Three days ago, Peter called me and said that he wanted to have some friends over to play Risk. Naturally, I thought this was awesome and made plans to go. The game's outcome is not important (it was pretty much tied between me and one other person, but I felt trapped and after I lost my North American bonus, I conceded defeat) but at the game, Brian Kunze mentioned that he was to help crew a hot air balloon the next day and asked if anyone else would like to help. I told him that if I wasn't doing anything, I would go.
So the next day at 6 p.m., I headed over to his house where I caught a ride with his family over to the Fulton County Airport in Rochester. There, we met with a flight instructor that was helping Brian's dad learn to fly balloons. Little did I know that "crewing a balloon" didn't actually mean flying in a balloon and helping guide it or whatever. Even though I felt a little deceived and was pretty disappointed, I didn't let it get to me and still managed to have a good time and learn about ballooning at the same time.
To inflate the balloon, we had to have two people standing at the mouth of the balloon while a gas engine-powered fan blew air into it.
The crown of the balloon needed to be attached to ropes which allowed the top to be opened and closed as desired to either contain or release air.
The balloon just after the fan was started and before the burner was turned on.
My job was to hold onto the "crown rope" (seen in the above pictures) and keep pressure on it so that the balloon wouldn't shift to the side or rise prematurely. Once the burner was turned on, the air in the balloon generated a lot of lift and I had to throw a lot of weight onto the end of the rope to keep the wind from carrying it away or letting the top go up too soon.
Once it reached a certain point of inflation, I had to release the rope and then hurry over to the basket to throw my weight onto that to keep the wind from taking it or making it rise too early (catching a pattern yet?). Before liftoff, the wind got kind of choppy and it was a lot of work to keep the balloon on the ground. Then all at once, the burner was activated and we released the balloon.
It rose pretty fast, and the wind carried it 12 miles north to 2 miles into Marshall County.
Finally, 55 minutes after liftoff and after several practice landings, they successfully landed the balloon in a hay field owned by a family of Mennonites (for the uninformed, Mennonites are similar to Amish, but slightly more open to technology). We had to drive the van back into their field to retrieve the balloon, and the whole family ran behind the van as we went and ended up being very helpful once we left. We talked to them while we put away the balloon, and they were very nice and interesting people.
We parted ways and went home.
Troy
Comments (10)
Looks like you had fun taking pictures anyway. You always seem to though. Mennonites are more comparable to Hutterites, actually
. The Amish broke off from the Mennonites, so you might say the Amish are like Mennonites except closed off to technology.
@OfElection - True. I researched that before writing this too, but I figured that since most of my readers are more familiar with the Amish and I didn't want to get into the whole history of things, it was best left as is.
@The_Palantiri - Yes, I knew that, and thought I'd give a hard time anyway...there is a lot left unsaid. That, and I'm a nerd.
Cool!
I like Mennonites. Really nice people.
That was a bit deceptive of them, I'd say. I feel for you - there was a hot air baloon on the cover of "Around the World in 80 Days" and then I read it and they didn't use one anywhere in the whole book! Grr...
I was just checking to see this post. And if you crew enough you'll get a flight we just cant take passengers on training flights. Though, do you really trust flying with my dad? lol. Tomorrow morning 5 or so in the morning if you wanna go again.
@bck000 - Well, like I said, I just felt a little misled by what you said at Peter's. I asked him last night and he said he was under the impression that if one or both of us went, we would get a ride or something. I'm not sure you mentioned that you or your dad were in training still haha. But that's alright. Tomorrow I'll be busy though, and probably every single day until Saturday next week because of the auction that's going on (see previous post).
Aw I didn't mean for you to be misled. I never mentioned about flying just crewing but o well. I'll take you up next year when I have my license finally. And btw I love that model race car. To bad your cousin got rid of it.
@bck000 - All is forgiven. Like I said, I had fun. And I'm not sure if it was a typo or if you misread, but it's a Model T race car, not just a model. It runs, and goes about 55 on the highway. Hehe
It was just a typo lol.