What It's Like to Race a Hydrogen Balloon Across the U S
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- Опубликовано: 14 окт 2023
- Last week, 17 hydrogen balloons departed Alburquerque in the Gordon Bennett gas balloon for points east. In this interview, AVweb's Paul Bertorelli talked to two pilots who flew the race, eventually landing in Georgia just west of Savannah. Noah Forden and Brenda Cowlishaw finished fourth, with a distance of 1382 miles in 65 hours. Note: We grabbed this interview on the fly, so to speak, so the first part is a bit noisy.
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Fascinating interview Paul. Bit of a struggle with the audio. Gas Ballooning . . . whole nother world of aviat'n. (grin)
Their enthusiasm is contagious. Thanks for sharing.
Great interview!
Great link Paul .. thank you .
Very interesting transportation method, I often see hot air balloons here in the Netherlands but I wasn't aware of hydrogen balloons being around. I kinda assumed that went out of style with the Hindenburg and modern safety regulations, also thought to remember the flammable hydrogen/oxygen mixture to be more sensitive than that. Good workaround for the shortage/current price of helium and nice to know it can be done safely.
Probably a crazy pipedream that runs into issues like weight and spare power production, but if they've got enough extra lift and power production while the batteries are full I guess there'd be some theoretical potential to produce extra hydrogen through a small electrolyser near the balloon that makes sure to vent the oxygen produced at the other electrode. However the whole thing is probably too heavy while producing negligable extra hydrogen for lift, honestly if it'd be me up there I would rather put any extra power production into an (insulated) water heater to have hot water for tea available.
Regarding the audio quality, if you're up for some editing during poor bandwidth interviews it's always an option to ask the people you're interviewing to capture a local recording of the audio allowing it to be fixed in editing. But while noticeable and having to pay a bit more attention/rewind to listen to something again at times it was very understandable, some of that was also due to not being used to the strange things people do in balloons.
Great interview.
Wow. Gas balloons are the coolest
interesting,, as an aside, we're gonna miss you Paul, loved the "soft" wit commentary thru the years..fair winds
Paul didn’t ask the tough question: what do you do at Potty Time? Bomb’s Away!..look out below!
06:48 A-Men. I’m glad they feel this way. I can understand some cheapskate not wanting to purchase an ADS-B unit, but many others feel that their lives are rather valuable…and also don’t want to kill strangers in an Mid-Air Collision. IMO, Ballooners are tougher more fearless than you rotary wing jockeys are. also, to me, it’s a hardcore means of air travel, hidden inside of a happy-fun-time-sounding name (minus the single red Pennywise balloon)
“Atlanta Center, Hydro Balloon Six Four Bravo is with you at Flight Level One Seven Zero
…yes; we’re currently seeing 2 Knots Across the Ground at Zero KIAS. Six Four Bravo.”
The problem is those safety features being expensive and sold by monopolies, if that wasn't the case I doubt anyone would complain.
nice audio.
She looks like she's still warming back up after the flight.
Better venue for interviewees would have worked to reduce the audio noise.
Sadly I couldn't watch this through with the McDonald's Play Place background noise
We watched them fly over in Alabama!
How cost buy hydrogen balloon type long travel ❓
i want to balloon sometime jsut to see the stars
I would guess it's as exciting as watching paint dry.
Why is there such a cost difference with hydrogen between US and Europe?!
Energy prices, obviously.
Did any get shot down? 🤣 I REALLY was concerned.
Not a lot of F-22's out there... but they are probably hungry.
@@I-0-0-I I was thinking from Bozos on the ground
@@Navy1977 Exactly!!!🤣
The Poland 1 team that crash landed east of Dallas and hit a power line, injuring both pilots, said later that they were forced down by semi-auto gunfire directed at them from the ground. The FAA is supposedly investigating, but the balloon fiesta organizers in ABQ downplayed the story.
Just ask China…
Can’t listen to it, warbling audio is, ugh not worth it.