Bring ’em Back Smiling!

Having been in the commercial ride business for a few years, bringing our clients back smiling has certainly helped with the referrals. And as I feel the security of our business is only as good as our ability to avoid an injury of any type to anyone involved on the ground crew or in the air, safety is something we all work on every flight. Same as you.

I’ve found this magazine, e-mail, safety seminars or pilots and crew just chatting over coffee or a pint to be the sources of many ideas for keeping ourselves safe. Professional skills are not limited to those who happen to get paid for flying. I know many ‘professionals’ who fly for the fun of it. These folks come up with a lot of the procedures that help keep all of us out of trouble.

Landing positions for open basket balloons have been laid out in flight manuals for years. Many pilots, however, are beginning to use an improved procedure (as we do). I feel the “Face forward, bend your knees and don’t get out” briefing can be improved. I have the passengers who fly in our smaller non-partitioned baskets face sideways to the direction of travel, bend deeply at the knees and brace one shoulder directly against the basket or a tank, while hanging on with both hands. The difference is this. Next time you are in a balloon basket try the facing forward method, notice there is a space between your upper thighs and the leading edge of the basket. Think next about momentum and fulcrum locations, and bring to mind the accidents that included a passenger or pilot leaving the aircraft during a bumpy landing. Next, try the side position with your shoulder against the wicker, the natural function of wicker in a balloon basket is to absorb shock/momentum and your landing speed will stay identical to that of the basket. I figure the latter is a feature with a definite benefit...

As far as the larger baskets go, with over four passengers I am strongly in favor of the T-partitions and having passengers place their backs to the direction of travel. As I tell our clients during the pre-flight briefing, there are several reasons for this position, one being that way there is only one person screaming at a time (it’s a joke son!). With the landing momentum being absorbed by wicker against one’s back quite a lot of shock can be taken with no worries of injury. Passengers are not tossed against each other, are not dependent on their physical strength to keep them safe and in position and indeed have much more fun on a basket-over landing than in an open-basket. I don’t think I’ve ever had a basket-over that everyone didn’t end up laughing, thinking about what fun it was. (sometimes it is more fun for the pilot than others, eh?)

Of course the main factor with passenger safety is the decision process toward launching or not. Ego, economics, and reasons to fly outside our experience seem to get in the way of logical thought at times. As a ride operator I bring one particular thought about economics to the field every morning. It was given to me by the person who gave me my first flight lesson, early one dark breezy dawn. Referring to the financial advantages of flying a large group that was waiting he quietly said, “that can’t enter the equation.” That was probably the most influential statement a pilot with a one day old commercial license (me) could have heard and I have never been far from it since.

As to safety, listen to your heart. The committee in your head may tell you plenty of things that could lead to confusion, your heart will never lie to you.