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NWCTBF PRESS BALLOONING INFORMATION PAGE FEEL FREE TO LIFT AND EDIT ANYTHING ON
THIS PAGE TO HELP WITH STORIES ON THE NORTHWEST CONNECTICUT BALLOON
FESTIVAL FOR ALL OTHER PURPOSES WITH PERMISSION AND CREDIT ONLY |
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Balloon Facts
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SPECTATOR SAFETY TIPS We
want your stay at the festival to be enjoyable and safe.
The festival staff, pilots and balloon crewmembers will do
everything possible to insure your safety but it is a team effort and
you must do your part. Please
read and observe these common sense guidelines and have a great day at
the Northwest Connecticut Balloon Festival. **
Walk carefully among the balloons!
We want you to see them up close, but keep your eyes open.
During inflation, lines will be stretched across the ground and
the balloons may roll from side to side as they inflate. **
Keep at least 25 feet from the burners, inflation fans, and tie off
ropes. These can be
hazardous areas should something unexpected happen.
**
As the pilots say, "situational awareness"!
Beware of vehicles moving around the launch field and the
festival grounds. Never sit
behind a chase vehicle or trailer. **
NO SMOKING near the balloons or on the launch field during flight
operations! A lighted
cigarette could ignite a balloon’s propane fuel tank if a leak
develops. A cigarette on
the ground could easily melt a hole in someone’s balloon. **
Choose a time and place to meet in the event someone in your group gets
separated or lost. Make
sure young children have some identification on them. **
Dress in layers. It is
sometimes very cool in the morning and late afternoon, warming up
noticeably during the mid-day. Remember
to stay hydrated by drinking plenty of liquids. **
Bring a flashlight for the evening events.
Take your time walking out after the show. Don’t forget to take note of where you have parked your
car. **
Don’t try to “Drive and Watch” at the same time. The balloons are
beautiful, graceful giants in the sky, but they can be very distracting.
Make sure you move completely off to the side of the road and
stop to watch. **
PLEASE, DO NOT BRING GLASSWARE, COOLERS, ALCOHOL OR PETS TO THE
FESTIVAL. IT SHOULD ALSO GO
WITHOUT SAYING THAT WEAPONS AND FIREWORKS OF ANY KIND ARE PROHIBITED ON
THE GROUNDS. |
THANK
YOU! The
organizers of the 10th annual Northwest Connecticut Balloon Festival
& Craft Fair would like to take this opportunity to thank all the
Sponsors and the many Associates, Friends and Volunteers for their
support of this year's festival. Without
their efforts, the festival simply would not be possible.
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HOT AIR BALLOON GLOW Weather permitting
A balloon glow is a popular attraction that is a sight to be seen. This amazing display takes place in the evening when the sun goes down. The balloons are setup and from a countdown by the crowd, the balloons fire their burners all together. The light from the burn is a bright yellow, and lights up the colorful balloon fabric which shines brightly in the dark sky like so many colored light bulbs. |
TETHERED BALLOON RIDES
Or
Flying high with one foot on the ground. Weather permitting; the festival will be featuring tethered balloon rides though out the weekend, a tethered balloon can give festival goers a chance to experience what an actual free flight would be like, while still being securely tied to the ground with ropes that extend about 100 to 150 feet. Pilots will be offering the rides for 10 dollars per person. |
Ballooning & Champagne
Balloons & Champagne, a 220 year old tradition, is still carried on today. The balloons flying at the festival have champagne available as a gift for the property owners where they land. Pilots carried Champagne with them in the early days of ballooning in Europe to celebrate a safe return to mother earth and sometimes to appease angry or frightened French peasant farmers. If time permits, the festival passengers may get to join in, as the balloonists continue the tradition of having a champagne toast after each flight. |
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WALK INSIDE A HOT AIR BALLOONWeather permitting, an old hot air balloon that is no longer air worthy will be setup on the launch field and inflated with cold air until it becomes like a great auditorium. People will be welcome to walk inside the partially inflated balloon. This is a great opportunity for kids to get up close to a real balloon and have a little fun rolling around in the folds of the fabric too. |
The "Silas M. Brooks Memorial Cup” 2003 Winner, Tony Languell the retiring former producer of the event The "Silas M. Brooks Memorial Cup” will be on display in Building “a” during the festival. Silas Brooks was an entertainer first and a pilot second so the festival awards the cup to the pilot, balloon team or staff member that has either been judged best in show or has been recognized as doing the most for the crowds and success of the festival. |
COLOR
YOUR OWN BALLOON! Color in the balloon pattern and bring it to the information booth at the Northwest Connecticut Balloon Festival where all the pictures will be put on display. Use your imagination and have fun showing everyone what you think a balloon should look like. Happy coloring!
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Balloon Rides
Balloon rides are available during the festival.
Flying during a festival is possibly the only way to improve the
experience of a balloon ride itself.
The amazing scenery that you would enjoy during an individual
balloon ride is magnified by a factor of 10 as you gaze out of your
basket upon the other rainbow hued giants.
This splash of color complements the timeless beauty of the
rolling hills of Northwest Connecticut.
To buy a ticket for a flight it is best to be at the Ride Booth in Building “A” one hour prior to flight time (6am and 6pm) or book over the phone at (860) 481-3420 or 860-582-1004. Balloons can accommodate 2-6 passengers, so bring a friend or make it an airborne party! The cost is $195 per person for the experience of a lifetime. There are few words to describe the feeling of anticipation and excitement as the earth slowly falls away from you and you start your adventure to the sound of thousands of people cheering you on. It is an experience you will never forget. |
The
"Silas M. Brooks Hare and Hound Race" In a Hare and Hound race or competition. One Balloon is designated the Hare and takes off 5 to 15 minutes before the rest of the competitors. The Hare Balloon flies for a certain amount of time (usually a half an hour or so) and lands. A large fabric X is laid out. The Hare may drop off a scoring official and continue on. Meanwhile the rest of the pilots try to duplicate the flight of the hare and toss a lightly weighted streamer closest to the X. All throws within a certain distance are measured and recorded. The closest throw to the center of the X wins.
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| .How
high can balloon pilots fly without Oxygen The human body functions normally in the atmospheric area extending from sea level to 12,000 feet above sea level. In this range, brain oxygen saturation is at a level that allows for normal functioning. The Optimal level is 96 percent saturation. At 12,000 feet, brain oxygen saturation is approximately 87 percent which begins to approach a level that could affect human performance. Although oxygen is not required below 12,500 feet its use is recommended when flying above 10,000 feet during the day and above 5,000 feet at night when the eyes become more sensitive to oxygen deprivation.) |
Your
Ride at the Festival |
Ballooning: |
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How are Gas balloons different from hot air balloons? Gas balloons fly as a result of a lifting gas in their envelopes. Hot air balloons use heat to thin out regular air in the envelope and temporarily make their own lifting gas. In the United States pilots fly with helium or hydrogen as the lifting gas. Both these gases are lighter than air with out needing heat. Gas balloons get their initial lift from the helium or hydrogen pumped into their envelopes and use sand or water carried in the basket to control the lift. Pilots have two ways to control the altitude of their balloon. To descend, pilots can either vent helium or hydrogen through the top of their envelope or wait for the cooler evening temperatures to contract the gas in the envelope. To ascend, pilots can either drop ballast or wait for warmer daytime temperatures to heat the gas and cause it to expand in the envelope. The helium to fill the envelope for two to three days of flight generally costs almost $3,000. A similar amount of hydrogen will cost about $1,000. Pilots can typically stay up for days on one fill whereas hot air pilots can only stay up for a matter of hours. Gas and hot air balloon pilots both prefer winds to be below ten to twelve miles per hour for launching and landing. (even less when carrying passengers)
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Crewing: Balloonists are always looking for good crew Rule
#1 Be
Safe! What to Wear?
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Balloonist's Bookshelf Reading
level: Ages 9-12
by John Christopher Fine Reading
level: Ages 9-12
Balloon
Digest A publication of the
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| Great Car Show
planned for 2004 The car shows this year are both open invitation, peer judged, shows with Trophies and prizes. Check the website for details |
Non Profit
organizations are invited to participate The Northwest Connecticut Balloon Festival has a policy of offering free booth space at the festival to approved non-profit organizations for the purposes of fund raising and education. Groups need not be from the immediate area. |
Balloonists
Prayer
May the winds welcome you with softness. |
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The Balloon Exhibit BuildingInside building “A” you will find the Information Booth, Ride Booth, Gift Shop, Balloon Pilot’s area and the Balloon Exhibit area which showcases balloon equipment, educational displays and flight videos so that visitors can learn more about ballooning. You will also find your official festival souvenirs here. |
Crafters
Return to Goshen Be sure to visit the craft fair areas, where skilled artisans design and produce fine handcrafted items. These items are on display each day inside of building “B” and outside at the south end of the midway. You will appreciate the quality and effort that goes into these unique items. Be sure to look for pieces designed and made especially for the balloon festival! |
Why don't balloons fly in the middle of
the day? |
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It’s Hawaiian Shirt Friday this year
at the festival ! Come enjoy the music of the "Kudzu" specializing in feel good music with a tropical flair. The excitement of the balloon launch warms up the stage on Friday night, June 25th. Festival hours are 4 to 9 on Friday Be sure to dress for the occasion in your favorite Hawaiian shirt for the "Best Island Look" contest. |
Skywalker Christine Bart will be back in Goshen again this year for her famous Balloon Walk stunt. For those who have not seen her act before; she climbs onto the top portion of an ordinary balloon fitted with a 4 foot diameter disk or platform as the balloon fills with cold air. She then rides it up as the burner blasts millions of btu's of heat into the balloon. The heat lifts her and the balloon to an upright position. Once the Balloon is upright with her standing on top she waves a large American flag. It is quite a sight to behold and it shows off the truly grand scale of the balloon envelope. This year the show will be part of a larger pre-launch program to commemorate the lost Shuttle Colombia crew and members of the armed forces that lost their lives over the past year. |
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Who was Silas M. Brooks? Born
Silas Markham Brooks on October 10th 1824 in Plymouth CT, Silas
grew up in Burlington, CT and took a job in a local clock shop and also
made musical instruments. At
age 24, the talented craftsman met a man that would change his life
forever. Later when Barnum had worked the act to it’s end, Brooks reconstituted the band and opened his own circus. He added a well-known Philadelphia balloonist, William Paullin, to his show. At one performance Paullin became very ill and the large crowd started to become unruly and impatient for the take-off. Brooks did the only thing that he could to calm the crowd, he made the ascension himself. It was a perfect flight. Brooks later wrote in his diaries, “No one knew that it wasn’t Paullin himself. It got me into the balloon business.” At one point Brook’s circus engaged John Wise, then the most famous American balloonist, to make balloon ascensions. The balloons flown by Wise, and later by Brooks, were made of varnish coated silk to help it hold hydrogen. The hydrogen was generated by mixing sulfuric acid and iron or zinc filings. The balloons of the day were surprisingly similar to gas balloons in use today, with a valve at the top made of wood and leather held shut by a coil spring and activated with a rope that hung down into the basket for descents and deflations. Today we use mostly helium, a safer nonflammable alternative lifting gas and hot air balloons which are much cheaper to operate. Wise, Brooks and other balloonists of the period, offered their services to the U.S. Government during the Civil War. But another famous aeronaut, Thaddeus Lowe, got the contract to serve as aerial reconnaissance spotters in a fairly successful but under appreciated program. After the war, Brooks returned to Connecticut and continued making balloon ascensions. Like many of the showman balloonists of his day, he would call himself “Professor” Brooks, and would bill himself as the "Great American Aeronaut", despite his never having completed the equivalent of high school. Brooks' final flight would come in 1894 from Bushnell Park in Connecticut. This meant that Brooks succeeded in flying until he was nearly 70 years old, and that his flying career spanned over 40 years. Unfortunately, old age was not kind to Brooks. He died in a poorhouse in Burlington, Connecticut in 1906 at the age of 82. His obituary in the Hartford Courant would sadly state "The funeral was a pathetic scene, made pathetic by the thought that this man whose going out was of so little consequence except to a very few had once been really great in the eyes of many. It takes no prophet to predict that briars will soon overgrow Brooks' grave and that even the memory of his fame will be a forgotten story of the past." Fortunately, through the efforts of Dr. Carlton, The Burlington Historical society, the Canton Collinsville Museum, Jim Ellis and the modern-day Connecticut balloonists of the Connecticut Lighter-Than-Air Society (CLAS) the Hartford newspaper's final prediction has been proven false. The story of Silas M. Brooks lives on and "this" story is written thanks to the aforementioned sources. Brooks' grave is no longer overgrown with briars. In an appropriate act of tribute by today's balloonists to a man who preceded them in the skies, the Connecticut Lighter Than Air Society in December 1997 dedicated a brass plaque in the Burlington cemetery at the grave of Silas Brooks. The plaque reads "Silas M. Brooks, Connecticut's First Balloonist". An entertainer and master of man’s first means of flight he displayed the courage of an explorer at a time when the great industrial revolution was just getting underway. There was no 911 to call in case of injury. No radios. No convenient motorized chase vehicles or transportation network. No national weather service briefings. Our local ballooning club the Connecticut Lighter than Air Society became interested in preserving the memory of Silas Brooks when some members found out that he was buried in a paupers grave and all but forgotten. In 1997 the club raised the money to buy and place a marker at his final resting place in Burlington, actually just a few miles from the festival. Since that time the Northwest Connecticut Balloon Festival has sponsored the light hearted memorial cup competition in his name. Silas Brooks was no angel, he liked to have fun. So we try not to take the competition too seriously and we always have some fun with it.
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Various balloon competition tasks PILOT
DECLARED GOAL:
Each
Pilot shall fly from a launch area and shall attempt to drop a marker
close to a goal selected by him and declared according to the briefing
data .JUDGE
DECLARED GOAL: Each pilot shall fly from a launch area and attempt
to drop a marker close to a goal or target set by the officials. MULTIPLE
JUDGE DECLARED GOAL: Each pilot shall fly and choose one of a number of
set goals during flight and attempt to drop a marker near his choice. ELBOW:
Each
pilot shall fly from the launch area and attempt to achieve the greatest
change or flight direction during the flight. HARE
AND HOUND: A
hare balloon will fly from the launch area and each pilot shall attempt to
fly near the final landing place of the hare. FLY
IN TASK: Pilots
find their own launch areas and attempt to reach a set goal or target. FLY
ON TASK: A
task where a pilot declares a goal to which he flies after dropping his
marker in another task. GORDON
BENNETT MEMORIAL: Pilots will attempt to drop their markers within a
Scoring Area as close as possible to a target or other defined locations. WATERSHIP
DOWN: This
is a two part task. Pilots will find their own launch sites and fly to a
target. At a specified time a Hare Balloon will take off adjacent to the
target. Each pilot will drop his first marker as close as possible to the
first target. He will then drop his second marker as close as possible to
the second target which will be displayed upwind of the Hare after
landing. MAXIMUM
DISTANCE: Competitors
will attempt to achieve the greatest distance from launch points to mark
within the defined scoring area (s). The launch point may be within a
scoring area (s). MINIMUM
DISTANCE: Competitors
will attempt to fly the minimum distance within a defined scoring period
of time. The scoring position will be established by marker if the
appointed Observer has seen the marker drop after the minimum time.
Otherwise the scoring position will be the landing position provided that
the balloon has been seen by an official to be still airborne after the
minimum time. CALCULATED
RATE APPROACH TASK: Pilots will attempt to drop their markers within a
Valid Scoring Area as close as possible to a target or other defined
location. Scoring Areas will have unique times of validity. LAND
RUN TASK: Competitors
will attempt to achieve the greatest area of a triangle from the launch
area (or other reference point as announced at the task briefing) to two
other points, determined by goals or markers within a defined scoring
area. SHORTEST
FLIGHT
TASK: Competitors will fly from the designated launch
area and drop their markers in the scoring area. Shortest distance is
best. MAXIMUM
DISTANCE DOUBLE DROP: Competitors will fly from the designated launch
area and drop their markers as far apart as possible in the scoring area
(s). MINIMUM
DISTANCE DOUBLE DROP: Competitors will fly from the designated launch
area and drop their markers as close together as possible in different
scoring areas.
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A Brief History of Hot Air Ballooning
Joseph (1740-1810) and Jacques Etienne (1745-1799) Montgolfier were two French bothers from Vidalon-les-Annonay, near Lyons, who are believed to have made the first successful hot-air balloon. These two papermakers, although not scientists, were highly educated and Interested in science and flight. In 1782, while watching a fire in his fireplace, Joseph became interested in the "force" that caused the sparks and smoke to rise. He made a small bag out of silk and lighted a fire under the opening at the bottom causing it to rise. At the time the brothers thought the burning created a gas which they called "Montgolfier gas." They didn't realize that their balloons rose because the heated air inside was thinner and thus lighter than the surrounding air. In June 1783 the Montgolfier Brothers made the first public demonstration of a 10 meter model hot-air balloon and shortly after that a demonstration before the Academy of Science in Paris, in which the brothers sent aloft a sheep, rooster, and duck to demonstrate that it was possible to survive in the sky. Man was ready to fly for the first time. In Paris, on November 21, 1783. The balloon was made of paper lined linen, was suspended on poles above a fire for inflation and used air heated by burning wool, moist straw and other smoky fuel. Along with a large proportion of the population of Europe the event was observed by King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette of France (who it is said were forced to retire due to the rank odors of the smoke). The two men who flew for the first time were Pilatre de Rozier, a
science teacher (who by the way later
became the first man killed in an aircraft accident. Interestingly
enough he was testing a prototype of a gas balloon inside a hot air
balloon, the very type of balloon which recently made it around the world
non-stop. His problem was the use of highly flammable Hydrogen
instead of the then unavailable Helium) and Marquis d'Arlandes, an
infantry officer. The flight lasted 25 minutes and covered a little
more than five miles. While gas ballooning (mostly Hydrogen) became very popular shortly thereafter, it wasn't until fairly recent times that Hot air ballooning has made a comeback. Mostly due to advancements in fuel and envelope technology made in the 1960's. Today a complete popularity reversal has occurred. Gas ballooning is still very expensive, as it was back then.
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| People
on the roads are more at risk of injury than the balloon passengers. Be safe while chasing balloons Many people like to chase balloons just to see where they land. Don't try to drive and look at the balloon at the same time or you'll end up in a ditch. Have a spotter along for the chase so you can concentrate on driving. When you get to the balloon landing please don't block the road and please don't drive onto private property. Park off the road or get as far off the traveled portion of the highway as possible so that others can get through. Use the hazard flashers on your vehicle. Be aware of traffic when exiting and walking around the vehicle. Our chase vehicles often operate on the edge of daylight conditions, making sudden and frequent stops. Stay alert out there and stay alive! |
GPS
devise helps a guy find out where he is... (without asking anybody) |
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