Kite Strings

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=21747
Winter time? Balloon drop time!

Nic Welbourn - 2011/05/02 03:01:44 UTC
Canberra

Well the flying's been good here lately even though the season has supposedly ended... so what to do when the thermals can't take us as high as we would like?

This is Thief's idea and it's a good one! Here's vid from the first drop...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB1IH2CgGB4
]

Yeah. Great idea. Park the glider downwind of the gondola for liftoff and see which one wins if the balloon drifts faster than it climbs.

Jim Rooney - 2011/05/02 03:38:29 UTC

Nice one!

Hahahhaa... I LOVE the release "mechanism"

Yeah Jim, I knew you would. Right about your speed - and super practice for when your very very reliable bent pin release locks up. And right about at the altitude you'd need to get away with a bullshit procedure like that.

Ryan Voight - 2011/05/02 03:47:47 UTC
Point of the Mountain

I've always wanted to do that! Definitely on my "bucket list"...

If anyone - even Ryan (but definitely not Head Trauma) - wants to do one of these...

- See my:
-- article at http://www.energykitesystems.net/Lift/hgh/TadEareckson/index.html
-- equipment photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/aerotowrelease/sets/72057594066212198/detail towards the end of the set.
- Talk to me.

(Zack?)
---
2012/12/11

Not Ryan. A year and a half ago I didn't appreciate what an evil little bastard he is.

I first saw balloons fly at the annual NASA festival a couple years back. I've been absolutely fascinated by them since. If I had time to fly two aircraft types, or if I ever quit hang gliding, I'd definitely take up ballooning.

Balloon drops sound pretty cool but they basically seem like a balloon ride followed by a hang glider sledder. I'd be content to just take a balloon ride.

The thing that freaks me out about the idea is the fact that a premature release at the wrong time will kill you. Given that, I don't see any problem with someone in the balloon having to use a knife to effect a release. It's not like the glider pilot has to worry about getting off in an instant due to a low level lockout.

We've kicked around the idea of doing a balloon drop at the NASA festival but no one around here has ever done it (or seen it done). We haven't discussed it with any balloonists either. The big question I have is legality. It's a big enough deal legally towing a hang glider with an LSA...I can't find any information about the legal requirements for a balloon drop.

What's your history with balloon drops, Tad? It sounds like you've done at least one before and you've obviously put a lot of effort into designing equipment for it.

Zack

Hi Zack,

John Heiney has considerable experience at balloon drops. He set the world record for consecutive loops in a hang glider by dropping from a balloon. Here's a link to John's video page:

http://upshots.biz/video/video.html

He shows a balloon drop starting at 1 minute into the first video (titled "John's Demo Reel").

John also posted a relatively short article titled "Balloon Drop Seminar" at:

http://upshots.biz/articles/Balloon_Drop_Seminar/Balloon_Drop_Seminar.htm

I hope these help as well.

Bob Kuczewski

I've been absolutely fascinated by them since.

Yeah, they ARE fascinating.

If I had time to fly two aircraft types, or if I ever quit hang gliding, I'd definitely take up ballooning.

- Don't even THINK about quitting hang gliding. If you do I WILL have you hunted down and killed - slowly - within a week. I've put WAY too much time into you for that to be an option.

- I'll let you live if you get forced out of hang gliding for being too arrogant and condescending as long as you keep attacking from the outside.

- But then go into sailplaning 'cause I'm gonna get hot air ballooning outlawed 'cause of what it's doing to the icecaps.

Balloon drops sound pretty cool but they basically seem like a balloon ride followed by a hang glider sledder.

- No. It's a balloon ride followed by the Stall From Hell followed by a hang glider sledder.

- Your professed Ultimate Goal In Life is a 3200 foot hang glider sledder from Glacier Point. You can do multiples of that from a balloon a lot closer to home. Granted, the view will be pretty dull - but repeatedly buzzing a descending balloon is pretty cool.

The thing that freaks me out about the idea is the fact that a premature release at the wrong time will kill you.

Versus a tow were a premature release - or a loop of 130 pound Greenspot - just CAN kill you.

Given that, I don't see any problem with someone in the balloon having to use a knife to effect a release.

YECH.

It's not like the glider pilot has to worry about getting off in an instant due to a low level lockout.

Extremely.

We haven't discussed it with any balloonists either.

Talk to some at the next Festival.

The big question I have is legality.

I tried to do it legally. Ended up dealing with some rude little prick with way too much job security at the FAA and a stupid incompetent Designated Engineering Representative who was only interested in ripping me off. Ended up saying fuck it and them and just doing it - the way everybody else always has.

Allen Sparks is probably the only person to get his equipment legal - with a Supplementary Type Certificate ('cause he wasn't working with total dicks) - but his stuff sucks compared to mine.

It sounds like you've done at least one before...

Yeah. Also at most one. But the wind was pretty marginal so maybe I should get extra credit.

...and you've obviously put a lot of effort into designing equipment for it.

Yeah. Always seem to put a billion times the time and effort designing and constructing stuff that I do actually using it.

I've hung out with and helped launch and recover a lot of balloons and talked with John and Rob Kells about the issues.

It's a beautiful system - if I do say so myself. It's way overbuilt 'cause that was back in the day when if I heard a skygod like John Heiney advise a factor of ten I'd blindly do a factor of ten. Could've done it a lot easier and cheaper using a factor of three and hollow braid for the Bridle and Lift Line but what the hell.

It's designed to rig to ANY balloon - regardless of the suspension configuration - and any kingposted glider (there's no good way to do a topless) within a couple of minutes.

I have emergency releases at both ends of the bridle on the gondola and those and the one on the glider have bulletproof safeties such that there's no freakin' way they can be accidentally triggered.

Read the manual and John's article, look at the photos, practice a few knots, think about the procedures. It's an interesting experience and having a drop in your logbook gives you a little cachet that most of these bozos don't have. And I'll be more than happy to walk you through things so's you can get up and down glitch free. Hell, we have cell phones nowadays so it could be almost as good as having on site coaching.

Oops. Didn't see you get in there before my last post, Bob. Thanks for weighing in.

Yeah, John's a good guy and I've always liked him. But just because somebody's got lots of experience doing something doesn't mean he's doing it right or well. I'm not implying anything about John here - just saying look at the aerotow parks.

Balloon drops are pretty simple and straightforward and as long as you keep things that way there's not much you can screw up and make dangerous.

I have no doubt that John's equipment is perfectly safe and effective and that he can do a whole lot more loops on the way down than I can - but I'm gonna get the blue ribbon at the science fair for my equipment.

Tad Eareckson wrote:Don't even THINK about quitting hang gliding. If you do I WILL have you hunted down and killed - slowly - within a week.

Meaning you'll kill me within a week of quitting, or I'll be killed slowly over the course of a week?

Don't worry, I have no plans to quit, although another serious accident might do it.

Zack

...or I'll be killed slowly over the course of a week?

Hmm... Hadn't considered that angle. Thanks.

Need ideas. Did they make a sequel to "Pulp Fiction"?

If you have another serious accident try to make it more spectacular than a mild ground loop with no damage to the glider. Blow a loop at three hundred feet.

Or - while we're on the subject...

Run a light tether from the nose to the gondola to keep the glider from spinning on the way up and forget to disconnect it before you release.

http://ozreport.com/15.090
Hot Air Balloon Hang Glider Drop in Australia

Andrew Luton - 2011/05/05 20:25:29 UTC

I am a local hangy pilot from Canberra and did two balloon drops over the Easter weekend. I have been around hot air balloons since I was a kid and have been flying hang gliders for four years now and after a year of talking about it I was finally able to live my dream and combine the two sports with a drop! A few months of planning and research went into it and all went smoothly. The drops were made at Leeton during an annual balloon meet that is held there. An article is in train to go in one of the upcoming Aus Soaring mags and also the Australian Balloon mag titled Aeronotes.

- In any of those months of planning and research did you come across a recommendation to position the glider up or cross wind from the gondola at launch or consider the possible consequences of positioning down?

- How many of those months went into the design and construction of the release system?