What does a balloon chaser do?

Well you may all wonder what one does as a balloon chaser. I decided to go find out because you can only believe so much Jesse says.... :)

Disclaimer: I do not know/use all the technical terms nor do I know all the intricate details, so if Jesse doesn't approve, there may be revisions!

Red Text = Jesse's Post-Blog-Post Commentarial Postings

On our way. Me to observe and picture take, and Jesse to work. Sounds like a great deal to me!


Actually it IS a good deal! The way it works is we get a flat rate for every flight we work, whether or not they take off. It works well for me cuz then I know as soon as I'm out of bed I've pretty much made my money.

This is to demonstrate that it's too early to be awake. It was beautiful though!

First things first. (Carefully) dump the basket onto the grass off the trailer.

Bob has a custom-built trailer with a Teflon floor and rollers on the ends. It makes it a lot easier to move the basket around. (And yes, basket IS the technical term for it.)

The envelope (the balloon part) fits into that bag. It looks pretty big but wait until you see the balloon!


That bag is also big enough for two people to have a small, sit-down picnic lunch inside it.Setting something up I'm sure.

This is us constructing the frame. We had taken it down after another flight to cover the basket because of weather.

Making sure all the cords are straight and not going to rub or break.

Yup. (Also, muscles)

This is the envelope all spread out. That little kid in front was going on a ride that day and was right there for the whole set up. He couldn't get enough and I thought it was adorable!

Jesse getting ready to turn on the fans. Pretty tough work right there.

ACTUALLY, darling, the fans are the most dangerous part of the setup. The fan I'm standing behind is the bigger of two that we use. It's got a tachometer on the side that tells me the blades spin at around 3700 gas-powered rpms (Tim Allen grunt).

Filling the balloon. They fill the 180,000 cubic feet balloon mostly with enormous and incredibly dangerous ground fans. Boggles my brain.

Notice how small and helpless and insignificant the people look next to that reality-shattering balloon. 180,000 cubic feet sounds big but this puts it into perspective.

It's really hard to see but there is a guy down there holding onto a rope that is connected to the top of the balloon controls it a little more. I can't even imagine the workout someone's muscles would get from holding down a HUGE hot air balloon.

That rope is called the "crown line" and it's used to minimize oscillations in the fully-inflated balloon. It's pretty much the second-worst job if you're on a balloon crew (depending on weather).

Jesse doing something important I'm sure...

Yup. These are the rotator vent lines. These allow the aeronaut to rotate the balloon for advertising purposes or to help the skirt catch a favorable wind.

This is the take down process... I saw it early because they had to take it down just after they set it all up because a life flight helicopter needed to land on the grass where they were. Unfortunate but a good thing to do. This is called "burping" the balloon.... and this is the first-worst most awful part about being on a balloon crew. You're basically fighting against 180,000 cubic feet of hot air and trying to force it out the top, which is no longer the top, cuz the balloon is on its side. We get all of us and we inch our way upward with our arms supporting most of the weight of the envelope.

The culprit of the early take down.

And they're finally off!

And that's most of what one does as a balloon chaser.

I skipped out on the actual chasing part (I decided to study in the car instead. Boring I know but you do what you gotta do). They jump in a car and follow the balloon. They communicate via walkie talkies and find a spot to land as they go. Pretty fun stuff!

What my schweetums wasn't able to report on was the landing, which is often done with a drop-line. That's basically 150 feet of seatbelt material that Bob throws at us and hollers, "Ok, now pull us over there," followed by lots of pointing. I'd write more but, ironically, I've got to meet Bob at 6:30 tomorrow for another flight so I'm gonna go get some shut-eye. Thanks for reading and commenting. It's nice to know people care *tear-wipe*.

P.S. Wanna hear a joke? Ok, here goes... ok...

What's green and goes through walls?

...

...

A frog if you throw it hard enough!

BuuuAAAAAAhahahahahaaaa!