The Space Memorabilia Auction a couple of weeks later was interesting. That postcard that I gave away and was sold at last spring’s auction was back up to make a profit. It didn’t. In fact I think the European dealer lost about a hundred dollars. An identical card, even if not from such an illustrious previous owner, still brought about a hundred more - close to last spring’s sale.
An Ed Yost/Don Piccard English Channel cover brought $225 plus commission, and a Double Eagle brought $600. Recent Gordon Bennett covers brought about $7 ea. except for one signed by Anderson father & son which got over ten times as much. A Super Chicken knocked down at close to $700 including commission. A cover from the World Record flight of Bradley and Abruzzo dropped at $25. Finally, a small swatch of my mother’s balloon’s fabric went for $260 and an envelope carried on her flight and signed by both her and Dad went for $1980.
Although the above figures are not final nor official (the final results always seem to vary from what you see at the event itself) they are indicative. Stuff created after the current rise of ballooning doesn’t bring all that much. I assume that most of today’s serious collectors were able to get the material themselves at the time. So hold onto your balloon stuff. LTA will rise again.
At Albuquerque I got to see some really remarkable and wonderful balloons. The most memorable, for me, was Jonathan Wolfe’s "Julia Dream", a tie dye, mostly black little Boland style unit. As a result of brilliant design it looked dramatic and beautiful, whether from ten feet or a mile away. That is unusual in balloon patterns. They seem to either be good close up and a blob at a distance, or the opposite. A big deal was that it got a little burn at the mouth. That used to be standard operating procedure a few years back, before Don Cameron’s scoop and better skirts all around.
I was surprised that nobody seemed acquainted with the "California Turkey Roast" technique of inflation for skirtless balloons in windy conditions (as differentiated from the "Cremation Charlie" fanless/flapless inflation starting procedure). And I have gotten a lot of flack from "Neo-Experts" who weren’t even there. Oh well.
About Flight Test reports: I finally got to fly in a Cameron balloon with a Kavanagh "Smart Top". After my first flight, in a 240 or 250 with Dickie Cool, I thought it wasn’t so smart. Lots of preflight messing around with Velcro tabs and opening and closing (two cords) to set it. The addenda page for the flight manual was quite complicated, maybe a problem with our "common" language - three different continent versions of the language confronting the reader.
Then I got to pull the dump line on a slightly smaller unit at Albuquerque and IT IS FANTASTIC. If I, indeed, had a part in the inspiration for this wonderful advance, I am very proud. SLICK. I still don’t care for the preflight hassle with Velcro and the test or setting preopening, nor my continued fear that, since it doesn’t close up automatically and if jammed some way could be catastrophic. But that is just my fear. It probably will never happen. Not even once. I trust.
After Albuquerque, off to Costa Mesa, CA to get rid of my sewing machines and try out a new idea for an improvement on MY top (the one that started with Solo System and was sold to the new SkySailor). This improvement, already approved by the FAA on my own STC made me even happier. For inquiring minds: it is just a dumb little idea.
I have never liked the parachute control line going right up the center of the balloon above the burner. Nor have I liked the rigs with all the pulleys and mechanical disadvantage. If you can imagine simply taking the point where all the parachute shroud lines join and moving it over to the side and closer to the edge of the chute disc so that the control cord hangs down the side of the balloon, you’ve got it. Now, when you pull, you open it progressively. A "little finger" (no, that’s not from "He’s got more smarts in his little finger" quote) pull and it opens a little, but yet with a lot of dump. More pull and more dump. Let it go, and just like on initial inflation, it snaps back into place.
This asymmetrical shroud line assembly does not affect the other, redundant vent/deflation line which remains the same - a long, slow, low tension "pursing" control (also self setting). If all this sounds like a self serving commercial, it may be. While I have no interest in SkySailor, nor the original top patent anymore, I really would like to see this new innovation adapted to a lot of other tops in the interest of safety and convenience. Try it, you’ll like it.