Long Distance Flight Planning

During the recent Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, the Albuquerque Aerostat Ascension Association hosted a one day seminar on pilot decision making. Jetta Schantz, who has established three world feminine records, made a presentation on her flight experiences. She gave a detailed account of the preparation leading up to and the actual results of each of her three record setting flights.

After the seminar and in a subsequent phone conservation Balloon Life spoke with Jetta about how she planned for each of her flights. Following is what Jetta has to share about the elements that go into a successful flight and the learning experiences from each.

Each pilot who attempts a long distance flight or sets out to achieve a world record in distance, duration, or altitude does so for their own personal reasons. In the Spring of 1992, Jetta and her husband Rob were attending the Sun N’ Fun EAA Fly-in in Lakeland, Florida. While at the National Aeronautic Association tent Rob leafed through the record book. He noticed that there is a feminine category. Then and there he challenged Jetta to break the existing feminine records.

Hesitant at first, Jetta took up the challenge. The first would be a distance flight. She and Rob spend that summer and fall planning a flight for the following winter.

Balloon Life asked Jetta what she considered the most important things that she has learned from the record attempts.

“I think the most important thing that I learned from each flight was the value of writing things down. Writing down thoughts and ideas when they come to you. Starting a little file that you stick notes in. Starting a master checklist.

“What was invaluable to me each time was learning to use a checklist. Usually when I would start out a year in advance, or more, the checklists were more a list of things that we needed to find. Later the checklists would become detailed pre-launch, launch, flight, and recovery plans.”

Without hesitation Jetta endorses the use of checklists. Checklists for equipment, equipment or procedures needing testing, pre-flight planning, checklists for the crew, and especially checklists for the actual flight itself.

Jetta has checklists for everything, what to do one week before, the day before, and even minutes before the flight. “I like to make sure that everything is where it is supposed to be equipment wise and we haven’t forgotten anything.

“Then I actually have a flight checklist that has everything on it from put your warm clothes on to kiss Rob before I take off. As silly as it seems I try to put everything on the checklists.

“Checklists are important not just for long jumps or records attempts but, even in our everyday pleasure or commercial ride flight. General aviation takes checklists for granted and uses them religiously. In ballooning we tend not to use them at all. Using checklists is a habit that every balloon pilot should get into, whether for an unusual flight or that Sunday morning hop.”

To make her point, Jetta related taking off on a non-record attempt where she had not personally checked the uprights pins. Once in the air she discovered that half her uprights were not connected to the basket. She landed immediately. She emphasized that missing equipment or little things that might go wrong in themselves do not create a disaster but, how many times have accident reports documented that a culmination of many “little” things that all went wrong resulted in an accident. Checklists and their use help to prevent these situations.

For any long jump or record flight the weather is another important element. For all of her record flights Jetta worked with the local Flight Service people in Jacksonville, Florida. “I worked with Bill Rogenfels here in Jacksonville. For my first flight, which would be a distance attempt, he ordered five years worth of weather studies. We researched the data looking for the best time to take off from Oklahoma. He said it would be late December through late February.

“Rob and I went to Oklahoma for six weeks during that time and camped out at my Mom’s near Tulsa. I did a practice flight were the winds were slow and the temperature too warm but, we learned from the experience.”

Jetta pointed out that balloonists are more conscious of weather. Being at the mercy of the weather a pilot can not afford to take a risk. We can not turn around and come back to the airport if a storm pops up like powered aircraft can do. (For how to select the right weather read Bruce Comstock’s article on page 18.)

She admits that in doing the distance flight they had no idea what she and her husband were getting into. It was a learning experience all the way. Still, it was exciting in the sense of accomplishment. The fun of working with people both in Florida and Oklahoma.

“I tell people all the time, I think that I learned more before the flight, getting ready to do it. I learned and grew more from that experience than the flight itself. At that point I knew that it wasn’t going to be the only flight because I had too much fun.”

One of the biggest problems that Jetta says you have to plan for is the fact that your crew may not be there when you land. On her distance flight she knew that the flight path would be over the Ozark mountains. Should she have to land in this heavily forested, mountainous terrain it would take hours, even days, before her crew could locate her.

She recommends taking sufficient water and food along on the flight.

“I always have a little box of matches with me to start a fire. I have a solar blanket and I always pack a little extra food. You never know if you are going to land near civilization.”

In her second record attempt she went after the altitude record. She had wanted to put it off to the last flight because it scared her the most.

“I was not looking forward to the altitude flight. It was almost like I really want to do all three but do I really have to do the altitude flight?

“I think that the fear was more about the unknowns. The more that we got into it and learned about going higher in altitudes and the things that could go wrong, not just with the equipment but with our own human bodies, due to lack of oxygen and cold temperatures, the more I really got frightened of it. But I keep that fear way down deep inside. Rob was probably the only person who could have said that he knew it was there. I didn’t want to talk about it.

“We got ready for the altitude flight in a very quiet, low key manner. Doing the altitude chamber, meeting with the flight surgeon, meeting with different professionals in the military that could help me with information along the way, the parachute people, all things, it was almost like going through [the motions] but I really wasn’t there because I was trying to put the fear out of my mind and hide from it in a sense.

“I really wasn’t until we made the five day trip across the country from Florida to California that the flight seemed real to me for the first time. Before that it was something we were working on but I never faced the reality of it. When we drove into California and saw the sign that said China Lake and the arrow pointing to turn right I burst into tears. It was the first time that it really occurred to me what was happening, what I was about to do and, the chance that I was about to die. Once I got to China Lake and the town of Ridgecrest and I got onto the base and started talking and working with the people and the local media It was almost like the fear was replaced by reassurance and calm.

“When I took off on the morning of the test flight all that fear went away. And it was okay. I think because I was flying, I was in the air.”

Preflight planning and preparation were even more important on Jetta’s altitude flight. As a flight surgeon explained to her the higher you go the more quickly the elements change and the environment becomes more inhospitable. For this flight she prepared by making a parachute jump, experienced the effects of high altitude in a pressure chamber, practiced with new equipment, and learned about the upper atmosphere.

From these practice sessions she gained valuable information. In one exercise Jetta wore a helmet and breathed oxygen while working for an hour. Based on the oxygen use it was decided to put two more bottles on board. She used them all.

For the duration flight she had planned to do a practice night flight. The weather did not cooperate. A simulation was set up in a warehouse space. In total darkness and full equipment, less actual fuel, a “night flight” was conducted. The crew communicated from another room by radio. Emergency procedures were simulated and, when the crew didn’t think she was “burning” often enough they reminded her. From this exercise the team learned where light would be needed, how tanks should be arranged, and other valuable lessons.

“With every flight I tried to make a list of everything that could go wrong with that flight and prepare for it. Or practice for it.”

As part of the planning process Jetta sits down with her crew and they go over everything that could possibly go wrong during the flight and how to deal with the problem.

“On my flights we would always have fairly formal sit down review where we would go over the checklists. This includes equipment that the crew might be unfailure with. We went over what might go wrong. That has always been my big thing, try to be very up front and try to talk about everything that might go wrong. What can I do today to minimize that problem. Is there anything I can do to make sure what might go wrong can’t happen because we have made sure that it can’t. Or to minimize what could happen.”

For every record attempt she spends time making sure that she is physically fit. She maintains a regular workout program to build her strength and endurance.

Are there valuable lessons that she has learned that are beneficial to fun flyers?

“I think that we all learn a lot from testing ourselves and doing flights like this because it makes us think beyond the normal average every day. It makes you think that if I am going to fly for more than an hour I am going to need extra fuel, heat tanks or use nitrogen pressurization. Having to add food and water and safety equipment. It makes you challenge yourself more.”

Jetta believes that pilots should always be challenging themselves. It is through this process that one improves their abilities.

“People ask me all the time, ‘why do you do it?’ I always tell people that it is a personal challenge. That something inside of you that you need to accomplish. It is the way I found to meet that desire, to set a goal and accomplish it and feel like I have done something wonderful. It is probably the same drive in all of us whether we are an athlete, writer, musician, or movie star. As aviators we don’t get the mass applause, so you do it for yourself, your own accomplishment.”

In any endeavor one does not achieve a goal by themselves. Jetta gives a lot of credit to her husband Rob and the crew.

“I am a huge advocate of taking care of my ground crew. In our sport we have to be. Without them we don’t get in the air. We might get down but not as nicely as would like to. I have also been a huge advocate of taking very good care of your crew and taking care of their every need.”

She practices what she preaches. Before every record flight she packs a picnic basket for the crew and makes sure that it is in the chase vehicle. During the duration flight chase the crew was very grateful to have the supplies with them.

One last word of advice for anyone considering a record flight attempt: “If you are doing a long jump or a world record, documentation comes into play. You have to be sure that you have someone who is responsible for that. If they don’t do their job you don’t get the record. I figure that my observer is as important as I am.”