Just one of the reasons a captain has power to detain

[danny_galaga]

Look at this knob head. What an entitled douche. Risking unwilling and unwitting lives

 

(Language warning)

 

 

 

Edited June 26 by danny_galaga

[BrendAn]

2 hours ago, danny_galaga said:

Look at this knob head. What an entitled douche. Risking unwilling and unwitting lives

 

(Language warning)

 

 

 

i have one question. why would a balloon plunge to the ground if someone jump out . i thought less weight would make it rise.

[danny_galaga]

1 hour ago, BrendAn said:

i have one question. why would a balloon plunge to the ground if someone jump out . i thought less weight would make it rise.

Apparently it's possible the top of the balloon flattens out from the sudden rise, which might cause it to deflate. Someone jumped to his death in Melbourne recently and that balloon was fine, but I'd take the word of the balloon pilot over the (apparently unlicensed) parachutist 

[440032]

Friend of my wife's the other year said "Hey, we saw some of those hot air balloon things over the city. What are they called again?"

 

Ummm, 🙄     hot air balloons?

[IBob]

I was chase crew in Scotland where 2 people jumped (individually) leaving only the pilot. Evidently he put the balloon in a hard sink before dropping anyone, as he wasn't sure how the balloon would behave. And yes, it tended to go back up, but it did nothing suddenly or violently, he said another time he would just keep climbing.

Having said that......the pilot is the captain and what he says goes.......absolutely. Mr 2000jumps in the clip is a plonker........

[Freizeitpilot]

As a youngish naive and foolhardy tourist I went for a ride in a hot air balloon in central Australia back in the eighties. I recall how the young pilots were joking around a lot with the girls and snorting nitrous oxide out of party balloons to make their voice sound squeaky, all in the name of tourist entertainment. I think there had also been some joking talk of performing a mid-air balloon ‘kiss’ , where one balloon is manoeuvred to rest on top of a second - but nothing like that eventuated.

The balloon flight was great and uneventful, but we sort of ‘crash’ landed - that is, we were told to crouch low in the basket and hang on tight.  We hit reasonably hard and the basket was dragged sideways along the ground taking out some low scrub for about 50m or so before we came to a stop. We all got out a bit shaken but without a scratch, and assumed that was how ballooning worked. Then it was off for a traditional ballooning champagne breakfast and to share our adventures.

 

Some years later, I understand a central Australian balloon operator was involved in the deaths of 13 people when a balloon ascended underneath and collided with a second. The basket of the top balloon snagged and tore a large hole in the lower balloon.

 

Looking back on my tourist experience now I’m older and hopefully a heck of a lot wiser, it still makes me curious how that kind of mid air collision may have occurred.

In my mind it seems clear the pilot we had on that day way back in the 80s was a complete cowboy, but I have no idea if the same pilot or the same operator was involved.  I’m sure the fatal accident was thoroughly investigated by the experts of the day, and the causal factors rightfully identified. I don’t wish to cause any anguish to anyone through inference.
 

For me personally however, it still just makes me wonder.  I think there was another thread on here somewhere about the normalisation of deviance.

Im sure I still have the central Australia hot air balloon experience ‘certificate’ somewhere.