Preflight

Karl Stefan

On October 22, Karl Stefan, will be awarded the National Aeronautic Association’s Elder Statesman of Aviation award. The ceremony will take place during a noon luncheon in Washington, DC at the Capital Hilton.

Karl Stefan becomes the third balloonist to be awarded this great honor. His Elder Statesman citation reads:

Karl Stefan graduated from the U.S .Naval Academy in 1940. He served as a wartime fighter pilot, director of research and development on such projects as combat night fighter development, and engineering manager of drone surveillance of atomic effects. He received a MS in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Minnesota and in 1960, after retiring from the Navy, he went to work for the University as technical director of their wind tunnel laboratories. He then went on to work on several programs involving stratospheric balloon systems and associated instrumentation under the auspices of General Mills, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, NASA, and Princeton University.

Stefan earned his lighter-than-air certificate in 1963 and in 1973 set a world altitude record for hot air balloons. Also in 1973, he joined with two other balloonists to found [The] Balloon Works, one of the first manufacturing companies for hot air balloons. Stefan later participated in the formation of U.S. Airships, Inc., where he prepared designs for larger airships intended for advertising and in 1987 he joined ILC Dover where he contributed to the development of flexible structures, including balloons, airships, and space shuttle suites. Stefan now runs his own consulting company, Stefan LTA, Inc. He has written more than 14 paper on lighter-than-air subjects. Stefan is a pilot member of the Balloon Federation of America and served for years on its Board of Directors. He was the U.S. delegate to the International Ballooning Commission of the FAI and was President of that commission for 10 years.

For more on Karl Stefan’s accomplishments read Balloonmeister on page 41.

Balloon Federation of America

The Balloon Federation of America announced the results of elections held this August to its Board of Directors and for the Competition Division. For the first time the BFA only announced the winners and withheld the actually election numbers. Balloon Life has obtained the election results which are published below.

As of press time, Executive Director, Wally Miller, was unable to provide an answer as to when and why the organization’s Board decided to not release the election results.

Of 3930 ballots mailed for the At-large position only 1354 votes were cast, a 34.5 percent participation. The Western region had a 36.7 percent return and the Northeastern region had the highest percentage response with 37.4 percent.

BFA Board
At-Large
Glen Moyer - 800
David Rapp - 554

Western region
Bill Bird - 109
Marcia Circo - 91

Northeast region
Victor Fraenckel - 132
Larry Konash - 109

Competition Division
Great Lakes region
David Lowe - 36
Brian Beazly - 16

Southwest region
Wayne Bond - 24
Troy Bradley - 13

Observer
Kim Wilson - 70
J.W. Byrd - 34

Gas Division (2 seats)
Randy Woods - 30
Mark Sullivan - 27
Lesley Davies - 14

British Championship

The British National Balloon Championships were held August 25-30. Lindsay Muir won her first British Championship in 1988 and was featured in an article in Balloon Life in May, 1992.

The top ten finishers and their scores from the 1996 British National Balloon Championship:

1. Lindsay Muir - 3706

2. David Bareford - 3519

3. Ray Hunt - 3207

4. Tom Sage - 3094

5. Nick Bates - 3060

6. Neil Gabriel - 3023

7. Marcus Green - 2789

8. Paul Spellward - 2689

9. Crispin Williams - 2528

10. Chris Duppa-Miller - 2462

World Gas Balloon Championship

The 9th World Gas Balloon Championship was held August 29 through September 1 in Bitterfeld, Germany. 18 competitive teams were entered, including three teams from the U.S.

Three flights and eight tasks were contested during the championship. Thomas Fink and Ranier Hassold successfully defended their championship title which they won in 1994 when the event was held in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Second place was won by the U.S. team of Mark Sullivan and David Levin.

Americans Randy Woods and Ed Staley finished 13. The team of Don Piccard and Ed Chapman were entered but did not fly. For more about Piccard’s unique balloon that he had planned to fly in the competition read Freeflight on page 45.

The top five teams and their scores from the 9th World Gas Balloon Championship:

1. Fink/Hassold GER - 6639

2. Sullivan/Levin USA - 6223

3. Menger/Beermann GER - 6184

4. Leys/Leys FRA - 5740

5. Lewetz/Wagner AUT - 5468

Aerostar International

Aerostar International, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, has announced several new products. The first is the new Aurora Stretch basket. An adaptation of the original Aurora basket, it allows for a 25 gallon stainless steel horizontal fuel tank to fit into the bottom of the basket. The Aurora Stretch measures 51 by 36 by 91 inches. The empty weight (including burner) is 192 pounds.

Aerostar has also expanded its line of Aurora envelopes with the introduction of the Aurora 62. This new 16 gore envelope has a volume of 62,750 cubic feet and a diameter of 51 feet. It comes with four free color cuts in the middle section.

The new Aeroflex™ upright system was designed to provide a flexible upright system that combines strength with ease of set up and transportation. “We resisted the temptation to …‘just copy the other guys’… and set out to improve on the ideas already presented by other manufacturers,” said Tom Barrow, Engineering Manager at Aerostar.

The Aeroflex™ system does not have any zippers, velcro, button, flaps, snaps, hooks or pins (except for the burner). The burner is supported by polycarbonate rods instead of nylon. Aerostar choose polycarbonate over nylon because in side by side drop tests with the burners in place, the polycarbonate outperformed the nylon by a long shot. The cable system hooks together with carabiners. The cable runs through a sleeve that is semipermanently attached to the lower frame. The cable hooks to a bolt that is connected to a cable that runs inside the lower frame to protect it from damage. The burner frame is a modular piece that allows the burner to be removed without having to remove the entire frame. The burner load frame sits atop of the polycarbonate poles and a carabiner connects the envelope to the burner frame and cable.

Aerostar now offers a center pull deflation system dubbed the Aerochute™. The Aerochute™ is designed for faster deflation of the parachute venting systems currently available on all Aerostar systems. The Aerochute™ comes standard with an Aeromax™ top cap and utilizes no pulleys or pins in order to arm or deflate.

The Aerochute™ is fully retractable and rigged through a series of nylon centering cords filtering through the apex ring.

Aerostar has issued service bulletin number 135. This service bulletin addresses potential problems with RegO valve 9107 and replaces service bulletin number 104 which dealt with the same problem. These valves have been used on Aerostar balloons since mid 1991. This valve is characterized by the CGA-555 outlet fitting that requires a wrench or large hand turn wheel to tighten (as opposed to the POL style with a smaller hand turn wheel). Aerostar has issued instructions for the replacement of this valve and has sent written instructions to registered owners. Aerostar owners who have not received this information or have questions regarding the service bulletin should call Aerostar at (605) 331-3500.

Five Years Ago in Balloon Life

National Balloon Racing Association filed for protection under Chapter Eleven bankruptcy laws.

American Blimp Corporation received a Production Certificate for its A-60 Lightship. It was the first such certificate to be awarded an airship builder in more than 20 years.

Jeff Menchhofer of Indiana was the 1991 U.S. Nationals in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Al Nels of Ohio won the 10th World Hot Air Balloon Championship, his second World title, in St. Jean sur Richelieu, Québec.

Ten Years Ago in Balloon Life

Sid Cutter of New Mexico won the U.S. Nationals in Indianola, Iowa.

On September 1, 1986 a new Commercial Pilot Practical Test Standards went into effect.

The BFA Board of Directors approved formation of a Competition Division to replace the hot air events committee.