Sanyo Blimp Ride
Life at 32 miles per hour
My mother always told me I was one in a million and today I actually believed it.
Thanks to some dear friends winning a drawing and inviting me along, I had the one-in-a-million chance to ride on a blimp; the Sanyo blimp. There are only 27 blimps in the world and I was lucky enough to ride on one.
I did not know how to prepare for this trip. The thought was that I would be riding in a basket similar to that of a hot air balloon, so I put on the warmest clothes I owned: sweater with a warm turtleneck underneath, down coat, Ugg boots, scarves and gloves. Boy was I surprised to see that there is a gondola car that we were to ride in. There were seats in it, windows and a windshield. There was a pilot, who even wore a pilot’s uniform, an instrument control panel with buttons and levers and monitors, just like on an airplane. Nowhere to ditch my winter clothes now, oh well.
Unlike an airplane, what a blimp doesn’t have is brakes. As the blimp landed, the crew of eight ran alongside, grabbed the ropes that hang on the side and held it down. Our escort explained that the current passengers needed to exit, one at a time and we would enter the gondola one at a time. Once inside our pilot, Alan P. Judd, greeted us and had us put on our headsets. These headsets are just like the ones you see used in helicopters. He immediately gave us a lesson in how an airship works.
He showed us a picture of a blimp and turned it upside down. He said that a lighter-than-air craft, such as this blimp, is like a submarine except that it floats in the air instead of the water. He explained the physics behind flight. An airship controls its buoyancy in the air much like a submarines does in the water. There are two engines to help provide the thrust necessary to move ahead. Helium provides the lift as it is lighter than air. Inside the lower part of the balloon there are two helium tanks and two air filled bags, called ballonets. The ballonets act like ballast tanks holding heavy air. When the blimp takes off, the pilot vents air from the ballonets through the air valves. The helium makes the blimp positively buoyant in the surrounding air, so the blimp rises. The pilot throttles the engine and adjusts the elevators to angle the blimp into the wind. The cone shape of the blimp also helps to generate lift.
I sat in the co-pilot seat as we took off into the horizon. So quiet. The only sound was a gentle drone and soft whirring of the motors.
We headed the few miles west to the Pacific Ocean. At 32 miles per hour, life moves slowly, freeways look tranquil, soccer players look like tiny plastic toys. The sense of calmness and serenity was abundant.
“Let’s pull over and park,” Alan said.
What?
And with that Alan stopped the blimp and we were “parked”, 200 feet above the surf.
We hovered low over the waves and even went “wave surfing”. We raced seagulls and pelicans. We waved at the people walking on shore with their dogs. We scanned the horizon for dolphins and whales. We watched waves forming across the ocean. Looking at a wave from the top is a unique vantage point. You can see the wave forming and dissipating inside itself. You can definitely see the powerful force of the ocean inside each wave. I was able to stand up and look down over the tip of the airship for a totally different perspective.
San Diego isn’t famous for its beautiful sunsets, but fortunately we had a spectacular sunset. Alan, asked us if we wanted to watch the sun set more than once in one day. Sure. We descended low, until the sun crossed the horizon, then we ascended until it was above the horizon and descended once again. Two sunsets in one day!
Our hour ride was up so fast; we hated to head back to reality. As we prepared to land at Brown Field, we watched the ground crew get into place, three people on the left, three people on the right and one person – the director- in the middle. They were ready for us to land. With that Alan, lowered us down, banked a sharp left turn and the ground crew ran to grab our side ropes. The next batch of passengers waited with the same anticipation that we had just one short hour ago. Sadly we disembarked.
It seems cruel to return to driving the freeway after experiencing life hovering above the city and the ocean at 32 miles per hour.
Pilot Alan Judd has written a book “The Adventures of Buddy the Blimp”. Go to www.buddytheblimp.com to purchase his new ebook.
Robin Dohrn-SimpsonFreelance Writerwww.robindohrnsimpson.com
Life at 32 miles per hour
My mother always told me I was one in a million and today I actually believed it.
Thanks to some dear friends winning a drawing and inviting me along, I had the one-in-a-million chance to ride on a blimp; the Sanyo blimp. There are only 27 blimps in the world and I was lucky enough to ride on one.
I did not know how to prepare for this trip. The thought was that I would be riding in a basket similar to that of a hot air balloon, so I put on the warmest clothes I owned: sweater with a warm turtleneck underneath, down coat, Ugg boots, scarves and gloves. Boy was I surprised to see that there is a gondola car that we were to ride in. There were seats in it, windows and a windshield. There was a pilot, who even wore a pilot’s uniform, an instrument control panel with buttons and levers and monitors, just like on an airplane. Nowhere to ditch my winter clothes now, oh well.
Unlike an airplane, what a blimp doesn’t have is brakes. As the blimp landed, the crew of eight ran alongside, grabbed the ropes that hang on the side and held it down. Our escort explained that the current passengers needed to exit, one at a time and we would enter the gondola one at a time. Once inside our pilot, Alan P. Judd, greeted us and had us put on our headsets. These headsets are just like the ones you see used in helicopters. He immediately gave us a lesson in how an airship works.
He showed us a picture of a blimp and turned it upside down. He said that a lighter-than-air craft, such as this blimp, is like a submarine except that it floats in the air instead of the water. He explained the physics behind flight. An airship controls its buoyancy in the air much like a submarines does in the water. There are two engines to help provide the thrust necessary to move ahead. Helium provides the lift as it is lighter than air. Inside the lower part of the balloon there are two helium tanks and two air filled bags, called ballonets. The ballonets act like ballast tanks holding heavy air. When the blimp takes off, the pilot vents air from the ballonets through the air valves. The helium makes the blimp positively buoyant in the surrounding air, so the blimp rises. The pilot throttles the engine and adjusts the elevators to angle the blimp into the wind. The cone shape of the blimp also helps to generate lift.
I sat in the co-pilot seat as we took off into the horizon. So quiet. The only sound was a gentle drone and soft whirring of the motors.
We headed the few miles west to the Pacific Ocean. At 32 miles per hour, life moves slowly, freeways look tranquil, soccer players look like tiny plastic toys. The sense of calmness and serenity was abundant.
“Let’s pull over and park,” Alan said.
What?
And with that Alan stopped the blimp and we were “parked”, 200 feet above the surf.
We hovered low over the waves and even went “wave surfing”. We raced seagulls and pelicans. We waved at the people walking on shore with their dogs. We scanned the horizon for dolphins and whales. We watched waves forming across the ocean. Looking at a wave from the top is a unique vantage point. You can see the wave forming and dissipating inside itself. You can definitely see the powerful force of the ocean inside each wave. I was able to stand up and look down over the tip of the airship for a totally different perspective.
San Diego isn’t famous for its beautiful sunsets, but fortunately we had a spectacular sunset. Alan, asked us if we wanted to watch the sun set more than once in one day. Sure. We descended low, until the sun crossed the horizon, then we ascended until it was above the horizon and descended once again. Two sunsets in one day!
Our hour ride was up so fast; we hated to head back to reality. As we prepared to land at Brown Field, we watched the ground crew get into place, three people on the left, three people on the right and one person – the director- in the middle. They were ready for us to land. With that Alan, lowered us down, banked a sharp left turn and the ground crew ran to grab our side ropes. The next batch of passengers waited with the same anticipation that we had just one short hour ago. Sadly we disembarked.
It seems cruel to return to driving the freeway after experiencing life hovering above the city and the ocean at 32 miles per hour.
Pilot Alan Judd has written a book “The Adventures of Buddy the Blimp”. Go to www.buddytheblimp.com to purchase his new ebook.
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