Ballooning
Ballooning is the aviation with gas balloon and hot air balloon , especially with free balloons , as with tethered balloons (moored at the bottom) can not be "driven". Propelled, steerable balloons are referred to as airships and are regarded as a separate type of aircraft ; in the following article only the balloons are described in the strict sense.
The principle of a balloon
A balloon has a gas-tight envelope that is filled with a propellant gas that is lighter than the air surrounding it. This causes the balloon to lift. The difference in density between the gas in the balloon envelope (hot air or helium / hydrogen ) and the ambient air is so great that even heavy and large loads can be carried by a balloon: hydrogen develops around 1.203 kilograms of lift per cubic meter. A 12,000 m³ balloon can therefore have a total weight (excluding gas) of 14,436 kilograms.
In Germany, a balloon may have a maximum volume of 12,000 m³. Hot air balloons for passenger transport are usually 3000-5000 m³, gas balloons 500-1000 m³. As a racer competition balloons are referred m³ 1600-2600.
Drive or fly
Balloonists and airmen talk about driving. Companions that are lighter than air, such as balloons, travel in this parlance, while airplanes that are heavier than air fly . This could have historical origins. Already the first balloonists spoke of "ballooning" because they adopted the vocabulary of seafaring.
The Luftfahrt-Bundesamt (LBA) also speaks of driving, for example with regard to "night driving lights".
Driving experience
The speed of a balloon depends on the local wind speed. When taking off and landing, speeds should be less than 20 km / h. Furthermore, there may be no or only very little thermals. While driving, 40 km / h is considered fast. When crossing the Alps, however, speeds of over 100 km / h are possible.
Theoretically, the height of normal sports balloons is limited to about 9000 meters. Passenger journeys usually take place between 300 and 3000 meters. Influencing factors are the respective weather conditions, the place of use and the load on the balloon. In mountains, heights of over 6000 meters can be reached, but above 3000 meters only with oxygen devices for the occupants.
Several factors play a significant role in the maximum travel time of hot air balloons:
- the gas supply
- the load and the load capacity (= volume) of the balloon
- the weather conditions, especially the outside temperature
As a rule, balloons cover between 5 and 30 kilometers during a trip in one to two hours. The gas balloon can travel for several days and nights. In contrast to hot air balloons, trips with gas balloons are noiseless.
It is also possible to go in a balloon at night. To be able to do this, the pilot needs night driving training or a night driving license. Usually you start before sunrise in order to land again in the light. Since the balloon is not or only slightly controllable, landing in an unknown area in the dark of the night would be associated with a high risk.
Since the balloon moves with the wind, there is no noticeable wind in the balloon basket . However, you can feel a draft from above when climbing steeply and from below when descending.
Takeoff and landing
The safety of the people in the basket has the highest priority during takeoffs and landings. Take-offs are possible from any approved airport / take-off site. To outside starts, i.e. H. To carry out take-offs outside of these approved places, the respective pilot requires an outside launch authorization and the consent of the property owner. The outdoor start authorization requires at least 50 hours as a PIC (Pilot in Command) and a review by an authorized person, usually an examiner. A balloon has a permanent landing permit . The balloon pilot can land anywhere, but he should keep the proportionality. Landing on a motorway junction or in a football stadium is quite possible and remains unpunished if there is a reason for landing at this location, such as technical difficulties. A forward-looking pilot will avoid such areas. An old balloon wisdom says: "Always land at the beginning of the meadow, it automatically becomes smaller / shorter" .
The course of the journey
There is no way to give the balloon a controlled change of direction. All attempts to do this, which began in the 18th century, failed. The only way to steer the balloon in the context of the different high-altitude winds is to change the altitude and thus possibly the direction and the speed. The balloonists often use GPS devices to visualize the course of the journey on a map.
License and legal situation
To fly a balloon you need a pilot license (PPL-D). The training is divided into a theoretical and a practical part. The theoretical part includes questions from the areas of aviation law, meteorology, navigation, technology, behavior in special cases and human performance. The practical part comprises at least 20 hours of ballooning and 50 take-offs and landings, with an average of 30 to 40 hours. The exams are taken in front of the responsible district government. The training in Germany is carried out by commercial schools as well as balloon sport clubs. For the complete training, costs between 3500 and 6000 euros can be expected.
If damage occurs to someone else's property during landing, the pilot's insurance must pay for the damage. The property owner also has the right to request personal data such as the pilot's name and address. In Germany, however, he is not allowed to prevent the balloon from landing or being transported away. Different rules apply abroad.
Every 100 hours of operation or once a year, a balloon is checked for airworthiness by an expert from the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt as part of an annual inspection (JNP).
Material stress
The high temperatures of sometimes over 100 ° C and the UV radiation put a massive strain on the hot air balloon envelope. Depending on the care, a hot air balloon envelope lasts between 400 and 600 operating hours. Burner and basket last twice as long.
Balloon types
Depending on how the balloons are filled ( FAI class A - free balloons ), a distinction is made between a hot air balloon (class AX ) and a gas balloon (class AA ). If the gas-tight envelope is filled with air, then it is a hot air balloon, when using helium or hydrogen it is referred to as a gas balloon. These two types can easily be distinguished by their shape: gas balloons are spherical, hot air balloons are pear-shaped. Hot air balloon envelopes are also available in various special shapes. One of the first balloonists, Pilâtre de Rozier , combined the two types of balloon and thus invented the Rozière (class AM ) named after him .
The FAI (Fédération Aéronautique Internationale) evaluates records in terms of duration, altitude and distance in size categories. It is permissible that the actual volume is 5 percent above the nominal size. The following common balloon sizes result:
- 2 : 250-400 m³
- 3 : 401-600 m³
- 4 : 601-900 m³
- 5 : 901-1,200 m³
- 6 : 1201-1,600 m³
- 7 : 1601-2,200 m³
- 8 : 2201-3,000 m³
- 9 : 3001-4,000 m³
- 10 : 4001- 6,000 m³
- 11 : 6001- 9,000 m³
- 12 : 9001-12,000 m³
Balloon baskets
Balloon baskets are usually built from a base plate made of plywood with a reinforcing stainless steel frame, braced by two diagonally running steel cables . The side walls are often woven from rattan . Balloon baskets are available in different sizes for one to three pilots and up to 32 passengers.
To get into the basket, one usually has to climb over the side wall. One or two square entry holes for the forefoot are embedded in the basket wall. During the journey, the pilot and all passengers stand in up to five separate compartments, depending on the size and layout of the interior of the basket. There are also balloon baskets that have a door for getting in and out, which, however, affects the stability of the basket.
The upper side edge is usually padded and covered with suede for a good grip . The same applies to the pipe rods carrying the burners up to above head height of the occupants. Rattan or willow is still used today as a mesh for the formation of the ship's side, as it allows distortion and twisting when the edge of the basket hits the ground or an obstacle and it also consumes energy. When bumped by a person, the drop side should yield significantly and transmit a certain amount of friction. For a short time, wooden material is also forgiving of the effects of a flame, does not melt, does not become sticky, and does not produce very much breathable exhaust gas when it burns - compared to plastics. The necessary tensile strength down to the ground and its rigidity are created by pipes and ropes made of stainless steel. The fuel gas bottles are lashed into the inside corners of the basket.
Since 1994 there has been a basket with two seats and a galley, recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the smallest restaurant in the world. The basket was specially approved by the Federal Aviation Office, and the Harburg district issued a restaurant license.
On September 23, 2008, for the first time in Germany, a wheelchair user was able to take part in a ride in a specially made, barrier-free balloon basket in Isenbüttel , after the special basket had already been removed by the Federal Aviation Office in Braunschweig at the end of April.
Special forms and records
In some cases people develop special forms of ballooning. On July 2, 1982, truck driver Larry Walters climbed 5000 meters in Los Angeles with the help of 42 helium balloons that he had tied to a garden chair. The air pistol, with which he wanted to shoot individual balloons in order to lower in a controlled manner, he lost while driving. Because Walters had also miscalculated the maximum height of the ascent and was driven into the airspace of Los Angeles Airport, a grotesque situation arose: The pilot of a commercial aircraft on approach reported to the tower that he was at an altitude of 16,000 feet, Flew past a man in a garden chair about 4900 meters.
Non-stop balloon flight around the world: On March 1, 1999, Bertrand Piccard started together with the Briton Brian Jones as co-pilot with the Breitling Orbiter 3 in Château-d'Œx in Switzerland and landed after 45,755 kilometers on March 21 1999 in the desert in Egypt . In 19 days, 21 hours and 47 minutes he made the first circumnavigation of the world in a balloon without a stopover. He has thus realized the longest flight in both duration and distance in the entire history of aviation and set a total of seven world records.
For trips to the border with space, balloons are often used as a cost-effective alternative to rockets. In addition to the usual return by aircraft, records have to get out of the stratospheric jump to the goal of the greatest possible height and only return with a protective suit and parachute.
In 2015, pilots Leonid Tiukhtyaev and Troy Bradley arrived safely in Baja California , Mexico, after a journey of 10,696 kilometers . The two men, originally from Russia and the United States of America , respectively , took off from Japan and flew over the Pacific in a helium balloon. The balloon called "Two Eagles" arrived in Mexico in 160 hours and 34 minutes, securing the pilot's current distance and endurance record for gas balloons.
Balloon needle stand
The balloon needle is an old tradition. In the early days of balloon flights, only blue-blooded people were allowed to take to the skies using a balloon. King Louis XVI of France passed a law after the invention of the hot air balloon, according to which only the nobility were allowed to ride a balloon. Of course, this is no longer the case nowadays, but the custom of “balloon driver baptism” and thus acceptance into the “balloon needle stand” has been developed from this.
Marks on the balloon envelope
All balloons approved in Germany are registered with the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt in Braunschweig and are assigned a label from there , which is composed as follows: D stands for Germany, hyphen, (letter) O stands for free balloon and the other three letters are freely assigned. To the left of this is the black, red and gold flag as a national emblem .
Balloons approved in Austria are marked in the form OE-ABC, namely the country code, hyphen and three letters. National emblem (in front of it) is the red-white-red flag .
Balloons registered in Switzerland bear the mark HB-Bxx and will bear HB-Qxx after this series has been used up. HB stands for Switzerland (Helvetia), the registration mark following the hyphen consists of three letters, the first of which is a B (like B allon) or a Q. Balloons from Liechtenstein also have these HB codes, but are used as national emblems the red and white Swiss cross shows the gold and red coat of arms of the Liechtenstein Princely House.
The code "O" in Germany and "Q" in Switzerland are reminiscent of the rounded basic shape of an inflated balloon.
Organizations
In addition to a few special applications, balloons are mainly used today in air sports . In Germany, balloonists are mostly organized in the German Free Ballooning Association .
List of balloon accidents
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bastian Sick: About flying, driving, walking and running. Spiegel Online, March 14, 2007, accessed December 3, 2014 .
- ↑ lorenz-ballooning.de (PDF file)
- ↑ Danny Kringiel: Do-It-Yourself flight pioneer: Flying high in the garden chair . Spiegel Online, March 14, 2011, accessed December 3, 2014 .
- ^ Two Eagles - World Record Balloon Flight Across the Pacific Ocean. Retrieved October 8, 2018 .
- ^ Two Eagles Flight Status, News and Live Tracking. Retrieved October 8, 2018 .