Faster Inflations and Fan Placement.

[hotairballoonist]

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.