The Super2 Shake-Down Flight

Balloon Life,August2000

Pilot Dr. CoyFoster and the Super2 crew felt that
a shakedownflightwasnecessarybeforeanyat-
tempts at world records would be undertaken.After
all,theballoonisthefirsttypecertifiedsuper
pressure gas balloon ever built and only 2 or 3 super
pressure balloons have been flown in history. Prior
tothe actualflight the Super2 crew
experienced several frustrations. All
were overcome and avery success
flightwascompletedonSaturday,
July8, 2000.
The firstattempttolaunch the
balloonwasMemorialDayweek-
end. Weather forecasts looked great
for the Super2testflight.Winddi-
rection mandated a launch site at the
Denton,Texasairport.Threeve-
hicles transportedthe balloon, bas-
ketandequipmenttotheairport
with20crewmembersbeganthe
preflightchecklists. Following two
hoursofassembly,checkingand
rechecking ofelectronic equipment;
wewerereadyforhelium.When
attaching the helium supply hose to
theinflationportasmallhole was
discovered in the balloon envelope.
Asuper-pressure balloon with a hole
isnot a super-pressure balloonand
the flightwasscrubbed.
Looking back at the subsequent
weatherforthatweekend,wehad
missedthe perfectconditions for a
flight that would probably have ter-
minated in Kansas after flying out of
Texas andover the whole state of Oklahoma.
Aftertheenvelopewasrepaired,weagain
waited for favorable weather. Thus began an ordeal
of rain, wind, rain, rain, and more rain. The North
Texas areaexperiencedmore rainduringthispe-
riod thenanytime in the past 30 years. Our lakes,
whichwere severalfeetbelow normal level were
filled and the two-year-old drought was officially
deemed to be over. Then it rained some more. Also,
several key crew members left for scheduled vaca-
tion.ThefirstofJulybroughtdryconditions,

however,thewindswereupto15to20m.p.h.
gusting to30 for the entire weekend.
S2meteorologistDuke GuildenbergofNew
Mexico called with great news on Thursday July 6.
Favorable weather was forecast for the weekend of
July 8 and 9. Our helium supplier was notified and
the Internet site ( www.Super2.com)
indicatorflagmovedtoayellow
status.Thisnotifiedourcrew that
plans werelookinggoodfor aFri-
day evening inflation with a lift-off
plannedforthe morningof July8.
The Fridaymorningweatherfrom
Duke lookedperfectfor the flight.
The flightstatus flag moved to green.
Ithadbeendecidedthatthe
balloon and all necessary equipment
neededtobestoredinaclimate
controlledstoragearea.AU-Haul
storage sitewaschosenandevery-
thingwasina secondfloor storage
area.At4PMonFriday,the crew
arrived at the U-Haul site to find the
elevator inoperable.A repairman had
beenworkingonthe elevator most
of the day and awaiting a relay from
hispartshouse. Hesaid they could
probablysqueezeout2runsfrom
the bad relay so the crew loaded the
en velopeintotheelevato ran d
brought it down to the waiting truck.
Returning for the basket, they found
thesecondrunwasimpossibleas
there was a total failure of the eleva-
tor relay. They checked the stairway
andfoundthedoorstothestairwaywerefour
inches shyof clearance for the basket. The repair-
man said that the part was on the way. Keep in mind
thatthiswasinthemiddleofFridayrushhour
traffic on the infamous Central Expressway bisect-
ingthe easternside of Dallas, through Richardson
toour locationin Plano. Traffic wasnormalfor a
Friday afternoon, resembling a parking lot instead
ofamajorhighway.Therepairmanwasmade
aware ofthe situation and he promised to do his best
toget the elevator fixed.

by Mike Rose

The Super2
Shake-Down Flight

Dr. Coy Foster stands in front of the inflated Super2
balloon prior to its historic shakedown flight.

Balloon Life,August2000

The envelope and electronic equipment were
taken tothelaunchsite ineastPlanowhere thecrew
was waiting. Even though the envelope had been
patched, the factory felt that adding another patch
to the inside of the envelope was desirable. The
envelope was laid out on the drop cloth and par-
tiallyinflatedwitha fan. Coyentered the envelope
through the small opening for the pressure relief
valve at the bottom of the balloon and the second
patch was successfully applied. Now the envelope
had to be purged of air. A call to U-Haul indicated
that the basket would be available as soon as we
could get there.
Up untilthispointin time the many spectators
thathadcongregated at the sitesaw onlya groupof
people playing around with a small white balloon
and a lot of mysterious equipment. Then we heard
a loud truck engine nearing the site and around the
corner came thehuge bright white helium tube
truck from Tri Gas. Instantly everyone knew we
meant business.
At this time I spoke to Pilot Coy Foster and
askedhimhowhewasfeeling.Hesaid,“I’m
excited and I’m looking forward to this. I’ve been
waitinga longtime. Ithas been sixmonthssincethe
systemarrived.Ithink theelevatorwasabig
frustration but the problem we have now is that
there are a lot of details to sort out. The patching
wentverywell,infact,betterthan Ihadanticipated.
The sunlight shiningon the balloon gave me good
visibility and everything went well. Everyone is
here andworking very welltogether. We have a lot
of thingsto do before I launch in the morning.”
I spoke to Project Manager MartyBrown, and
askedhimtell meofhisfrustration about the
elevatorsituation. He laughedandsaid, “I’m sorry,
I can’t say—itwould probably be unprintable and
not acceptable for any ears under the age of 18. I
thought that all the things, all the possibilities, all
the contingencies that we had to work through to
make sure that everything was just right, that was
oneof them thatwasnoteven remotely figuredinto
the equation. Our check-lists are about 30 pages
long and we didn’t have anything in there about
elevator malfunction.”
Operations Chief Randy Wright was asked
about the checklists hehad written. He replied,
“We have 8 different checklists that include;
1.The flight scenario that tells us all the
details and overview of the flight.
2.The crew checklist for notifying all crew
members of the flight status.
3.The security checklist the crew uses to
monitor the envelope pressure overnight.
4.The equipment checklist to make certain
that all equipment makes it to the field.
5.The communications checklist to install
and make sure that everything is working.

6.The basket assembly and set-up check-
listinsures that allequipment is installed into
the basket
7.The inflationchecklist,whichincludes all
the pressure tests, that need to be made while
helium is stillat the site.
8.The pre-launchchecklistto make sure the
balloon is ready to fly.”
Other critical crew include:
1.Bob Gormley, Communications Control
2.Sheila Brown, Operations Control at the
home base
3.Lowell Mullens, Communications Spe-
cialist
4.Rayford Brown, Video and Special Con-
sultant
5.Jim Whitesell, Digital StillPhotos
6.Duke Guildenberg, Meteorologist
7.Mike Rose, Helium Master
With the arrival of the basket being imminent
we beganto assemble the rigiduprightsand frame-
work. Thisincludes two outriggers that carry vari-
ous antennas for communication, transponder and
the Ultrek camera for live video from the balloon
throughout the flight. Just as we completed this
rigging the truck with the basket arrived and the
final basket assembly began. In the next hour all
equipment was checked, rechecked and the enve-
lope was attached to the basket and readied for
inflation. The helium hose was attached and the
signal was given to start the inflation.
Thepressure insidetheheliumtruckwas1,800
PSIwhich is much more than we’d be using inthe
balloon. A restriction in the inflation hose reduced
the pressure to an acceptable amount and the bal-
loon slowly inflated. As the balloon started filling
and lifting fromthegroundit resembled ade-
formed glob. It soon morphed into a perfect white
beach ball globe ready to reach for the sky. As it
filled outthe pressure began toclimb on the instru-
ment panel. The redline pressure on the balloon is
350mm of water. We slowlyincreased thepressure
to 100 mm, then 200 and slowly up to 300. As the
pressurereached300mmthepressurealarm
sounded as expected. The electronically activated
valve at the top of the balloon was opened for 5
seconds and the pressure dropped to about 100.
Thiswasenoughtorealize thatthisvalve wasgoing
to be activated for only a split second at a time
during flight and used only forlanding. We re-
pressurized to 300 mm trying to get the pressure
relief valve at the bottom of the balloon toactivate.
It was supposed to open when the pressure went
over 300 mm, butat315 mm itstilldidnot open. A
pulltestshowed thatitwouldopen withabout three
pounds of pull at that pressure compared to about
85 pounds of pull at 100 mm. It was decided to
continue with the flight since the pressure alarm

“Our
check-lists
are about
30 pages
long and
we didn’t
have
anything in
there about
elevator
malfunction.”
Project
Manager
Marty
Brown

Balloon Life,August2000

wasworkingproperly and theminimalpull to
activate the valve was acceptable.
We disconnected the helium hose with pres-
sure in the balloon at 277 mm of water and the
balloonwasleftin the field under the controlof the
security crew who monitored the pressure in the
balloon overnight. Saturday morning we got the
good news. At sunrise the pressure was 120 to 125
mm. This drop was expected from the overnight
cooling of the helium. After all calculations were
completed it was determined that therewas no
perceptible overnight heliumleakage.The tem-
perature of the helium during the inflation was just
under 100 degrees and the overnight temperature
droppedtothelow70s.Thisallfellinto the
acceptable flightscenarioandCoysuited upforthe
liftoff. Five hot air balloons came out and inflated
at sunrise next to the Super2. They all lifted off by
7 AM as the official word was that Super2 would
not lift off until about an hour after sunrise as the
pre-launch checklist included checking the effect
of the sun on the envelope pressure at sunrise.
At 7 AM, the crew discovered a communica-
tionsproblem withthe APRSequipment. APRSis
usedfor location and tracking of theballoon.Itwas
decidedthat the problem was notseriousenough to
scrubthe flight. Thelaunch procedure was re-
sumed. All readings were in the green and Coy
lifted off at 8 AM. Coy ballasted and ascended at
about 400 feet per minute over the trees about 150
yardsfromtheinflation site and moved north,
risingto an altitude of 850feet AGL. The GPSwas
indicating speed at 6-7 miles per hour. Although
thelaunchwentsmoothlyCoywasnotableto relax
due tohis concern for allkinds of things.Since this
was the first flightof the balloonhe had to be alert
for anything and everything that could possibly
occur.
This balloon is almost three times larger than
the AA-1 gas balloon he flew to several records
back in the 80s. This balloon is a lot more stable
with14,000 cubic feet as compared to 5,500 inthe
AA-1. At launch the temperature was 82 degrees
and itbegan togetvery hot inthe basket. The SPat
lift off was in the high 280 mm and Coy ballasted
and vented several times to reach an altitude 1200
feet. He stayed at that altitudefor three hours. The
sun continuedto shineinto the basket and the
ambient temperature was climbing above 105 de-
grees. Coy related, “I was having major problems
with the sun. Thankfully Marty had put in a space
blanket that I was able to use to shield me from the
sun.”
About11:30AMthe balloonbegan experienc-
ingthermalconditions.The pressure in the balloon
was running in the upper280s and theballoon
descended several hundred feet at about 200 feet
perminute.Thenit roseat about 600 feet per

minute and Coy heard the pressure alarm sound.
Eventually the pressure relief valve activated at
342mm of water and stayed open untilthepressure
in the balloon leveled. He experienced several of
these oscillations over thenext1 _ hours.The
maximumaltitude he reached during this period
was 1,600 feet. Weatherman DukeGuildenberg
suggested that the thermals were running up to
6,000 feet and thatCoy climb above them, but that
was not possible with the ballast the balloon was
carrying.
At mid-day Coy was flying at 1,500 - 1,600
feetand the thermals were less and were not as bad
as the first wave he had experienced. The ambient
temperaturein thebasket was running 110-115
degrees.During theperiod 11:30to 2 PM the
balloon served as a sun shade for Dr. Foster. Coy
saidthat at 1:30PMa thermaltook him upandthen
back down anddid not stabilize until850 feet. Coy
heard some noises coming from the envelope and
thoughthe had a leak. It was later determined that
there wasno leakandthere isno currentanswer for
the noises he heard. Coy thinks that it was simply
the windpassing over theenvelopeduring the
thermal. (Postflightanalysis of the helium shows
that the balloon did not have a leak.) He ballasted
and vented again until he reached 1,700 feet. The
S2 stabilized again. The balloon continued north
into Oklahoma. He ate lunch over Lake Texoma.
After that the speed started picking up to about 20
to 25 miles per hour.
As sunset neared, Coy and the crew had to
decide whether to continue the flight throughout
the nightor toland at sunset. Coy looked off tothe
northwest and noted that the terrain was climbing
with mostly trees with some farmland in between.
Climbing to a suggested 5,000 feet would have
used mostof the remaining ballast. Coy decided to
land at sunset. Flyingat 2,500 feet at 25 miles per
hour, Coy used the PRV (lower) pressure relief
valve to bring the balloon down to zero pressure.
He opened the PV (top valve) for 1 second which
began a descent of 200 feet per minute. Checking
the sun and the time for sunset, he vented another
1 second to increase his descent to 400 feet per
minutetolandbeforesunset.At200feethe ballasted
andleveled out. He was stillmovingat16 miles per
hour, which was very fast, butacceptable for land-
ing. He got the drag line and anchor rope ready to
deploy. Descending over the tree tops, the balloon
slowedto 14milesperhour. He saw a fieldof about
3acrescoming up. Clearing the lastlineof trees, he
dropped the dragline and anchor rope thathada 30
pound bag ofsand attached. The drag line and
anchor were designed to orient the balloonfor the
proper landing positionwhichalignsthe outriggers
to the side. Everything worked perfectly. Coy saw
a tree in the middle of the field and the basket flew

The GPS
showedthe
balloon
hadflown
138 miles
in12 hours
and42
minutes.
Looking
backat the
flight,if it
hadbeen
sanctioned,
theflight
wouldhave
exceeded
12World
Records.