Safety in the air

[Jinks]

Recently, SWMBO won a competition for a balloon flight over the Wiltshire countryside which we are going to do on Saturday.

It struck me that if we had won a competition for a trip in a small boat, say the size of a balloon basket, there's no way we would be allowed to embark without a lifejacket - quite rightly. So, logic dictates that we shouldn't be allowed to climb into the basket without a parachute. Not so. In fact, quite the contrary; even if I had a parachute and knew how to use it I wouldn't be allowed to wear it. Given the option, I wouldn't choose to fall out of a boat or a balloon but I'd have much more chance of surviving falling out of the boat.

Why the contradiction in safety standards?

<hr width=100% size=1>Of all the things I've lost - I miss my mind the most!

 

[tcm]

a parchute is faily useless from balloon heights, i believe.

s equals ut plus half atsquared means erm if the baloon is 200m up, then erm 200 equals 5 times t-squared so it's six seconds to hit the ground, which i bet is no good.

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[jhr]

Not sure a parachute would do you much good? If you're wearing a lifejacket, you fall in the water, it inflates, you float - nothing for you to do and no training required. If you have a parachute, you have to learn how to pull the ripcord (and how not to go into a screaming panic and forget everything you've been taught when you fall out of the basket), how not to get the lines tangled, and how to land without breaking your neck. Minimum one day's training (or was when SWMBO did a charity jump 20 years ago). I also suspect that the balloon is generally so near to the ground (<200ft?) that only an experienced base jumper would react fast enough to deploy the parachute in time for it to do any good.

Putting aside falling out of the basket, I'd guess that most instances of loss of lift in a balloon are fairly sedate affairs and that you are safest staying in the basket, even if the landing is a bit hard.

All pure speculation on my part, as I've never been in a balloon or done a parachute jump. I hate heights!

<hr width=100% size=1>Je suis Marxiste - tendance Groucho

 

[Jinks]

Wouldn't that depend on the deployment time of the parachute? Don't special forces when they use High Altitude Low Opening jumps deploy at less than 200 metres, and doesn't as little as 2 sq m of parachute increase drag by 20% or so, and I'm pretty sure that military training jumps are done from a tethered balloon at less than 200m.

That sounds as if I know what I'm talking about but it's all bovine excrement really /forums/images/icons/smile.gif.

<hr width=100% size=1>Of all the things I've lost - I miss my mind the most!

 

[mikewilkes]

Our initial two para jumps were done from ballons at 800 feet - 243.84 metres for the kids.
With them being the first ones I would defy anybody to have the presense of mind to pull a reserve if the main did not open at that height - and this was with a certain amount of training first!

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[boatless]

Why would those 6 seconds be no good?

It'd be the first bit of the seventh that's not very nice.

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[mjf]

Paracute no good - take a hanglider& bible

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[theguvnor]

The fall wont hurt you - but hitting the ground will

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[Vara]

On the contrary when I did my first jump it was from a tethered balloon over sunny Aldershot.(Gosport and Aldershot both in the same county now thats really bad luck)

<hr width=100% size=1>If it can't be fixed with a lump hammer dont fit it!

 

[BrendanS]

Good grief? Peeps have taken off from balloons with hang gliders, usually from several thousand feet. You'll drop several thousand feet from a high altitude drop before gaining control. Depends on where you are dropped from?

<hr width=100% size=1>Me transmitte sursum, caledoni

 

[ChrisE]

If it is of any comfort balloon pilots are subject to licencing by the CAA, the same way that airline pilots are.

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[Geoffs]

No comfort at all after my last landing at Heathrow.

Even the cabin crew said 'Please remain seated while Capt Kangaroo bounces this aircraft to the stand' /forums/images/icons/smile.gif.

<hr width=100% size=1>Old Chinese proverb 'Man who sail boat into rice field, soon get into paddy'

 

[Its_Only_Money]

You are extremely unlikely to have a problem with a balloon that equates to you as an individual dropping clean out of the sky from the same height, the most common objects that balloon envelopes strike unintentionally are trees (and normally on landing so the effect is minimal on safety) - in which case the snag effect of the balloon fabric on the branches quite often replaces the loss of lift by >100% (ie you become stuck in the tree) /forums/images/icons/shocked.gif Minor gashes in the envelope normally result in the pilot retaining full control over his height, albeit with some additional expenditure of fuel necessary to compensate for the leak from the envelope. Collisions with objects that both tear a great hole AND then let the balloon fall off are VERY rare (normally involving cranes/built-up areas/car-key competitions).

Also you might want to wait until you experience a normal balloon landing..... some are "interesting" at the very least....try and imagine berthing a mobo where you can't throttle back, stop the engine or take it out of forward gear until AFTER you are tied up and you'll get the general idea. They are great fun though!!!

<hr width=100% size=1>Rgds

Simon
Its Only Money
Fairline Sprint
Solent-based

 

[starboard]

I suggest you take your lifejacket anyway....in line with all airlines, even on flights that go no where near water they demonstrate how to put on and inflate your lifejacket....a great load off use as you fly into the side of a mountain at 450kts....!!!!!

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