Base structures...Building one

[Faber 0]

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What about some sort of really light gas? Why couldn't we incorporate some sort of baloon into our rigs to take us up and then just release? I understand that we would be at the mercy of the wind on our ride up... but we could use some sort of guide wire for the first couple of hundred feet... right?

you are then alowed to call it a low skydive.. a ballon aint a BASE jump,it could be a cool jump anyway

Stay safe
Stefan Faber

[Chapsta 0]

Oh yeah... I need to think about what base stands for first! Anyway, I agree with you... wouldn't that be cool if we could have some baloon in our rigs that we can set for a certain altitude... then just release! I wonder how expensive light gas is?

Probably not realistic... just neat to think about.

Chaps

Carpe diem

[Chapsta 0]

I can't seem to get your link to work Miranda... I'd like to see something like what I was talking about... seems cool.

Chaps

Carpe diem

[FrogNog 1]

> I can't seem to get your link to work Miranda... I'd like to see something like what I was talking about... seems cool.

It's video of someone disconnecting from a veritable cloud of (what appears to be) regular size birthday balloons. He falls for a bit looking up, then looks down (last few frames) and it looks like a skydive to me.

I wonder what his climb rate was on the way up? :)

-=-=-=-=-
Pull.

[Lolie 0]

You need WMV to view it, I think... anyway, here's a link to the pictures, but it doesn't give you the full effect.

http://www.flyhigh.no/article/view/7

It's in Norwegian, and I'm not for sure on some of my translation, 'cause I speak Danish and not Norwegian, but it gives you a good enough idea... Something to the effect of:

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Pictures

Here is me up in the sky.

Now the balloons are reaching 150 kg.

Here they fill the last balloons up.

Here Asgeir is understanding that he's not the boss of all bosses (or something like that, I'm not sure) anymore.

Here you can see the ascent and descent.

Here you can see how far I moved over the ground.

If you click on "Fakta ballongen" you can read more of what the GPS I used registered: height, wind, temperature...

Now all of the balloons have come into place 200 kg.

(I'm not sure what the next part says, I think something about the fuckers up in the sky... )

Here I'm hooking myself to the balloons.

Finally lift off.

Here I am about 20 m over the ground.

Here is part of the fantastic team that helped me; Kim Clausen and Ståle Øisang are missing.

Here am I about 10 m over the ground.

If you look closely at this picture my name is there.

Now it's just before I take off and a few balloons have popped. So now they're at about 195 kg.

Here Rune Borge goes over the skydiving gear.

The video was from this page:

http://www.flyhigh.no/article/view/9

It shows him cutting away from the balloons and going into freefall. Fun.

-Miranda
you shall above all things be glad and young / For if you're young,whatever life you wear
it will become you;and if you are glad / whatever's living will yourself become.

[Lolie 0]

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I wonder what his climb rate was on the way up?

Website says about 4.72 m/s (14 and a half minutes to get to 4110 m AGL).

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a veritable cloud of (what appears to be) regular size birthday balloons

Each balloon was about 1.7 m in diameter, and they used 130 of them. Wonder how many it would take if they were regular sized...

-Miranda
you shall above all things be glad and young / For if you're young,whatever life you wear
it will become you;and if you are glad / whatever's living will yourself become.

[leroydb 0]

it might be easier to calulate the amount of gass it takes to displace your weight

Leroy


..I knew I was an unwanted baby when I saw my bath toys were a toaster and a radio...

[skypuppy 1]

Actually jumping from balloons this way could be quite inexpensive... Mnay of the early exhibition parachutists from the times before airplanes (and long after airplanes arrived on the scene) were so-called smoke jumpers - they used hot-air (smoke) filled balloons to ascend and then parachute down from them, usually static-line type jumps... This went on pretty much since the Civil War until the last official smoke jumper retired in the 1960's...

Basically involved digging a pit, lighting a fire with some smoky fuel (often damp hay), so the smoke ran through a pipe to the open end of the balloon, which was initially suspended between two tall poles over the end of the pipe. Usually used a trapeze bar instead of a basket to save weight. When the balloon had enough hot air in it the jumper sat on the bar and the balloon was released... Typical smoke jumpers might drop off at a thousand feet or higher. Usually a weight was attached to the apex of the balloon so that when the jumper let go the apex dropped below the balloons skirt, letting the hot air out in a huge belch of black smoke, which added to the show. It also meant the balloon was closer and easier to recover...

This way you could do it as a one man operation. Probably the biggest drawback to doing things this way was trying to get enough altitude to be sanctioned by USPA (or CSPA) - the original smoke jumpers would routinely go from around a grand, probably...

Ataching picture of balloon at Calgary Exhibition in 1906 and jumper at Montreal in 1910.

If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead.
Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

[Chapsta 0]

I know that you are right. I know that if money were no issue it's even possible that one little baloon(probably not like any conventional baloon) size could hold enough of some type of light enough gas to get a certain weight to a certain altitude... I just wonder how I could find out how realistic this is.

Miranda--- thanks for the links! That's really cool that a skydiver did that! I'm so jealous!

Chaps

Carpe diem

[JeffD 0]

I was actually researching this.
http://www.chem.hawaii.edu/uham/lift.html

for helium
Diameter=18 feet
volume = 86474 Liters
lift = 195.66 lbs

Thats alot of helium.

[leroydb 0]

its alot of helium? how much would that much cost?

Leroy


..I knew I was an unwanted baby when I saw my bath toys were a toaster and a radio...

[JeffD 0]

Found a better quote.
$90 for 7,362L
so thats
12 Tanks == $1100 for enough He to get you up there.

[leroydb 0]

is there a way you can recover or keep the helium? i mean an 1100 jump tickect should be able to be used a couple times...

Leroy


..I knew I was an unwanted baby when I saw my bath toys were a toaster and a radio...

[Chapsta 0]

Awesome work Jeff! Unfortunately... this info. makes me realise that, at least for now, it's unrealistic to think skydivers coud use this method for anything but a one time type shot. Boy, it sure would be cool if we could. Imagine getting the same rush with your friends and not having to waste millions of gallons of jet fuel at the same time!

C-ya!
Chaps

Carpe diem

[PoeticDelirium 0]

You could always buy one of these things:

www.aerophile.com

Carries you and 29 of your closest friends. Last I checked they went for about $1.2 million US, but I know a guy who has one sitting around un-used that you could probably get for half that.

[JeffD 0]

NO there is no way to recover the helium. As soon as you released, the balloons would go up until they explode and then just the remains of the ballons would fall back to earth.

[leroydb 0]

NOPE sorry not for 1100 bones..... I would have to get a 1k ft rope and do like the germans do... let out the rope.... jump.... then pull it down and do it all over again...

Leroy


..I knew I was an unwanted baby when I saw my bath toys were a toaster and a radio...

[Chapsta 0]

Skypuppy... that's amazing! I can't believe they did that on a regular basis! Thank you for telling me that.

Chaps

Carpe diem

[hommeobus 0]

I did.
I will fly my catapult for the first time in public on January 10, at Tignes Airwaves festival

[321Cya 0]

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Anyone know how big cranes can get?

Highest one I jumped was about 900-950ft

J.

www.vandrunen.ch