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The background |
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Rainer’s colleague Tomas (check out his site) is professional in balloon ascent. As a former member of the German national team, he has quite a history of take-offs and landings and many stories to tell...
So, Rainer had the idea to give Chiko a ride as a birthday present. A hot air balloon was planned, but as Tomas had to do a gas balloon adcent for a specific certificate, we got the lucky chance to try the gas balloon.
The balloon is filled with hydrogen, which, lighter than the air, makes the balloon ascend. And it has two main advantages: 1. You need no fuel for the burner to keep it in the air and can theoretically stay up there forever.
2. There is no burner, therefore absolutely no noise around you - quiet and stable - it is a dream.
The balloon we took is baptized “Graf Zeppelin” named after the inventor of the famous zeppelin.
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balloon’s envelope. The more gas is passed into the ballon, the higher it lifts up. This means that the sandbags have to be hooked lower and lower, step by step, all at once. This is probably why ballooning is called “sports”, because the sandbags have to be moved quite a few times until the balloon is up. When the balloon is high enough, the basket is fixed, which means that all the sandbags have to be attached to the basket (see picture above). To fix the basket again is science by itself. Lots of strings and equipment have to be installed. After everything is set, finally the balloon is ready to take off. We were five people in the basket, another five who helped to prepare the balloon followed in a van to pick us up after landing...
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lucky. It was marvellous! From time to time an airplane, approaching to the Stuttgart airport, flew close to our baloon. We enjoyed the view of motorways, people having their Sunday afternoon walk, plenty of little villages etc., all looked like a tiny miniature world.
After about 2 hours, a landing was planned for exchanging the crew: those from the van would get into the balloon and we would be in the van to follow the balloon. However, due to the strong wind the landing was not successful - the basket did not stay on the ground and was dragged on. The pilots on board decided to take off again. Four sandbags were thrown out and the balloon went up again quickly, with a vertical speed of about 4 m/sec. There we were, approx. 2700 m heigh right above Pforzheim, a city between Stuttgart and Karlsruhe... We left with a daunting task: to find a new landing place before reaching Karlsruhe.
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Height of the balloon in meter over time
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Vertical speed of the balloon in meter/second over time. The balloon went rapidly up at 7 m/s after take-off
Air temperature in Celsius over time
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The landing |
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Well, landing was an experience by itself. After the first try to land we went up sharply, ended up at about 3000m height and were drifting towards Karlsruhe. There was one problem: going on to Karlsruhe would lead us over the Rhine river, where the air is always a bit unpredictable. Also, there would be few chances for landing and we would have had to go on to France for landing. So, our pilots had to find a landing point. In order to hit the last possible one they used all their experience.
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A little balloon was launched to see how the air flow is underneath our height. Finally, we got into the right direction and Tomas selected a field to land at. In order to hit it we had to quickly decrease height and went down with 4 m/sec (!!!, see chart above). At the beginning, being still high up, you do not realize that high vertical speed, but after some time you begin to realize it. Another difficulty was the high wind velocity on the ground which made it difficult to assess the exact landing point.
However, Tomas did an amazingly excellent job, and we only were told afterwards that it had been a very difficult job - the situation was not easy at all. Shortly before landing, a huge rope is thrown out from the basket. It ensures that the basket gets the right direction as the rope is dragged on the floor. Additionally, the lower the balloon goes, the more rope is lying on the floor, making the basket lighter and softening the landing a bit. But even so, the basket banged on the ground, flipped over with us in it, and was pulled up by the balloon, floated a bit, banged on the ground again... Not until all the gas had evacuated from the baloon, did the basket come to a rest. There we were, five people lying in the basket (the picture above was taken just after landing and you see the basket and balloon exactly as it was). Fortunately, nobody was heart seriously, just a few little aches. This was a real experience, better than any action films!
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Basically, balloons were invented by the French and as in those days the king found it so special, only aristocrats were allowed to go in a balloon. This is still valid today, so that all passengers taking the balloon the first time and not being aristocrats, yet, have to be baptised again to become one. A little cermony after the flight lifts you up in the ballooners’ circle. With this you get a certificate and a noble title. This is the reason, why Chiko is called now
Highly Cruised Princess Chiko Of The Quick Landing Near Königsstein
and Rainer’s new name is
Robber-Baron Rainer The Connoisseur Of The Double Landing Near Pforzheim
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