THE STORY OF BALLOONING

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12423, 17 April 1926, Page 18

THE STORY OF BALLOONING

Free ballooning is a most interesting sport, but a free balloon race is a severe test of a pilot’s endurance, his knowledge of ballooning and of meterologv, states the “Goodyear News.” There are two thrills in any balloon trip, the departure and the landing. There may be dthers en route, but given good ■ weather conditions free ballooning .is one of the' - most serene and restful sensations . imaginable. } There is no humming of engines, no vibration, no feeling of movement even. You don’t experience the rush of air past your face as you do in an automobile or airplane. You are travelling with the wind, just as fast as it goes and no faster. You are resting motionless in the air while the world is slowly turning around underneath. - In getting away the pilot wants to crowd as much sand ballast on as he can, this being loaded' in 32-pound bags, and hung on the side of the baske'frtor banked on the floor. His power to remain in the air for a long period depends largely on his ballast reserve. In weighing off the sand bags, which anchor the balloop before the pilots climb in, are removed one. or two at a time until the hag with its crew is m a state of equilibrium. Then the attendants let go, and too balloon slowly rises in the air while the pilots, looking over the* edge of the basket, see'the earth slipping away from them, the people growing smaller and smaller and the surrounding country unfolding- a great checkerboard picture of roads and pastures and woods and" plowed fields. / The balloon finds , its equilibrium, let -us say, at 1000 feet, and starts away with the prevailing winds. Goodyear balloons in recent tears have carried pontoons so that if-thev alighted on water, the basket would float. —Advt. # • « # Wife: “Horace, darling, drive carefully, won’t you? Remember, we have Fido with usl”