All things ballooning

January 2010 Blog Posts (9)

Hot Air Balloon Maintenance manuals - Terms Defined

For years, avid DIY mechanics have been trying to rely on the Balloon Maintenance Manuals to help them work on their toys themselves. This is the real meaning of the terms used:

Rotate anticlockwise. Translation: Clamp with mole-grips (adjustable wrench / vice grips) then beat repeatedly with hammer anticlockwise. You do know which way is anticlockwise, don't you?

Should remove easily. Translation: Will be corroded into place ... clamp with adjustable wrench then beat… Continue

Added by Justin Galbraith on January 31, 2010 at 10:26pm — No Comments

Inappropriate use of Aunty Monkey

Just a general note to everyone...

Please do not use this site to publicly disgrace anyone or any company. I don't care if the reason is right or wrong, if you do it I will ban you. I am all for discussions about safety etc., but posting examples of other people or company's techniques and naming them is not the right way to do it.

Also, if you are going to sign up to Aunty Monkey, please use your own name. Don't sign up as an organisation or company name. Again,… Continue

Added by Andrew Robertson on January 30, 2010 at 7:30am — 13 Comments

THE TOP SIX MOST DANGEROUS THINGS IN BALLOONING :

THE TOP SIX MOST DANGEROUS THINGS IN BALLOONING :

A student pilot saying, "I learned this in balloon camp...."
A crew chief saying, "Trust me, I've been here before ....."
A commerical pilot saying, "Based on my experience..."
A balloon instructor saying, " I was just thinking...."
A gas balloon pilot saying, " Back in my day....."
and a 100hr pilot chuckling, "Watch this shit..."

Added by Justin Galbraith on January 29, 2010 at 4:46pm — 3 Comments

check it out

www.niksrcballoonplatoon.com get a chance to interact with nik see tons of great pictures and videos (coming soon) of niks rc and other stuff involving ballooning ask question later on we will be seling merchandise please check it out follow nik with all his adventures be part of the platoon. follow the link to our email leave your name and email address and we will keep you posted on the website

Added by niks r/c balloon platoon on January 27, 2010 at 1:09pm — No Comments

Australians make the best beer.

Nigel, had just finished a great hopper flight over the outback followed by a fast but good landing.

He was just squeezing the air out of the envelope when he noticed a King brown Snake making off into the grass with his VHF radio.

Knowing the snake couldn't bite him with the radio in it's mouth, Nigel grabbed him behind the head, took the radio and placed it in his hopper.

Now the dilemma was how to release the snake without getting bitten. Nigel grabbed a can of VB… Continue

Added by Justin Galbraith on January 25, 2010 at 2:08pm — 5 Comments

new website

check out my website www.niksrcballoonplatoon.com

Added by niks r/c balloon platoon on January 24, 2010 at 4:22am — 4 Comments

A Note to New Members

Just a quick request to new members. Please upload some sort of profile photo and add a description (at least a sentence or two) about your involvement in ballooning. We are getting a lot of spamming people joining the site and it is sometimes difficult to tell who is legit and who is a fake person. I have already accidentally suspended a real person once, so I don't want to accidentally do it again.

Thanks!

Added by Andrew Robertson on January 5, 2010 at 11:07am — No Comments

BOW dates

Umm, I don't know who put them up (Tool-chan????) but there seems to be a problem with the dates for the BOW event. What are the dates for 2010?
Thanks, Maaike

Added by Maaike Bierma on January 4, 2010 at 10:39am — 3 Comments

Reflections on 2009

This is the time of year that you look back and reflect on all that has happened. For me, this has been an a year full of new and incredible lighter-than-air experiences. The year was a slow start with not much other than bad weather in January. However, February quickly made up for that.

In February of 2008 I happened to flip over to the Weather Channel just in time to see the photo of the day. It was a beautiful photo of hot air balloons on a frozen lake in the Rocky Mts. of… Continue

Added by Dawn Chase on January 1, 2010 at 1:42am — 10 Comments