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[–] 108 points 4 months ago (9 children)

From my walk this morning. Buncha crazy mofos up there.

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  • [–] 13 points 4 months ago (4 children)

    Looks like two of them are about to collide. Do they gently bounce off eachother like in a cartoon, or do cables get caught and twisted and everyone falls to their death?

    That looks like a nice apartment complex next to a huge park. Nice neighborhood.

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  • [–] 29 points 4 months ago

    It depends on if they are racing or not, which if they are they put those racing spikes on all sides just in case, you know like the Chariots with the blades on the wheels.

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  • [–] 10 points 4 months ago* (2 children)

    They occasionally do bump off each other, usually during mass ascent at the Balloon Fiesta.

    Those are houses. About 2500 sq. ft., two floors, no basement.

    It's the biggest park in the neighborhood, mostly grass, plus a dog run area, and a small playground. The three smaller parks get many more visitors than this one. It's a waste of space and water, IMO, because people don't use it very much. Maybe there just aren't many kids near it?

    I dunno if you can find the video online, but many years ago, when I was on a balloon crew, a balloon (not "my" balloon) was up when it was too windy, and the envelope collapsed partway, the throat, where the fire shoots up, was closed, and the balloon was falling. Near the end, the pilot in desperation, burned, and snapped half of the cables holding the basket. The basket tipped, and they all fell to their death. So, yeah, like any transportation method, there are dangers.

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    [–] 84 points 4 months ago* (3 children)

    I feel like these guys severely skew balloon safety statistics.

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  • [–] 22 points 4 months ago

    Team Rocket are actually great pilots! The spots they can get that balloon into and out of are absurd. They can take it seemingly whatever direction they want, with people and critters jumping into and out of the balloon at random.

    They could be professional aeronauts, but their boss keeps making them chase a living high voltage hazard and his balloon-wrecking friends.

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  • [–] 51 points 4 months ago* (8 children)

    They are quite safe and you can land pretty quickly if need be, but yes steering is nigh impossible.

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  • [–] 32 points 4 months ago (6 children)

    Not impossible if you know what way the winds are blowing at different heights

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  • [–] 60 points 4 months ago* (5 children)

    Yeah thats why i said "nigh". Its not really steering because you cant freely decide, its more like choosing from a limited set of directional options.

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  • [–] 71 points 4 months ago (4 children)

    omg, life is just a hot air balloon ride

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  • [–] 25 points 4 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 28 points 4 months ago

    You can actually steer them. Winds go in different directions in different heights.

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  • [–] 19 points 4 months ago

    I just did a hot air ballon ride, it's wild, somehow I made it out

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  • [–] 19 points 4 months ago* (14 children)

    You can stop if you don't like it, but you definitely won't like how. (just jump out)

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  • [–] 10 points 4 months ago (13 children)

    Jumping out of a hot air balloon can not just kill you, but also everyone else in the basket.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (12 children)
  • [–] 15 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    It makes the balloon suddenly get one whole person lighter and shoot up in the air. The pilot has to prepare for this by being in a descent when the jumper jumps out. If the jump is unexpected, the balloon will climb so fast that the balloon collapses, deflating and falling out of the sky.

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  • [–] 6 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    Wow, so that would be really rude. I would not have thought it could be so big an issue, but I guess now that I think about it, all I know about hot air balloons is sandbags that you just untie and throw off, which totally cannot be how it works, but I probably saw it in a movie as a child. And I weigh at least like five or six bags of sand.

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  • [–] 6 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    As other people have said, it can cause the balloon to collapse, if the pilot doesn't prepare for it. There's a video on Youtube where a guy explains why it's a bad idea after some dude tried to jump out of his balloon (with a parachute) without permission.

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  • [–] 15 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (13 children)

    I have taken off in a hot air balloon a dozen times or so....

    Not once did I land with it. Even good landings seem to leave some things to luck.

    Edit: added forgotten T.

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  • [–] 35 points 4 months ago (11 children)

    You never landed? You’re still up there?

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  • [–] 26 points 4 months ago

    I jumped...

    Some say I'm still falling to this day.

    In all seriousness, balloon jumps are a unique experience in skydiving... Because you go from dead silence to the rush of air at terminal velocity. Sure you can jump a helicopter that is hovering, but they are louder than airplanes.

    Exits from a balloon also tend to catch less experienced jumpers off guard, because you can't fly your body till the speed builds up. First timers tend to flail a little. By the second jump they do just fine.

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  • [–] 15 points 4 months ago (5 children)

    My guess is skydiving.

    Or, tightrope walking?

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  • [–] 6 points 4 months ago

    I never walked a tight rope. I don't think I could even in my prime.

    I exit using a line that was connected at the top of the balloon to swing out and do multiple flips. The rope was really long so you would get a huge amount of speed and fling off the end.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    I wanna know what their game plan is when one of the balloons suddenly loses altitude.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    The balloons were moored down.

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago*

    How's this?

    Also, in the first picture the walker was blown off because the balloons were tied down. In this picture, the balloons are moving with the wind, so the walker won't be blown off so easily.

    That's another thing about being up in a balloon that surprises first-timers, there's no wind, and it's very quiet, when the burner isn't burning.

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  • [–] 11 points 4 months ago (2 children)
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