George Denniston
niston is presented to enhance safe flying
by providing balloonists the opportunity
to gain experience from others without
actually flying. The column is edited by
George Denniston who is a doctor and
balloonist living in Seattle, Washington.
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ence th at you would like to share with
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hadmyfirstemergencylandingdueto
equipment failure ona cold autumnday.
It was gorgeous sunny weather for a
Saturdayafternoonflight, but darncold.
The temperature was in the low40’s Fahr-
enheit. The low that morning had been in
the upper 20’s.
Sincewecouldnotrememberan-
other year where we hadbeen able to fly
inthe northwest in November, we hadn’t
givenmuchthoughttospecialprepara-
tion.Theburnerwasusuallyleftinthe
balloonbasketoutinourgarage.But
sincewe’d had ashort-lived problem with
theO-ringsthepreviousweekend,my
husband had brought the burner in to the
house for a few hours that day before we
leftfor thisflight.
Given the fact that this was a student
training flight, I had selected a launch site
further north from our home than another
closerlocation.Thisareaprovidedstu-
dentswithmorelandingoptions,aless
stressfulflyingexperiencethaninthe
more developed valleys closer tohome.
I had two students in the basket with
me: one, a private pilot working towards
his commercial license, who was instruct-
ing my daughter, a student pilot. We were
allflyinginmynew90,000cubicfoot
Head balloon namedHellfire. We had just
takendeliveryonHellfiretheprevious
month,andflownitinthe Albuquerque
International Balloon Fiesta.
Pre-flightpreparation went smoothly,
thencoldandhotinflation.Nosignsof
anytrouble.Tankpressurewasaround
85-90 psi. We launched and headedvery
south,paralleltotheArlington
airportrunwayatabout1-2knotsper
hour.Everythingwasfine,withLarry
instructingHeatherasarelativelynew
balloon student.
Heather suddenly noticed a coldliq-
uiddrippingonherglovedfinger—the
firstsignthatthe burner blast valve was
starting to leak propane. She didn’t say a
word, but I noticed her reaction and knew
immediately what was happening.
“Don’t worry, we have plenty of fuel
on the other side. Let’s use that for now,”
Isuggested,reassuringly.Larrycontin-
ued hisinstructionof Heather.
About five minutes later, the O-ring
failedonthe other side as well, and now
we hadpropane leaksonbothsides. But
onlywhenoperating the burner.
SoItookoverthecontrols.Emer-
gency procedure is to lock the blast valve
openwithvelcro,andtoflybyopening
and closing the valve at the tank—which
I did. All of us had practiced thismaneu-
verbefore ontheground,andeveryone
remainedcalm.Everythingseemedfine
whileIsearchedforafieldbeyondthe
flight path for Arlingtonairport—thatis,
untilthe tankvalve wewere usingfroze
open.
Now we had a large yellow flame at
the burner. Not enough to cause much lift,
butenoughtoknowthatweneededto
switch to the tank valves on the other side.
SoIremovedthevelcrofromthatside,
shifted it to the remaining side, and began
myapproachto landas soonas possible.
Like, before thatside froze open also.
Whichobviouslywedid,oryou
landingfromme.Nicegentlelanding,
withhardlyabounce,donestrictlyby
flying on the tank valves. Neither Heather
nor Larryever gottooworried.I stayed
calm and in control, and so did they, with
Larrycallingoutformemyrateofde-
scentonthelandingapproach.Thank
goodness we were in an area with lots of
great landingsitesbelow.
Another reminder about how impor-
tant it is to practice emergency maneuvers
before youreallyneedthem.Thatprac-
tice sure makes a difference when you do
have to use it for real!
