Hot Air

We had some crewmembers at Friend Ships who had a hot air balloon. One morning before they left the ministry they fired up the propane burner and filled up the balloon for tethered flights. It was fun being able to be a part of the balloon team and to get to go on a short ride. Here's some of the pictures from the events of that day.



This is looking into the balloon while it's still being inflated. As you can see on the bottom of the photo, a lot of the canvas is still lyin on the ground. If you check out the seam between the blue and orange colors, you will notice that it's not completely sealed. From the blue portion inward is a "parachute" which can be pulled by the operator to hasten decent (this allows large amounts of hot air to be released from the balloon).



Here's a shot of the balloon a litte more full of air. The initial filling of the balloon is simply with cold air using a large fan. After the balloon has been mostly filled this way, the operator then starts the propane burner to heat the air already in the balloon.



I had technical difficulties in getting this picture rotated. As you can see, it's the balloon fully inflated and tethered in the air. It's cool the things we get to take part in at Friend Ships.