very small community and DPEs are few.

One thing that's different is the norms with purchase of the aircraft. In the fixed wing or rotor wing world, we generally tell people not to buy an airplane first - first just learn in a rental and then figure out what you want. Not so in ballooning! There are very few balloons nationwide you can rent for instruction. Part of the reason for this is that for $10k you can get into a used balloon that's a reasonable first balloon. But also few people want to do the insurance for instructing in their balloons - sort of like twins. Albuquerque does have balloon pilot mills, but the hourly rates are surprisingly high.

When you start to look at the costs, a balloon to train in makes sense. By the time you look at the costs of renting, hotel, etc. to travel someplace to do the rating (not to mention how many times you may have to do it if the weather doesn't cooperate), you can basically buy a balloon and set it on fire after your rating and break even.

So we've started looking at different brands (Mitsubishi doesn't make balloons, which makes it harder to find the best manufacturer out there) and started to work on understanding what sort of balloon we want in terms of size, capability, and the like.

We've figured that a 77,000 cubic foot balloon is about what we want. Normally I want bigger and more capacity, but in the case of a balloon, much above 77k cuft means that it would be something that truly requires a crew beyond Laurie and me. While having helpers is a good thing, we really want to aim for a setup that we can crew ourselves. This still provides a large enough basket for one of us and a passenger (whether we're flying together or bringing along an instructor or friend), and potentially a second passenger depending on weight and conditions.

We've started reading through the FAA's Balloon Flying Handbook. It's been a while since I've been studying towards any new rating, and I find some of the things in this quite humorous. Some almost literal quotes (I'm going from memory here) include:

- "If passengers are planned for the flight, refreshments should be provided."
- "One of the challenges of cold weather operations is keeping warm."
- "Flying in rain should be avoided, as the balloon will get wet."

Laurie and I have been cracking up reading some of it, but there is also some good information in there, especially for either people starting off with LTA as an initial rating or someone who's not used to flying other than in an IFR environment (like us).
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I have one I'm looking to sell if you are interested.
 
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