Hot Air Ballooning

June 1st, 2006

Boulder, Colorado

 

 

Here our some images from our hot air balloon experience. Sheila arranged for myself and her parents to enjoy a hot air balloon ride with Fairwinds, a local ballooning tour company here in Boulder.

 

Note: I didn't spend a lot of time processing these images and because of time constraints relied heavily on Auto Levels. Consequently, the colors are all over the board.

 

 

      

The actual balloon part is known as the "envelope" and the pilot here is seen adjusting the envelope's parachute valve or flap...

 

First shot of our companion balloon as it is being inflated.....

 

      

The envelopes are initially inflated with large gas engine powered fans, one of which can be seen here....

 

 When the envelope is nearly full, the propane burners are used to heat the air which of course gives the balloon lift....

 

Both balloons are ready to go.... they stand nearly 140 feet tall when inflated...

 

Shot of the burners heating the air inside the envelope.... you can definitely feel the heat!... the temperature required for lift off depends on the ambient air temperature as well as altitude... this morning I believe the required temperature was about 180 degrees and with these two burners that did not take long to achieve.

 

 

 

We have lift off! It's very peaceful and there is a surprising lack of fear or worry about heights considering all between you and the ground is a wicker basket!

 

A nice aerial shot of Boulder Country Day School where Ethan and Brendan both attend.... check out the monster play structure in the back...

 

This is a view of Boulder looking back to the foothills... most of Boulder is actually in the distance in front of the Flatirons....

 

 

Some more (and not the last) shots of our companion balloon....

 

The Boulder Reservoir, a popular boating and "beach" area... the long white objects in the water are sculling boats....

 

 

Here our companion balloon loses altitude as the pilot was busy talking and did not keep the heat on.... you could really see it dropping quickly.... at point we were falling at 600 feet per minute (about 10 feet/sec)... the pilot said that with no heat at all the balloon would reach a terminal velocity of 1200 feet per minute which is about the speed of a parachute (although the landing would be much harsher as skydivers can flex the chute at the last second to slow down significantly)

 

Long's Peak and the foothills... one thing you don't appreciate until airborne is how much undeveloped space there is in Boulder county....

 

 

The view became clearer as we rose above the inversion layer and into warmer air.... most pollutants were trapped beneath the inversion layer.

 

We attained a maximum altitude of 9,200 feet above sea level or 3,800 above the ground... the pilot said he has been as high as 20,000 above seal level....

 

 

A view of the Indian Peaks in the background....

 

Somewhere near Longmont, Colorado.... we traveled about 12 miles downrange during our flight....

 

Starting our descent.... Balloon pilots can not "steer" the balloon, they can only "spin" it by opening one side of the valve at the top.... however

they can adjust altitude to catch desired wind currents to try to navigate to a safe landing area....

 

With Sheila's parents...

 

We landed in a hay field... here some of the passengers help to pull the balloon to where the chase vehicle has parked. (The resulting clouds

of pollen gave me a serious eye allergy reaction, but that is another story....)