Non-motoring > Summer fun Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Armel Coussine Replies: 20
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New Tue 29 Jul 14 20:44 
 Summer fun - Armel Coussine
An hour or so back I heard a hot air balloon huffing and puffing nearby and the little girls started squeaking excitedly and running about. It came over very low, having seen evidently a passage through our trees, and passed in stately fashion, huge damn thing. The nippers yipped and squeaked and ran off after it shouting: 'It's going to land in the donkey field!'

It didn't though, it somehow squeezed through the screen of trees on th border and landed in a neighbour's field just beyond. The nippers rushed off to watch the very slow deflation, packing and stashing in the vehicles that turned up. It was all about 400 yards away and I couldn't be bothered to go there myself. An older child was eventually sent and the nippers have trailed back.

I'm really looking forward to their detailed account.
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New Tue 29 Jul 14 21:36 
 Summer fun - Cliff Pope
You sound like Appletree Farm. Do you know the books? There's one about a balloon landing in their field.
"This is Appletree Farm. This is Mrs Boot the farmer. She has two children called Poppy and Sam, and a dog called Rusty."
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New Tue 29 Jul 14 21:41 
 Summer fun - Armel Coussine
>> I'm really looking forward to their detailed account.

Of course they had it all on video, tablets and stuff.

They liked the balloonists who were kind to them. There were 10 or 12 of them, the nippers said.

The neighbour whose field they landed in came over and they gave her (the nippers specified) a glass of gin.

Apparently she's entitled to a flight too... But the nippers aren't because it wasn't our field. Just as well I can't help thinking. I'd worry. I'd go myself if asked but I don't really fancy it.

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New Tue 29 Jul 14 22:10 
 Summer fun - Westpig
I know a balloon pilot and for several years would occasionally crew for him when I was on my hols in Devon.

It's quite interesting you know. Did you realise they have a 20% directional ability? I didn't. By going higher or lower they can get different air currents that go in slightly different directions.

Chasing them in a Land Rover with a trailer could be fun. Apparently in the old days you used a compass and worked out the wind direction, but of course nowadays it's all done by GPS and mobile phones... and before you say why not just follow the big balloon.. that's easier said than done if the road doesn't go that way or they go quite low and/or land.

Of course I got a load of freebie flights .. and really quite enjoyed it. I liked the fact you could sneak up on wildlife, until you needed more hot air, they'd run for it then.

Bristol balloon festival was a hoot, when hundreds fly at once.
Last edited by: Westpig on Tue 29 Jul 14 at 22:11
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New Wed 30 Jul 14 20:15 
 Summer fun - mikeyb

>>
>> Bristol balloon festival was a hoot, when hundreds fly at once.
>>

Still is. My kids love it, especially the night glow

Nice that its such a huge event and still free (except a tenner for the car parking)
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New Tue 29 Jul 14 22:18 
 Summer fun - Manatee
I have a three friends who are balloon pilots, quite a lot of that round here. It's one of those things that elf and safety have overlooked, not many of them left.

Nobody will go up a ladder now it seems, but it's OK to take anybody aloft in a wicker basket with no safety line, and no way of choosing your landing spot in advance. If there's a wind, that's the speed you land at and as often as not the basket will tip over.

Last flight I had, the pilot (someone I didn't know who I went with to balance the numbers) aimed to just clear a large tree before dropping into the grounds of a country house.

The basket smashed through the foliage at the top of the tree with the burner on full blast and me with a very firm grip indeed. The pilot was a bit quiet.

I do like it.
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New Tue 29 Jul 14 23:34 
 Summer fun - bathtub tom
It seems to me like a very dangerous vocation. I've had numerous 'accidents' due to the failure of others and certainly wouldn't go up in one of those damned things!

I learned around 25 years ago, never to trust my safety to someone else!
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New Wed 30 Jul 14 07:04 
 Summer fun - WillDeBeest
Really, BT? Fine in theory, until you try to - well, do just about anything.

www.theguardian.com/world/2011/sep/05/september-11-road-deaths
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New Wed 30 Jul 14 08:03 
 Summer fun - Cliff Pope

>>
>> I learned around 25 years ago, never to trust my safety to someone else!
>>

God is so unreliable. Wind, storms, floods, snow, ice. There's just no one you can rely on these days.
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New Wed 30 Jul 14 08:11 
 Summer fun - CGNorwich
"God is so unreliable. Wind, storms, floods, snow, ice. There's just no one you can rely on these days."



I'm beginning to think that living is a distinctly dangerous pastime in so many ways.

I fear it's not going to end well.
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New Wed 30 Jul 14 08:59 
 Summer fun - Duncan
>> I'm beginning to think that living is a distinctly dangerous pastime in so many ways.
>>
>> I fear it's not going to end well.
>>

If the worst comes to the worst, it could end up with you dying! Who knows?
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New Wed 30 Jul 14 09:00 
 Summer fun - CGNorwich

>> If the worst comes to the worst, it could end up with you dying! Who
>> knows?
>>

I've heard that too.
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New Wed 30 Jul 14 13:08 
 Summer fun - Cliff Pope
"Die, my dear doctor? That is the last thing I shall do."

Attributed to Lord Palmerston, but unfortunately probably incorrectly.
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New Wed 30 Jul 14 14:17 
 Summer fun - madf
>> >> I'm beginning to think that living is a distinctly dangerous pastime in so many
>> ways.
>> >>
>> >> I fear it's not going to end well.
>> >>
>>
>> If the worst comes to the worst, it could end up with you dying! Who
>> knows?
>>

Not me: I'm immortal...
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New Wed 30 Jul 14 15:30 
 Summer fun - Ambo
>>Apparently in the old days you used a compass and worked out the wind direction, but of course nowadays it's all done by GPS and mobile phones...

In the old days, about 1972, I heard a balloonist explain how he knew whether he was going up or down. He explained that, so long as there was not too much wind, he unwound a few yards of a loo roll over the side. If the trailing end came up, he was probably going down and vice versa.
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New Wed 30 Jul 14 17:42 
 Summer fun - Armel Coussine
After several people had got killed trying it in barrels and the like, a geezer in the fifties or sixties took a well-funded technological approach to going over Niagara Falls and had a special large rubber ball made to measure... my memory is that he got away with it perhaps two or three times, but perished in the end...

Doubtless some Google expert will come up with his name and the facts if he or she can be bothered. I wouldn't know how being a bit tongue-tied like.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Wed 30 Jul 14 at 17:43
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New Wed 30 Jul 14 17:51 
 Summer fun - Mapmaker
Why the dickens would you want to do that.

www.niagarafallslive.com/daredevils_of_niagara_falls.htm

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New Wed 30 Jul 14 17:56 
 Summer fun - Armel Coussine
Great stuff Mm... surprising number of survivors. I was pretty wrong in those memories.
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New Wed 30 Jul 14 20:09 
 Summer fun - Alastairw
I was brought up in Oswestry, and Per Lindstrand owned a factory unit on the local trading estate. Summer evenings were regularly punctuated by the roaring of gas burners as he or his staff test flew the latest hot air balloon.

On one memorable evening he was testing his one man balloon, which was basically a bosuns chair, with the gas bottle etc strapped to his back. As a result of a change of wind direction he ended up skipping across our bungalow roof - no damage to either the roof or him, thankfully.
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New Thu 31 Jul 14 08:28 
 Summer fun - Cliff Pope
>> but perished in the end...
>>


Very good :)
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New Thu 31 Jul 14 10:00 
 Summer fun - Roger.
Rather obliquely, this reminds me of a terrible old joke!
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