hotairballoonist

History of The "Balloon" On the 19th of September 1783, Pilatre De Rozier, a scientist, launched the first hot air balloon called 'Aerostat Reveillon'. The passengers were a sheep, a duck and a rooster and the balloon stayed in the air for a grand total of 15 minutes before crashing back to the ground. The first manned attempt came about 2 months later on 21st November, with a balloon made by 2 French brothers, Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier. The balloon was launched from the centre of Paris and flew for a period of 20 minutes. The birth of hot air ballooning!!! Just 2 years later in 1785 a French balloonist, Jean Pierre Blanchard, and his American co pilot, John Jefferies, became the first to fly across the English Channel. In these early days of ballooning, the English Channel was considered the first step to long distance ballooning so this was a large benchmark in ballooning history. Unfortunately, this same year Pilatre de Rozier (the world's first balloonist) was killed in his attempt at crossing the channel. His balloon exploded half an hour after takeoff due to the experimental design of using a hydrogen balloon and hot air balloon tied together. (no need to worry! Technology assures safety!). Science Behind it If you actually need to get somewhere, a hot air balloon is a fairly impractical vehicle.You can't really steer it, and it only travels as fast as the wind blows. But if you simply want to enjoy the experience of flying, there's nothing quite like it. Many people describe flying in a hot air balloon as one of the most serene, enjoyable activities they've ever experienced. Hot air balloons are also an ingenious application of basic scientific principles. Hot air balloons are based on a very basic scientific principle: warmer air rises in cooler air. Essentially, hot air is lighter than cool air, because it has less mass per unit of volume. A cubic foot of air weighs roughly 28 grams (about an ounce). If you heat that air by 100 degrees F, it weighs about 7 grams less. Therefore, each cubic foot of air contained in a hot air balloon can lift about 7 grams. That's not much, and this is why hot air balloons are so huge -- to lift 1,000 pounds, you need about 65,000 cubic feet of hot air.

The inductees for 2013 US Ballooning Hall of Fame are Denny Floden of Michigan, Bill Murtorff (Deceased), and Clayton Thomas of Massachusetts. The induction will be July 28th, 2013, starting 1:00pm to 3:00pm. The Museum is having an Open House from 12:30pm to 4:00pm. We hope you will be able to join us for this wonderful celebration. Select a Hall of Fame Member below to view their profile. 2013 - Dennis E. Floden 2013 - William (Bill) Murtorff 2013 - Dr. Clayton Lay Thomas 2012 - Carol Rymer Davis 2012 - Dr. William (Bill) Grabb 2012 - Matt Wiederkehr 2011 - Ben L. Abruzzo 2011 - Maxie Anderson 2011 - Dewey Reinhard 2010 - Anthony M. "Tony" Fairbanks 2010 - Joseph W. "Joe" Kittinger, Jr. 2010 - Thomas A. F. Sheppard 2009 - Karl H. Stefan 2009 - Lucy Luck Stefan 2009 - Jim Winker 2008 - Captain Eddie Allen 2008 - Tracy Barnes 2007 - Malcolm Stevenson Forbes 2007 - Deke Sonnichsen 2006 - Bruce Comstock 2006 - Peter Pellegrino 2005 - Sidney D. (Sid) Cutter 2005 - Don N. Kersten 2004 - Paul E. (Ed) Yost

I have been using an IPad for my flying lately and have found it to be a real asset. There are two programs I have found that are fantastic for use on the IPad and on the IPhone. The first is called simple HOT AIR. It is a flight recorder that can be used as a log book for lack of a better explanation. It uses the GPS capabilities of your IPad to track your flight. You turn it on and it records your altitude and flight direction and speed and flight time and distance from launch to land. If that were not impressive enough it also allows you to write in your launch site name and landing site name and crew members and aircraft number and many other details you don't get to log in your real log book. I think it was free but even if its 5 bucks it worth it. The next program I found was YOU ARE HERE. This program allows you to upload on your device the digital version of the competition map. (you will have to ask your event organizer for a digital copy) Once you load the map into the program you tap on the screen to let the program know where you are then move to a different location tap the map again and after a few locations your map has been scaled to the area you are in and becomes extremely accurate. Great for flying in areas where there are many Prohibitive Zones (or PZ's) Helps you find yourself on the competition map in seconds. Send me an email if you have questions about this. O the mounts I use on the balloon are RAM mounts. They are made for the IPad an IPhone and work GREAT!