Postflight

Powerlines: Before and After

Editor: (In response to the August issue’s Crew Quarters article: Powerlines: A Crash Course) It seems prudent to point out the most obvious safety precaution a balloon pilot can employ to minimize the chance of severe injury before powerline contact. While no pilot ever intentionally plans to contact powerlines in his or her flying career, anymore than an automobile driver intends to be involved in a fender bender, it happens. As a commercial pilot who has remained clear of powerlines to date, I have no illusion "it could never happen to me."

By now everyone in the US wears a seat belt and many of us insist on air bag equipped vehicles for ourselves and loved ones. Why don’t balloon pilots insist on non- conductive cables for their balloons? The primary cause of injury is, as Ms. Smith pointed out in her informative article, from the occupants falling from the sky after the basket has been severed from its envelope. Electrocution is a strong second cause of injury and death. The technology for non-conductive cables with tensile strength greater than that of steel is not something novel or under development. At least one manufacturer, (FireFly and Galaxy) refuses to sell balloons not fitted with Kevlar cables. (TBW even pays a bounty for the return of steel cables when new Kevlar cables are being retrofitted on older envelopes.)

Ms. Smith offers some fine advice, but why not take precaution before you lift off and make non-conductive cables standard equipment to prevent you and your passengers from becoming a glow worm after powerline contact.

Joel Blom
Statesville, NC

Ed Note: Mr. Blom is Marketing and Communications Manager for The Balloon Works.