On Saturday, March 8, 1997, AERCO, located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, hosted a no cost seminar on Annual Inspections and Preventative Maintenance for Hot Air Balloons. There were 126 participants at the seminar.
On Saturday, March 8, 1997, AERCO, located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, hosted a no cost seminar on Annual Inspections and Preventative Maintenance for Hot Air Balloons. There were 126 participants at the seminar.
The purpose was to expose anyone from the newest crew member to the most experienced pilot to what was really required at an annual inspection, and to give them some tips on preventative maintenance that they may perform on their systems.
The seminar format was a series of six lecture/hands on sections with a "class" of 20 people in each. This gave everyone a chance to get "hands on" if they wanted, kept the "classes" to a minimum, and allowed people to get their questions answered in a small group.
The six sections were:
1. Burners with AERCO shop foreman Mike Still leading the lecture and showing things that must be performed.
2. Fuel Systems with Doug Sangl of Aerostar and Wheeler Tank showing the workings of fuel tanks and fuel hoses and discussing the critical areas of these components.
3. Baskets were covered by Col. Clarke O'Byrne (USAF Retired) with a tremendous section on wicker weaving and preventative maintenance on your basket.
4. Envelopes were presented by Matt Guthrie, AERCO's General Manager, showing pull tests, porosity, mildew, good and bad repairs. Of all of the sections this area needed more time because of the massive amount of information to be disseminated.
5. FAA was a team headed up by Karry Ray with Jim Malarsie and J.D. Huss of the Albuquerque Flight Standards District Office. Their section covered proper "sign offs" for preventative maintenance, repair, and annual inspections. Each participant had the opportunity to sign off a make believe preventative maintenance item and then learn how it should be written. This section ended with everyone earning the first section to the FAA Wings Program.
6. Last but certainly not least was Fabrics hosted by Bill Gerrow of Performance Textiles in Greensboro, North Carolina. This was perhaps the best received section with Mr. Gerrow showing a slide presentation of how balloon fabric is produced now and in the past and why. Performance Textiles has sold fabric to every balloon manufacturer except one!
There were two breaks and lunch hosted by AERCO. Lunch was smoked turkey, smoked sirloin tri tips, potato salad, red beans, red chili stew and drinks. The meats were smoked by Mr. Larry Garcia of Mr. Casual as part of his on going contributions to his community.
One participant made the observation that "here is a safety seminar that was not sanctioned by any national organization, put on by a private balloon repair company that represents a major manufacturer, at no cost to any participant and had no overt selling or touting of their products. Ballooning needs more of this same kind of information sharing."
