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#HotAirBalloonAustralia The Beginnings The Chinese invented the first Hot Air Balloons (which was thought to be thousands of years ago) which was on a much smaller scale, and that use was to send messages to their troops if surrounded by the enemy Animals First to Flight Then the first recorded pioneers of manned flights were actually a sheep, rooster and a duck who flew 3.2kms (2 miles) in an experimental tethered flight over Versailles France, with the test being conducted by the Montgolfier brothers Then People Their ultimate idea of balloon flights for humans happened later in 1783 and was in a untethered Montgolfier airship, as the two passengers flew over Paris for around 25 minutes |
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Early Superstitions The tradition of the balloonists prayer before flight (which is a glass of champagne) comes from a not so exciting history. When the Montgolfier brothers were performing test flights, the local farmers were very suspicious as they thought they were dragons descending from the skies and bringing a danger to them Booze Payments So nothing like alcohol to ease the tensions 😅 as then they would then give champagne to the farmers and thus continue to land on the fields with their balloons Dawn Start |
We arrive early in our buses and get ready to soar with the birds in one of mankind's first way to fly.
Our pilot must of read the air currents better than our "sister ships," because within minutes we were up around 5000 feet and above them as we flew around this valley for some great views as you can see below
So as we get ready to land our captain asked if some of us guys would jump out of the gondola to guild it along (as the flatbed truck could not access the marshy grounds) which then it would transport the wicker basket back to our original starting point
At first you don't realize how huge these balloon airships are, but once the propane is fired up to fill the bag or envelope (made of nylon fabric with the material closest to the flame is a fire resistant composite, plus Australian rules require that they meet the criteria of the Civic Aviation & Safety Code) you get a sense what it was like to be a pioneer back in the first days of flight.
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Lend a Hand |
After the pilot asked in typical Aussie humor if anything poisonous grabbed us while in the tall grass So i asked what kind of animal or plant that could that be?
Mate!! everything toxic in Australia, even the women 😂 (as he told me later he was going through a divorce)
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Some Cool History of Hot Air Balloons A) Napoleon brought balloons as a psychology warfare tool to frighten his opponents B) They were used during the US Civil War as reconnaissance viewing aircraft to report crucial information from their high perch. Then would then either telegraph data or use special flags to signal what they saw C) Used by meteorologists for atmospheric early studies D) Used for aerial photography, which helped enhance the accuracy that was obtained on ground level |
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Flight Rules One interesting fact is Hot Air Balloons are restricted to fly during wet conditions as it becomes much harder to control for the pilot. Why you ask; the rain would accumulate on the top which makes the balloon heavier, burns more fuel thus adding up to perilous situation |
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Looking Down at the Outback To be above the other Hot Air Balloons my pilot would of researched the local conditions from the nearby airports, weather stations and service forecasters to get to a proper air current update Then he would by controlling the temperature and volume of the heat to inside the envelope to reach that level The Decent To return to earth he would open a large vent at the top of the balloon and valve off the excess heat, which all makes it heavier as gravity takes over Old Folklore Because balloons drift with the wind, pilots cannot steer them to a fixed runway So when we finally touch ground and if on a private property, you technically become a "baron or baroness" of that specific land |
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Melbourne It is one of the few cities in the world where you can take a commercial hot air balloon ride directly over a modern city skyline |
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| Kangaroo, Wallabies & Bird Watching If you pick the right tour you can use it like an aerial safaris, as the balloon drift silently with the wind (when the burner is turned off) and so it does not to scare anything away |
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Australian Slang Here is another informal saying for taking flight (what we just experienced) as it is used in another context; Fleeing or Running away from debt "Do a Skase" Named after a 1980s local businessman named Alan Skase, who fled the country to Spain and thus avoiding corporate fraud charges during the 1980s economic downturn |
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Hooroo Cobbas |