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Hot Air Balloon Flight

January 21, 2006
The flight originated from Buck's Airport in Bridgeton, NJ. The original plan was to take off from Krolinger Airport which is in North Vineland, NJ but pilot Dave changed the departure point do to extremely variable winds.

The pilot was Dave Gidzinzki. Riders are Ron Tisa of Bridgeton, NJ and Leo Marquez of Bridgeton.

Lift off time: 3:45 PM           Minimum altitude: 0 feet.  Maximum altitude: 1200 feet
Landing time: Approx 5:10 PM Location: North Burlington Road, Seabrook, NJ area. Maximum speed while flying indicated by GPS: 38 mph. Minimum: 0 mph.

Dave gives a pre-flight briefing and explains how the fan will be used for a cold inflation.

Inflation is a fun process that young children love to watch. The balloon grows in size and seems to be alive.
Leo Marquez and I held the mouth open while cold air from the fan filled the balloon envelope.

After the envelope is filled with cold air Dave will light the burner. The heated air causes the envelope to lift upward and become vertical.

The difference in density between the hot air within the envelope compared to outside cooler air causes lift.

Looking in from the mouth Dave can be seen in silhouette as he checks the Velcro which holds the balloon top secure. He's actually on the outside.

See the trademarked "Greenhead" on the right.

On landing, Dave pulls a line which separates the Velcro and allows air out of the envelope.

See the deflation picture below of the opened top.
Dave begins the hot inflation by directing the propane-fueled flame into the mouth.

If you look very closely you'll see the slight orange color of the burner flame.

Leo, Ron Tisa and Dave a few seconds after lift off.

They began a rather speedy movement toward the North-west but the winds were quite variable.

Following the quite random flight from the ground was a challenge.

The balloon passing overhead at an altitude of about 250 feet.

This picture was taken somewhere South of Seabrook, NJ.

Look closely above the basket and you can see the flame from the burner.
Dave, Ron and Leo coming in for their landing. At this point they were hardly moving across the ground at about 2 feet above it.

Ground chase-crewmen, John Mossbrooks and myself, grabbed the basket and slowly moved it toward the road to make packing up easier for us all.

 
Balloon passengers Ron Tisa, in blue jacket, and Leo Marquez smiling in the middle are walked across the road by ground crewman John Mossbrooks while Dave begins to shut things down.
I took this picture of the balloon deflating while holding down the crownline.

Hot air is pouring out of the top as I hold the balloon down.

We had a convoy of about 15 cars following us during the flight.
Dave squeezes air from the envelope as Leo and Ron hold the canopy up to make squeezing easier.

Ron's daughter Jamie is wrapping the squeezed envelope with Velcro tapes to hold it in place before stuffing it into the carrying bag.

Ground crewman John Mossbrooks looks on.
Ron begins stuffing the envelope into the bag as Leo and John are helped carrying it by John's son John Robert.

The process of stuffing the envelope into the bag requires sitting on the bag every so often to press out the trapped air.

It's difficult to imagine something as large as the balloon envelope fitting into the bag.

See the next picture.

With much stuffing and sitting they got the envelop into the bag.

Finally, everything is on the trailer and we are ready to go.

Ron, Leo, Dave and John are seen in this picture.

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