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We have all seen this but has anyone thought it thru? Do you spread out your balloon before the inflation? WHY? Lets talk about the inflation. In simple terms "Inflation" is the process of putting air into the balloon. So lets think about this. I have a water pitcher with a gallon of milk in it and I have a standard plastic gallon milk jug. Who can pour out the milk the fastest? Yes the Pitcher because the mouth of the pitcher is much larger than the gallon milk jug. So what does this have to do with the balloon you ask? The smaller the mouth the longer it takes to put the air in. The larger the mouth the more you can put in. When you first start to inflate your balloon the balloon is empty. As you put air into the balloon a bubble begins to develop at the top of the balloon. The rest of the balloon is laying flat. As the bubble at the top of the balloon grows it extends down the balloon toward the mouth of the balloon. When the bubble reaches the mouth of the balloon it begins to enlarge the opening. The bigger the opening in the mouth of the balloon the more air you can put in and the further back the inflator fan can sit. SO..... If you spread your balloon out on the ground it will take longer for the bubble to reach the throat of the balloon because it will have to fill the entire area you have spread out on the ground before the bubble will start to head to the mouth of the balloon. Spreading out the balloon will actually make the inflation time longer. If you wish to help the balloon inflate the part of the balloon that could benefit from you pulling it out is the bottom third of the balloon near the mouth. The formula for Force is area X pressure. The fan has a static pressure. The middle of your balloon has a large area so the force (area X pressure) is greatest in the middle of your balloon and least at the throat. If you want to help your balloon inflate faster help the part that has the least force, just up from the mouth of the balloon. JT

Where you place your fan can have a huge impact on the inflation of the balloon. First let's think about a few things. Most inflation fans have the muffler placed on the left hand side of the motor. This means that you should always place the fan on the Left side of the basket so the muffler exhaust is blowing away from your basket. This muffler exhaust is hot enough that it can actually burn your basket or the leather trim. At the very least you will accumulate a carbon build up or a black area on the side of your basket. Placement. When you first start to inflate the balloon the mouth of the balloon is only as big as the crew can hold it open. If you place the fan a great distance from the throat you will be loosing most of the air the fan is producing. (See Fig 1) Place the fan as close to the mouth of the balloon as you can. Be careful of where your vent lines and any other loose ropes or items are so you do not create a hazard (See Fig 2). I do not believe anyone should try to move a RUNNING inflation fan but... As the balloon inflates the column of air the fan produces will not fill the opening of the mouth of the balloon (See Fig 3). This means that air is going in part of the mouth of the balloon and coming out the other side. So, at some point the fan will need to be moved back from the mouth so the cone of airflow from the fan fills the entire opening of the mouth of the balloon. (See Fig 4) The Inflation fan frames we have built have the wheels on the front of the fan so you can lift the back of the fan and easily back the fan up. We do not do this at full throttle. We turn the fan down to idle and very slowly move the fan back about to the bottom edge of the basket. Then turn the fan back up to full power. The Design of the fan frame with the wheels on the front helps point the fan slightly upward reducing the debris the fan will pick up from the ground and blow into the balloon. TIP for saving eye brows. Remember if your fan is too close to the mouth of the balloon the output of the fan is not filling the entire mouth. (See Figure A) If you turn your burners on you may get a face full of flame since some of the air from the balloon is spilling back out of the portion of the mouth of the balloon that the fan is not forcing air in! As the fan blows the air into the balloon the air from the fan is traveling around the balloon and spilling back out of the mouth of the balloon in the area that the fan is not filling. (See Figure B ) I hope the tips here will help illustrate the importance of fan placement during the inflation process. * We do not recommend moving a running inflation fan. We do encourage that the gas to the van be shut off and the fan allowed to run out of gas. This takes a little bit of practice but the safety benefits are fantastic. Give us your comments below.

HI Mike, do you have any balloons for sale?

HI Phil, The member map is colored to represent different pins. Green is a balloon Event, Yellow is a Ride operator, Red is a repair station, Dark blue is a manufacturer, Brown is a board BFA Board member. If a member puts a pin in the map as a Pilot member it will be a blue one. This allows the guest visitor on the site to be able to locate what they are after anywhere in the country. Spread the word for us. The only way this site becomes useful is when we get members who contribute both knowledge and information. Jeff

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