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flyingwallop

Organising balloon jump

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Their is a hot air balloon tour company close to where I live.

How do you suggest I propose to them a balloon jump.
I am assuming they have never done it before.

I would like to show up over prepared on the matter as to make their decision making easier.

.... oh no, I am not yet qualified to do such jump and shall not attempt it until I am. I just like to research and fantasise about the future.

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Call the balloon guy and agree on date, call out to other jumpers and arrange a load or two of jumpers AND some meat-weights (passengers).

Get to agreed lift-off place and help the balloon guy with setting up everything and then just enjoy the ride and following jump... Also it's beneficial to stay around after the jump and help with packing and all if you plan on jumping some time again...

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I am worried the balloon guy might not be too happy when I let him know we want to jump off his ship.

Or are you implying we get on as tourists and then whip out our rigs once in the sky and jump off ? As much as i'd love to see the pilot's face i don't think this would be realistic.

For example does he need any special approval from aviation authorities?

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flyingwallop

I am worried the balloon guy might not be too happy when I let him know we want to jump off his ship.

Or are you implying we get on as tourists and then whip out our rigs once in the sky and jump off ? As much as i'd love to see the pilot's face i don't think this would be realistic.

For example does he need any special approval from aviation authorities?



I have no clue about your local aviation laws but around here (depending on the airspace) he just needs a permission from the tower to drop jumpers and then it's all good B|

Obviously you need to talk to the guy first if he never has flown jumpers becouse he needs to figure out the mass of the balloon and how much meat-weights he needs to make it back to ground after dropping off the jumpers and stuff like that... And even if he has you still need to talk to him before hand...

A good balloon guy usually picks his own lift-off and landing sites but if he has no experience with jumpers you need to take care that you have several landable places along your path. Also make sure that your spotting skills are up-to-game becouse balloon jumping is mostly about spotting. If you suck at it there's a good chance you end up in a forest/powerline/lake/someones roof...

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Balloon jumps rarely happen in England as the BPA state that you have to land on the DZ landing area, which as you'd expect is pretty tough to do from a balloon jump.

Best bet is to just go abroad and do one...probably much cheaper aswell. They range from 35 quid (lithuania) to 65 quid (perris and dubai)

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I jumped a balloon at Dunkerswell a few years back and landed on DZ. Most balloon companies in the UK will run a mile but this one was run by a former RAF Typhoon pilot and jumper so he was less risk averse. We got c. 5,000 feet.

Be aware that you will likely be landing in an unknown location, unless they can out you over a DZ. You will need to have an idea of wind direction on the ground (balloon direction should help with this but not guaranteed to be the same on the ground) and will need to know how to spot potential obstacles for landing - for example in Spain the last thing you want is to spot a landing area from 5k and then find out it's a field of olive trees. You'll also need to plan a pick up solution - someone to follow the balloon on the ground and pick you up when you land.

CJP

Gods don't kill people. People with Gods kill people

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