January 2000
Flying
byGeorgeDenniston
Dennistonispresented toenhance safe
flying byprovidingballoonists the
opportunity togainexperience from
otherswithout actuallyflying. The
column iseditedbyGeorge Denniston
who isa doctor and ballo onistlivingin
Seattle, Washington. Articlesmaybe
signedor anonymoustoprotectth e
privacy of those involved, asthe author
wishes. If you have anexperience that
you wo uldlike to share withoth ers,
sendyour manuscript toBalloo n Life
magazine, Hangar FlyingwithGeorge
Denniston, 233647th Ave SW, Seattle,
WA 98116-23 31. Submissionsmay be
typewritten, submitted ondisk (Mac or
IBM format),or e-mailed to
tom@b alloonlife.com. BalloonLife
pays$35 for eachstoryused.
took off north of Phoenix, Arizona, carry-
ing 6 passengers. The winds at takeoff
were calm, and the forecast did not in-
clude high speed, low altitude winds. For
an hour they proceeded in a southerly
direction, and then apparently decided to
land. As the b alloon descen ded over
houses, it picked up speed, and began to
descend more rapidly. The pilot burned,
but was unable to avoid hitting the roof of
onehome.It punched a holein the tile roof
and the ceiling of the family room. The
waswritingsomechecksin
her den when she heard a loud crash. She
rushed to her family room, where she saw
the hole in the ceiling.
Interviewedabout90minutesafter
thecrash, she said, “I feltrealshookup,
butI’mfeelingbetternow.Iwillnever
forget this.”
Theballoonandlargebasketwent
on, hitanotherroof, knockingoff afew
tiles,thenskipped over a thirdroof, and
landed in a field. The basket skidded on its
side for about100yards, andstoppedat
the edge of a citrus grove.
A witnesswho was driving towork,
said things seemednormal when he first
spottedthe balloon.Butashewatched,
theballoon seemedtospeed upfrom10
mphto40-50 mph. “The wind was push-
ingit hard,” he said.
A secondballoonthathadtakenoff
from the same launch field made a bumpy
landing about a half-mile away from the
first balloon. The pilot of the second craft
said that high wind landings are about the
sameascalmlandings,exceptthatthe
baskettipsover,anddragsalongthe
ground until it comes toa stop. “You just
hangon,”hesaid.“It’srelativelyquite
fun.”
An experienced pilot commented on
the flight: “Mountains surround Phoenix.
On cold mornings the wind coming out of
the mountain passes is a drainage wind. It
hugs theground. When the winds aloft are
in speed (i.e. 16 knots at
3000 feet, and 8 knots at 6000 feet), and it
is colder in the mountains (39 degrees the
day of this flight), the drainage becomes a
river of air, complete with rapids. Instead
of rocks making the ripples, it is the small
hills, and the houses, which have replaced
the orange orchards. At altitudes of 300 to
500 feet AGL the winds are much slower.
“The solution to this particular situa-
tion is to keep flying. The fartherone goes
down the valley, the more the wind dissi-
pates. Glendale Airport, just 5 milesfur-
thersouth,wasreportingonly8knots.
Unfortunately this isa weather phenom-
enon that flight service does not forecast.
Butbykeepingaccurate records of your
FSS reports, you will start to see patterns
to these micro-meteorological events that
couldhelpyouanticipatesuchcondi-
tions. The balloon inquestionwasdoing
some white water rafting.
“About ten years ago, a similar situ-
ation caught a number of balloons. I was
above it all in a fixed wing aircraft,watch-
ingthemlandfast.Iwasabletoradio
some of them, and tell them that the winds
furtheronatGlendalewereless.Some
pilotsflewonandlandedwithonly7
knots.”Thepassengersweretakentoa
localhospitalforobservationandtreat-
ment.
This story was put together from a
newspaper account and from information
on the Internet.
