Basejumper.com - archive

My friend and I have just purchased a hot air balloon that holds around 6 people and we are curious how many BASE jumpers/skydivers would be interested in balloon jumps with us. We are located in Boulder Co. The balloon is in great shape (a 2003) and has had its annual inspection. We will probably have our private certification in about a month and would like to give jumps to help us cover our costs while we gain time for our commercial. This would be largely informal. If your interested let me know.

7

i don't even know but i gotta say...

6

5

Im in. I guarantee you if you come to Mile Hi Skydiving and tell people you have a balloon, you will have a weeks worth of loads in about 10 minutes.

Being that boulder is MY territory, no one elses (stay out), i have been getting some PMs on this. these 'Balloonatics'(tm) as they call themselves are very legit. They are good friends of mine and are doing this as their buisness out of college. both of them are very trustworthy and are talented paraglider pilots. one is also an experienced skydiver. I am helping them 'modify' their basket to accomodate parachuting easier and cooler.

ITS GOING TO BE SICK!

I usually say 12

Calvin-

I am a little far away at the moment
to jump or help out too much but I am
building my own launch platform and
would love to hear any ideas you have.

Also I have loads of materials on various
home made baskets made by people who
build balloons for a living and some cool
spreadsheet in Excel that calculates gross
lift based on altitudes & temperatures.
PM me if you want any of this.

dude, your totaly wrong. 12 is a even two digit number. cant work.


and on baskets-
hey man, thanks. we are totaly broke college kids, so the mods to the basket will be as inexpensive as possible. all we are looking at right now is a platform to exit from. we have also been discussing hanging the trampoline from basket, just once or twice.

Whoever owns the BASE restaurant/bar in a particular town owns it...

Dude, 12 rocks, it was my number for
years in little league and soccer plus I
had it on several of my dirt bikes.
____________________________________

I have seen plans and photos of baskets
ranging from a plastic trash can to a simple
2.5' by 3' wooden bottom with sides made of
fabric and aluminum poles.

The wicker baskets traditionally used make
for decent contrapation to haul people and
hold the tanks plus it provides 'give' if you
have to make a hard landing --- been
through one of those, kind of interesting.


My idea for balloon-jumping launch platform
is to get a real thick 4'x4' sheet of exterior
grade plywood and 4 heavy duty eye-bolts
with large fender washers.

Round the corners of the board, put an
eye-bolt in the middle and 3 along the
edge at 120 degree intervals. The
perimeter bolts connect to the lines
from the envelope and the center bolt
connects to a ground tether.

I will probably use a double sided eye-bolt
for the center so we can have a safety line
attached for the climb up and for possible
static line use in the future.

As for the actual wood surface, I will paint
the top and bottom with acrylic, exterior
grade paint and cover most of the top
surface with grip tape, like a skateboard
for good traction.

As long you lay the balloon out down wind,
which is the usual way since it helps with
inflation, then as it rises the tether should
be in the up-wind direction. You exit with
the wind at your back giving you maximum
distance from the only obstacle. Plus the
tether with streamers every 50' or so as
required by the FAA regs will act as a nice
wind indicator.

Anyone got any ideas please throw 'em out.

FYI - attached is that spreadsheet in case
anyone out there is interested and a Word
doc with a crude drawing of my platform
idea.

The back issues of ' The Home Balloon Builder
Journal' have a bunch different basket ideas
that have been actually flown ranging from a
motorcycle trike to a simple kithen chair.
Each issue is several megs in size so I can't
attach any but check out this link for some
cool ideas also:

http://www.myairship.com/building/gondola.html

<------ Load 1

nope, he just gives you beer. I actualy jump here.

you obviously have no experience in random number generation. learn the rules man

Can we share the exit point (basket) on that load?

you lucky bastards. im totally jealous. and visiting in the spring.

4.

and, RJmoney, last I checked hot air rises in your neck of the woods too. When are you going to invite us out there?

Yeah your right......... I NEVER JUMP HERE...........Never have.... never will..... right officer????

put me on the list! I can speak for at least 4 others who are ALWAYS itching to get out of a balloon! Weekdays especially!
chris AT triaxproductions DAWT com

cops cant use the interslut man, only the NPS can do that.

So nice to be young...............................and naive.

don't go there.

I'm there.....

Hey... I jumped from a balloon... I told the guys, "I am going to land on that road where those two bikes are riding. Or in the field right next to it as an out."

I jumped.

I landed.

There was a black suburban with four cops... Who would have known....

They got out. They looked angry. They yelled for me to get out of the road. I got out of the road.

It appears I landed in the center of a bike race, on a road closed for the bike race, that their job was to keep closed and direct traffic.

Who in the hell races their bike at 6 in the morning, I must ask... That is way to early to do anything.

(this is a funny way of saying - If I can land on a road, next to four cops, in the middle of a race, and not have to say a thing, and allowed to walk away as if nothing happened, I am not too worried about balloon jumps and cops... Someone correct me if they have had bad experiences. Maybe on PM or something.)

My other balloon jumps include landing in tall wet alfalfa - which should never be landed in when wet, makes your shoes all wet too... Landing in a dirt field. A golf course (probably a poor choice). Some other fields. And my favorite... Landing in a residential cul-de-sac at 5 am as a senior citizen came out to get the morning paper. I said "good morning." He looked up and saw nothing (the balloon had drifted and we opened canopies high). He got real confused and ran inside, probably thinking world war three just started, or aliens were coming from outer space.


I think most people, after watching a hot air balloon land, believe the only sane and smart thing to do, is leave before it lands - thus making the jump accepted.

yeah, me too.

I was on a balloon forum for a while when I
first started gathering information and heard
many experienced balloonists telling stories
about ignorant land-lovers making mistaken
assumptions.

Example: a balloon uses a burner to heat the air,
there are 2 modes: whisper and blast, with the
latter being bigger, louder, and brighter. S0Oo
there have been several erroneous reports of a
"balloon on fire" when in fact everything was
100% perfectly normal.