Some people may say that this sort of shit is pretty idiotic, but IMHO, it still takes a tremendous amount of nerve to strap yourself into a home made lawn chair balloon and fly up a few miles into the sky >.< [video=youtube;2GLrr_Xp0qc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GLrr_Xp0qc[/video] Anyone here would ever want to try something like this?
that is freaking EPIC....... complete awesomeness. Yes I would love to try it.... after a few sky diving trips .
Despite having been in the military and more rides in the air than I can count, I'm still deathly afraid of heights. I would never even think of doing something like this. But, that obviously doesn't stop others. In fact, here's another guy who (back in the 1960's) rode a balloon almost 20 miles up (ie. the edge of space) and then... <gasp> jumped, LOL... [video=youtube;Qw8OJJQ_hgk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw8OJJQ_hgk&feature=related[/video] And of course, if one is going into space, one cannot forget to bring; ...what else? Beer! [video=youtube;_00eZtsuJ9M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=_00eZtsuJ9M[/video]
That space video was just wow. I like the 1st one though, seems like fun. So basically he managed to get down because he stripped some of the balloon filled with helium (I suppose) and let the tank of water out. Takes an expert like that balloon expert to figure how much balloon is needed to fly and get down safely.
I'm sure that the aeronautical engineering aspects (lift, buoyancy, rate of ascent vs descent, et cetera) of it could be figured out by simple kitchen math; I mean, we're certainly not talking moon shot critical here. What I was focusing on instead, was the sheer mettle, the emotional fortitude; the guts, if you will, to do something like this. It's one thing to be sitting within an enclosed gondola of a hot air balloon; it's quite another to be sitting on a flimsy lawn chair, dangling at the end of ropes with no foolproof way of controlling one's fate except for the use of a BB gun. I tip my hat to these brave (despite their lunacy) men. As for getting down, he shot out a few balloons (decreased buoyancy), but then let out water (increased buoyancy) to slow his rate of descent, else he may have come down too fast and crashed. BTW, all landings are really, in effect, controlled crashes. What matters is the degree of damage after each one, LOL...
Yup that's what I meant, but now that you posted that, it just totally made my words invisible now <--- highlight Thanks for the explanation though, before that (your post) I didn't understand why he didn't continue to fly up because the balloon filled with helium is lighter than air.
Ralph, he did have a parachute strapped to his back. Also, the chair seemed to be pretty legit and not as flimsy as you portray it to be. But yes, the guts to go with it is of great magnitude.
Yes, I did notice the parachute; but IMHO, the chair is still flimsy. Taking a quick look (at still image capture around 01:03) from underneath the chair as he ascends; one quickly realizes that this really is just your garden variety lawn chair. I don't know if you've ever sat in one of these collapsing monsters, but I wouldn't trust sitting in them even if they're perfectly stationary on the ground in the back yard. If you ever witnessed one as it folded up under the weight of some fat guy, you'll immediately realize what I mean; I suspect that these things were never designed for anything beyond 'average' physical stress. This means that any extra loading, especially on physical points unanticipated in the original design, can easily exceed the capacity of the chair; ie. pulled by hundreds of pounds of lift, weighed by hundreds of pounds of ballast (the water), along with about 200 pounds worth of idiot in the middle, was probably never previously vetted on a design capacity test. Ergo, while the chair itself may be considered capable of good functional performance on someone's lawn; it is IMHO, foolhardy to even consider such an item to be a structurally worthy component in transforming it into what is essentially an air lift vehicle. Too many unknown factors then come into play.
