To be flying above the earth on a hot Air Balloon Ride is on the “bucket list” of lots of people… It is on mine. Maybe I should say was. I am not so sure now that I want to try it, after hearing about the accident in New Zealand that killed 5 couples and the pilot in the deadliest air crash in New Zealand in 50 years.
“It’s a tragedy as bad as tragedies get,” local police commander Brent Register said.
Rusbatch said, “It appeared the balloon’s basket struck power lines that set a fire on board. Witnesses told local media of seeing 32-foot (10-meter) high flames rising from the basket of the dark blue and maroon striped balloon before it plummeted to the farmland below.”
A witness, Bevan Lambeth said, “The basket was on fire “and the power lines were holding the basket down, but it was still about 50 meters (165 feet) in the air. Then the whole basket started to go up in flames,” as the balloon broke clear of the electric lines.
“I saw … (it) then go straight up in the air and the flames just engulfed the whole balloon and it crashed to the ground. When it came down it came down really quickly,” he told TVOne News. Rusbatch, the police commander, said, “two people jumped from the basket before it hit the ground, but did not survive.”
I had heard flying in a hot air balloon described as one of the most serene, enjoyable activities one can ever experience. Those hot air balloons certainly are beautiful to watch, particularly when there are several of them aloft near one another.
Hot Air ballooning is based on a very basic scientific fact: warmer air rises in cooler air. You need a very large balloon to be able to hold lots of warmed air to lift a bucket with people in it. To keep the balloon rising, or staying at a certain altitude you need a way to reheat the air. . Hot Air balloons do this with a burner that is under an open balloon envelope. As the air in the balloon cools, the pilot can reheat it by firing the burner. Want to go lower? Release some of the air. The pilot can do this as well.
Modern hot air balloons heat the air by burning propane, the same substance commonly used in outdoor grills.
One doesn’t think of power lines getting in the way of all that serenity when one is making a bucket list.
Think Shpoonkle