June1999
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Technology
Editor:Pleasebe advisedthatI willnot
be renewing my subscription to yourmaga-
zine.
It ismyobservation thatyou were a
mainforceinruiningtheBFAandthe
Competition Division, and thatyou used
yourmagazineasaforumtopresenta
veryslantedandbiasedaccountof what
washappening.
The BFAis successfully divided, and
broke. It is losing membership as a result.
Ihope you and the others like Rob Schantz
feel goodabout what has occurred.
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Job
Editor:I just wanted to take thetime to let
you know that your article onFlying with
The Windis the best yet to help new pilots
understandthisdynamic andforthere-
view of more experienced pilots.
Ih av eal way senjo yedC arro ll
Teitsworthclassesonthis,andyourar-
ticle made another light bulbgo off. I for
one am not afraid to admit I don’t know it
all.Studyandreviewarealwaysvery
good. Pleasedo an article on the subtleties
of Mountain,Canyon, Desert, Snow fly-
ing.AsaFlorida pilotitwouldbevery
good toknow what tolook outfor when
we travel.
Afamouspersononcesaid“You
don’t have toknow the answers, butyou
needto know the questions.”
Largo, Florida
Editor:Wonderful article on theBreitling
Orbiter conquest. I would like tomake a
couple ofcorrections though. Phileas Fogg
actuallytraveledfromOctober2toDe-
cember211872inhisround-the-world
trip. A second point is that inAround the
World in Eighty Daysthere were no bal-
loonsincludedinthetransportationline
up as I read it. I recently read the story for
thefirsttimeandwaswaitingforthe
print. It appears to be a Hollywood blend-
ing of two other Jules Verne stories with
balloons, Five Weeks in a Balloon and
The Mysterious Island. Hope this helps.
Petaluma, California
The balloon scene was a Hollywood
addition for the movie. It is the scene
featured on the video box. Editor
Doubling
Editor:In you February issue ofBalloon
Life,Larry Nelson’s article on burner noise
seemswayoverdue.Heobviouslydid
considerableresearch on the subject high-
lighting aproblem seen by many as “that’s
the wayitis.”
Healsodiscussedsomemeansof
maskingthenoiseforthosewhomust
enduretheseawfulblastsfromtimeto
time.Ononeofourballoons,wehave
three22mBTUburnersandonecow
burner.Thefirstthree canbe heardfor
miles,And,whilesuchnoisemightbe
mitigatedlocally,itdoesnotdoadarn
thingfor thoseonthe ground.Nottobe
forgotten is the sound of the flame, which
can give the pilot clues as to the nature of
thecombustion.For instance, whenfly-
ingathighaltitudes,theflamemayget
super-extendedtothepointofrisingfar
toohighinthe envelope.Suchcombus-
tionhasadifferentsound.Asuper-ex-
tended flame can be bad news!
Another source of almost paralyzing
noise comes from the cold inflation blow-
ers. We often have two crew members on
either side of the skirt holdingit open for
theincomingcoldair. Theystayup toa
few secondsafter the burnersare turned
on for hot air inflation. So, while they’re
there, theyarebombardedbyhighlevel
noise from a nearbyfive-horsepower gas
engineandconnectedfan.Oneofour
oldermascotdogsisnowstonedeaf,I
thinkbecauseoftheblowers.Earplugs
seemtobe the answer here.
IrecentlyretiredfromPacificNW
Bell as a transmission engineer and I seem
bel change is: 10 times log base 10 of the
soundlevel change, or:
10 log10P1/p2
So,ifthechangeisdoubling,(or
halving) then the ratio is two. The log of 2
is; 0.30103 and ten times this is;3 dB, not
10 dB.
I hope this doesnot detract from the
excellence of Larry’s article.
Tucson, Arizona
