by Mike Rose
Course 115
Over the past 20 years that I have been involved in ballooning I have seen so many different ways to pack a balloon that I couldn't possibly describe them all. I'll explain how we pack ours along with a couple of variations which usually depend upon how many crew people are on hand. I'll also describe a few that I have seen by watching other balloonists. A real good way to see just about every variation of pack up would be to go to Albuquerque and observe numerous balloons as they pack up. I've seen things there I had never seen before and have never seen since. For example, the oddest one I saw was a fellow who had a huge drum mounted on the back of his truck just behind the cab. I did not see exactly how the balloon got wound around the drum but I assume he attached the crown line or crown ring to the drum and started a motor which turned the drum and pulled the envelope toward the truck and eventually around the drum. I believe most balloonists pack their balloon in a bag made from heavy canvas like material.
If the balloon is still inflated and standing when you arrive, one crew person usually takes the crown line and pulls the balloon down as the pilot vents the hot air. If the person on the crown line pulls constantly it will be hard to deflate the balloon when the vent at the top of the balloon is lower than the rest of the partially inflated balloon. The person on the crown should let up on the rope allowing the vent to rise up and let the hottest air out of the balloon. We call this "burping" the balloon and it makes the deflation go faster. With the balloon now laying partially deflated on the ground the first thing you have to do squeeze out the remaining air. This is done in one of several different ways. The type of field you are in will have some bearing on how you perform this task. Obviously the best field to be in is grass or pasture. Other types of fields will affect your pack up and I'll try to cover those later. Before squeezing out the air we usually gather the envelope up toward the middle to avoid dragging the envelope across the ground. Then, starting at the bottom end near the basket a crew person gathers up the fabric at the mouth between his arms. You can do this two ways. Either face the basket and walk backward toward the top or face away from the basket and walk forward toward the top. As you move you squeeze the balloon between your arms, thus forcing the remaining air toward the vent at the top of the balloon. Another way is to straddle the envelope with your feet, pick up the fabric and walk backward away from the basket squeezing the balloon between your legs. While this is being done it helps to have another crew person follow along lifting the bunched material and taking part of the load off the person squeezing out the air. It also helps to have a person at the top of the balloon, on the crown, pulling the envelope taut to make it easier to walk out. If the winds pick up after the balloon is on the ground, the envelope will often refill with air from the wind. This can be easily stopped by wrapping the vent line around the mouth to hold it closed and avoid reinflation from the wind.
About 4-5 years ago I was watching Austin Young of Houston, Texas as he packed up his balloon, Zoopendous. Austin had 6-8 pieces of webbing, each about 18-24 inches long with Velcro sewed on each end. As they squeezed out the air they fastened one of these straps around the balloon every 8 feet or so. The straps kept the air from re-entering the envelope along with keeping it bunched tightly. It seemed to make the entire pack up much easier as they were putting it into the bag so I copied Austin and immediately went out and had some straps made. The straps are one more thing to keep track of, but it makes the pack up so much easier that we now use them all the time.
Several years ago I saw a devise advertised in a catalog that was supposed to help in squeezing out the air remaining in the envelope. It was a round sleeve with ropes and handles attached to each side. The sleeve was placed around the envelope at the mouth and two people, holding the handles at the end of the ropes, would slide the sleeve down the envelope toward the top vent. I have never seen anyone use this device and the only person I knew that had one has never used it when I was around. I don't know if it works or not, but I have not seen it advertised lately, so I'm guessing it was more trouble than it was worth. Squeezing the air out of the envelope at the end of the flight is the hardest work in the sport of ballooning. If you have an easier way to get the air out that I don't know about, please write or E-mail me. I'm always looking for an easier way.
One easier method that I have seen was performed by the late Ralph Rhem. At this year's Plano Balloon Festival I saw Ralph land in an athletic field with a lot of kids around. After the balloon was all stretched out on the ground Ralph had the kids take off their shoes and lay down on the balloon at the mouth. He then directed them to roll over and over toward the top, pushing out the excess air as they went. The kids had a ball and Ralph had his balloon fully deflated without breaking a sweat. Incidentally, this was after he gave tether rides to all the kids for about 20 minutes after his initial landing.
After the balloon is fully walked out I have a couple of things I do that are different than when I first started ballooning. First, I remove my crown line which is attached with a small carabiner to a short rope on my crown ring. Many morning flights begin in dew covered fields and both the envelope and crown line get wet. The envelope dries out as you fly, however, the crown line is often still wet or damp when you are packing up. If you just roll it up with the fabric at the top of the balloon, or if you stretch it down the envelope toward the basket and pack it in with the envelope, it can cause mildew on the fabric. I have a special homemade bag that I pack the crown line in for storage between flights. The bag designed by myself and O'Brien Goldsberry, a Dallas Fireman, is made of suede like material and the crown line is simply stuffed into the bag, similar to the way firemen stow long extension cords. My crown line is never wound around someone's hand and elbow like I see many people do. This winding tends to lead to a tangled crown line when taken out for the next flight. I think there is nothing more unprofessional than standing there at the launch site untangling the crown line for 5 minutes. If the crown line is simply stuffed into the bag for storage, it will never tangle when taken out as long as you don't dump it all out on the ground. You simply attach the line to the crown ring and then feed it out of the bag as you walk away. The crown line bag, which is waterproof, is the last thing I pack in the envelope bag so it is right on top and ready for the next flight.
The second thing I do is to roll the envelope from the top for about the first 15-20 feet before stuffing it in the bag. Many years ago there was a lot of talk about bending the fabric when packing it into the bag. It was suggested that it would be easier on the fabric near the top if it was rolled. I started rolling at that time and I have continued using this method. I'm not real sure of the "bending" thing, but it sure does make it easier to pack if the first 15-20 feet are just rolled into the bag to start the pack up. From that point on we put two strong people on the bag and the rest of the crew grabs the envelope at 3-4 foot intervals, lifts it up and drops it into the bag as the bag is brought forward toward the basket. Notice that I did not say "drag" the bag. We never drag the bag as it tends to wear out quickly when dragged across the ground. Obviously, the bag gets heavier as you go, so we usually stop about 10 feet from the mouth, detach the envelope from the basket and walk the remainder of the envelope and skirt to the bag.
The skirt on my balloon has a metal hoop inserted into the bottom to keep the skirt open during inflation and in wind shears. When packing the skirt we do a simple twist in the hoop which turns the one large hoop into three smaller hoops which fit neatly into the bag. This twist is simple now, but it wasn't when I was first learning. We used to stretch the single hoop out with the bottom on the ground and the top at shoulder height. The pilot would face away from the envelope and, with the top part of the hoop over the back of his shoulders, hold the hoop with his hands extended to the side. He would then turn counter clockwise, twisting the hoop until he had turned about 180 degrees. This would twist the hoop into three smaller hoops. We called it the "batman twist" since it resembled a cape. I have since learned to simply hold the center of the hoop at the top in one hand and with a flick of the wrist, twist it into three hoops. I learned that little flick of the wrist from Lesley Pritchard Davies. This method of storing the metal hoop seems to put less stress on the metal than other methods I've seen such as rolling it or just stuffing it into the bag any way it will go. There are some balloons with a plastic hoop and I have no idea how this is handled. Check with your pilot before storing the hoop for his or her preferred method.
When flying during the week when fewer crew people are available we sometimes fly with limited crew. In a pinch, the balloon can be deflated and packed into the bag with only two people. The first time I saw this method was back in the early 80s when Chuck and Gail Beyrle had a ride business in Plano, Texas. After they walked the balloon out Chuck took the crown ring and walked toward the basket. As he walked he pulled the top half of the balloon over the bottom half which was laying in his path. He started on the left side and continued until he had crossed over from left to right and was at the right side of the basket with the top, in effect, doubling the envelope over itself. Gail would then hold the bag open and Chuck stuffed the envelope into the bag. He would pull the envelope toward the bag in 3-4 foot bunches and stuff them into the bag until the entire envelope was in the bag.
Obviously, I have described the perfect pack up. If your balloon is down in anything other than grass or pasture it can be more difficult to pack up the envelope. I have never flown in the desert with cactus all around, but I have landed in fields with small mesquite trees sprouting. I also got caught over a forest in up state New York and ended up landing in a small place where a dead tree fell leaving a hole in the forest. If your landing site has undesirable hazards you have to be very careful when squeezing out the air. You will have to lift the fabric off the hazards taking great care to keep from tearing the envelope. Packing up in newly plowed or disked fields can lead to packing a lot of loose dirt up with the envelope. This should be avoided if at all possible since the dirt usually holds moisture. Also, if you happen to have an infestation of grass hoppers at your landing site you should take care to keep as many as possible out of the envelope when packing it into the bag. Seeking escape, grass hoppers will chew through layers of fabric and can render an envelope unairworthy. I'll just mention a few other lousy landing sites that I've been in and let you count your blessings that you were not there with me. Just think about landing in a field of wild sun flowers that were about 10 to 12 feet tall. Or, on the lip of a stone quarry with the basket on the top and the envelope hanging over and down into the quarry. How about a field of mud about 18 inches deep and the basket about 150 yards from the road. It was a high wind landing and by the time we stopped dragging the mud covered the tanks on the bottom side of the basket. It took two days to get it out. Been there, done that, don't want the T-shirt.
Coming next month, Retrieval and Party Time. As always, please forward comments or suggestions for future topics to me at P. O. Box 830011, Richardson, Texas 75083 or balloon@flash.net.
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