BalloonLife,December 1999

FREEFLIGHT

Thoseofyouwhowere attheLBORO
Tailgate Auction at Al-buquerque inOc-
tober mayhavemissedanauctionfor a
FirstFlight Airmail Cover from myfirst
soloflight. (That flight was inFebruary,
1947 on a modified Fugo Japanese bomb
balloon.)The cover, mattedandframed
withasignedreprintofAislingFox’s
article will be placed on the eBay auction
blockshortlyafterdistributionofthis
issue ofBalloon Life. Proceeds from the
auctionwillgototheBFAJuniorBal-
loonists’ Scholarship Fund.
Since there are very few subscribers
toBalloon Lifethat were able towitness
thatascensionIwillfulfillseveralre-
quests to present a post flight report based
on my recollections herewith.

MySolo
“What are yougoingto dowith itif
we give it toyou?” asked the captain, his
fourgold braid stripes shining in themorn-
ingsunaswestoodonthestepsof the
GeneralServ iceBuildingatUSNAS
Lakehurst, New Jersey. “Why fly it, Sir!”
wasmyreply.“Well,then,seeCom-
manderCookdowninSupplyandifit
fallsundertheWarSouvenirsAct,we
willgive it to you.” I did, it did, theydid
and I did. Here is how it happened. (Cook
had just recently gotten a nice ride in a D-
8 Barrage Balloon and was very amenable
tothe deal.)
Havingan18,000cubicfootpaper
bag and getting it airborne as a man carry-
ingaircraft are two different things, but I
had a University of Minnesota Air Corps
ROTCcommandingofficerwithsome
imagination,Col.WalterGerzine.With
the Air Corps about to split from theArmy
toform the U.S. Air Force, Col. Gerzine
sawthat his PublicRelations Officer could
usesomehelpincelebratingtheevent.
Mycivilianfirstpostwarsoloballoon
flight would serve as a promotional event
for our unit.
Uniformed Basic Unit Air Force stu-
den tswould“Vo lunteer”toserveas
groundcrew fortheinflation andchase.
Wejury rigged a uniform out ofmy father’s
W.W.II Eisenhower jacket and pink trou-

sers and cobbled together insignia from
the Air Corps and the old U of M Army
ROTC. That may have been a “First,”too.
The Air Force Reserve Unit at Wold-
Chamberlain Field would donate some
“Overage” aluminum sheet metal to form
a basket as my paper bag had none, it

being a captured Japanese paper bomb
balloon from their “Fugo”, orHoly Wind,
project. Mike Schoenberg at the Univer-
sity Aeronautical Engineering lab showed
me how to fabricate it using aircraft rivets
and welding. Acme Metal Spinning spun
an aluminum valve base for my idea of a
“Fireproof” maneuvering valve, Fuller
Adhesives mixed up some special glue
that held on the fish oil glued mulberry
paper for some major repairs and the

Minneapolis DailyTimes bought 12,000
cubic feet of hydrogen for me.
I bought war surplus olive drab para-
chute cord and made up the 19 suspension
cords needed, tying two-inch loops every
twofeetsothatthesandbagscouldbe
lowered as the balloon was rigged. All the
loopsoneachlinewerefedontothe
sandbag hookssothat all the crew had to
dowasslipthemoff,one byone.Mike
and I welded up a one inch steel tube into
a load ring and we welded on to it a spiral
of 3/16th inch rod with one loopfor each
foot rope suspension cord. After a rigor-
ous testing program I settled on some two
inch snap hooks to make that connection.
Thatwasa great improvementovereye
splices and woodtoggles.
Sincethealuminumbasketwould
make quite a fireworks show and slice up
likebreadifIimpactedapowerline,I
affixed a heavy copped corneron the front
of the basket. (Maybe hotair ballooning
wouldn’t have so many fatalities if some-
one put copper armor on those aluminum
propane bombs.)
For flight instrumentsI scrounged a
W.W.I altimeter, gota crisp roll of“Sound-
ing Tissue” of the Waldorf brand and then
formed a glass “U” tube with bubble res-
ervoirendsinchemlab.Whenthatwas
corked into a wine bottle and a drop of red
ink put in the U, I had a sensitive variom-
eter which they call a Statoscope. (As the
balloon climbs, air in the bottle expands
out and blurp, blurp, blurps through the U
tubeandv iceversashowingdescent.
Aboutacountofthreeperblurpwasa
comfortable climbor descent. I suppose
that wasabout 250 fpm.) The Statoscope
onlytoldme whether Iwasgoingupor
down. The toiletpaperwastobe tossed
overboard, sheet by sheet. It would climb
fasterthantheballoon inan updraft and
streak down in a downdraft so that I could
determine whether tovalve, drop ballast
or justwaitit out. The altimeter told me
nothing.
I knew that the balloon would fill out
as I climbed, to be full at about 10,000 feet
andIcou ldfloatalongon“Pressure
Height” in a stable mode for the required

by Don Piccard

Don Piccard lifts into the air on February
16, 1947

BalloonLife,December 1999

two hoursolo. Then a tad of hydrogen
valving and hang on. The soft aluminum
basket would protectme from almostany
crash, and I would get my CAA ticket. I
thought.Butas theceilingturned outtobe
about 3,000 feet I had to either fly the
balloon or drag rope across the frozen
fieldstogetmy time in.I triedboth. Atone
pointI was lookingUP at the tops of high
linetowersoneitherside ofme.I wasdrag
roping through the catenary of a 250,000
volttransmissionlinetakingmovies.(Oh.
The joy of beingthe nation’s best student
pilot! Invulnerable.)
Coming up to one lake with the drag
rope out, I spotted ground crew member
BenMinnichon theshoreline. “Ben, grab
the drag rope and hold on!”He did, but it
didn’t slow old Fugo down one bit, but
balloon-joringwasinvented, workingout
justfine until my paper gasbag impacted
on a row ofpoplar trees along the lee
shore. Ben slid to a stop and the balloon
skidded up the wall of branches until it
cleared the top and the slick aluminum
basketslidthroughbetweenthem
smoothly,pendulatingacrossthenext
field. Perris, California balloonists may
recognize Ben’s name as he is of Perris
Progress publishing fame and explains
why the Trolley Museumthere became
host to hot air ballooning, decades later.
There is one road that runs diago-
nally from just northeast of Minneapolis
towards the town ofWhite Bear Lake.
Wouldn’tyou knowthatI justcentered up
on and sailed along a couple of hundred
feetinthe air directlyabove it. There were
quite a few cars following along with an
Army four by six stakebody with my
ground cloth and ground crew. Now as
each person wanted to be in the front of
the pack and it was only a two lane road,
they drovethreeabreast just under the
basket.What asight to seesouthwest
bound approaching cars screech to a halt,
turn and retreat, as well as the rear most
cars in the entourage charging along the
snowbound shoulders on each side to get
in the lead under the balloon.
Floatingserenelyalongateighty feet
diagonallyacross thetown ofWhiteBear,
mychaseentourageswarmedthrough
town charging across the whole network
of streets and a fewlawnsthatdidn’t have
toodeepa snowpack. The localconstabu-
larywasoverloadedandeventriedto
arrest theU.S.Army chasetruckbut
finallygaveupwith aplaintiffquery

“Why weren’t we forewarned?” Several
hundred cars invading a sleepy country
town, on a sleepy Sunday morning.
A nicething about atrack that is
diagonal to the streets is that your drag
rope has little or no tendency to snag on
thepowerlines, as itwillwhen travelingat
right angles to them. When it cracks the
whip in dropping off lines on one side of
the street and wraps around the ones on
the other side no amount of “stiffening to
precludethepossibilityofsnaggingwires”
(Original FAA Part 31) will slip by a
fireworks display. (Wow, don’t the run-
ning kids retreat when the zapping wires
hit the ground at their feet!)
Allgood things mustcome to an end
and theendwasin sight. TheArcand
Brother’sfarm about five miles northeast
of White Bear loomed up and my basket
dropped down. I imagine that driving a
ModelTee down railroadtracks alongthe
ties would feel about the same as an alu-
minum basket skippingacross the frozen
furrows. But my U.S. Navy gold inlays
held and I came to a stop, almost in the
waiting arms ofmy fine groundcrew.
That was thefirsttime I ever hada ground
clothspread outfor deflatinga balloon.A
great crew. (I have wondered whether or
notthatday’s activitiesinfluenced one of
thatcrew tospendhiscareer inthe balloon
business—even risingto become a Raven
Vice President.)
Well, theCAAhadn’tyetdetermined
what written exams wouldbe required for
the new rating of Free Balloon Pilot, so
one was justissuedwithoutany. Now you
know why I never argue with any FAA
Inspectors and they don’t expect me to
know anything and how I have gone over
half a century without a violation being
filedagainstme. (Plentyof questionsover
the years, but no hangings.)
On the way back into town, we were
stoppedbythe St.PaulPioneer Presscrew
who had missed the landing. We discov-

ered that I had neglected to eat the cer-
emonial Angel’s Food Cake that my fa-
ther had bakedfor me. “We liketo always
take Angel’s Food along—just in case.
Oneneverknows.” Somebodyhadan
idea andI wasposed, sittingon theground
in the snow with my back against a tree
munchingonthe cake throughmy biggest
grin of the day. It made a great picture in
thecompetitionpaper andthe DailyTimes
PromotionDepartmentwasn’tveryhappy.
The head of the Promotion Depart-
ment had acted on my suggestionto sub-
scribe to a clipping service so he could
show hisboss howeffectivethelittle
promotion had been. He surely saw the
picture that I had given his rival. But that
wasn’twhatreallyannoyedhim.The story
made darn near every paper in the coun-
try, from the New York Timesallthe way
down tothe mostremote countryweekly.
Iwastoldthatthe clippingservicebillwas
higher than the one for my hydrogen. But
then it was only a two thirds full bag.
I carried a very few cachets on board
and wegot thempostmarked in White
Bear,even though it was on a Sunday.
One of those covers has survived and I
havedonatedit totheBFA forTina
Reeves’JuniorBalloonist Scholarship
Fund. She has had it matted and framed,
along with a reprint of Aisling Fox’s in-
terview aboutthe flightwhichwasprinted
in the Junior Flyer for the Albuquerque
Tailgate. Butwe decided towithdraw itso
thatmore folks would have a chance atit.
It will be placed on the eBay auction site
on the Internet for bidding onFebruary
16, anniversary of the historic flight, with
the proceeds going to the fund. Look for it
and bid well. If you are not on the Internet,
have a friend bid for you. It is easy to do.
Editor’s note: Once the item has been
placed for bidding a direct link to the
aucti on will be a va ilab le at ht tp://
www.balloonlife.com/

Rare flown cover from
Don Piccard’s 1947
solo flight to earn his
civilian ba lloon pilot
rating. Bid ding b e-
gins February 16 on
eBay. Once beginning
begins a direct link to
the auction will be
availab le at h ttp://
www.balloonlife.com/