It is one of the oldest flying vehicles
It was 120 years before the leyt brothers ' aircraft
It has the lowest accident rate and highest safety factor in iaf statistics
It moves at the same speed as the wind and occasionally hangs quietly in the air or relaxs
It allows babies and even ancient elders to walk freely in its air
It's names that fill the air with romantic breaths -- balloons。
It is not just interest and work, but my world. Looking back on my flight history, the balloons have changed my life and are truly a quest that i can't give up, that i can't lose, that i want to see.”
Cheng peng, an 80-year-old from beijing, spent 20 years chasing dream balloons and won two national hot balloon championships, representing the chinese national team in four successive world championships in hungary, the united states, brazil and japan. At present, special attention is being paid to the management and planning of the air flight club and related activities, which are dominated by hot balloons。
The relationship between wind and nature is the highest level of flight
“thermal balloons can take us hundreds of metres or even thousands of metres to see the world from a three-dimensional perspective. At that moment, when you're completely floating in the air and you don't control the fuel, there's only calm in your ears, the wind speed is the speed at which you move, the wind is the way forward, and there's a quiet, isolated world, as if the whole people were fully integrated.”
As for the difference between heat balloons and other flying vehicles, he thought, "the heat balloons cannot control the direction of flight, so you don't know where you're going. Where the wind blows, she takes you. All you can do is judge and find the right height and wind layer and take you to the direction you want to go. Thus, junior pilots know the relationship between human beings and the ball, mid-level pilots understand the relationship between the ball and the wind, and top pilots manage the relationship between the wind and nature. Also flying a few kilometres away, some pilots may end up thousands of miles from the target, while the top pilots can always fly a few metres or even a few centimetres from the target.”
A lifetime of dreams with a missing hand
Cheng peng was initially exposed to the balloon movement in 1999, when he was also an ungraded university student, using the spare parts of his work to learn how to test balloons and try commercial flights. As he had not been given a hot balloon flight licence at the time, which had led to his interview, he had, with great regret, missed the opportunity to see the first ever hot balloon expedition “over the new three gorges”. Eventually, as a back-up to the scene, he witnessed other contestants conducting various heat balloons in the canyon, flying over the new three canyons and landing at the “pit” and drifting over water on a series of missions that he considered incredible and dangerous. It also witnessed the safety of the balloons. This missed opportunity led to his determination to obtain a hot balloon flight licence at the end of the campaign。
“it was the event that really made me fall in love with the balloon flight movement, and so far i have felt that the choice was the right one.” for more than a decade, he completed a series of domestic and foreign expeditions over the great wall, the yellow river, the gulf of rubber state and the strait of jonglei state. The most memorable, however, is the passage of 20 hot balloons over the great wall of the eight ridge。
“when we fly up, at 3,000 metres' altitude, at the foot of a long wall, the view is spectacular, and when i see the phoenix flying across the bonfire, my body's circa swells, and a strong sense of national pride reaches its limit.” after that, every time he recalls the experience of flying over the great eight ridge, he can still feel the shock of the heat balloon flight. The feeling of not being a good man in the wall is that you can only feel feelings and feelings when you fly your own aircraft。
Flight adventures are gorgeous and lonely
Over the cities, over the fields, over the high mountains and over the sea, the hot balloons take the flighters ' hearts to a more extraordinary and vast world. Maybe it's only through first-hand experience that you can really describe how you feel in heaven。
“when i fly the hot balloons to the no-man's-man's-man's-land in the xinjiang gut desert, the owl and the owl hover around my head and feel the wonders of dancing with the hawk at close range, at the foot of a pure arid desert and a seven-coloured rock-walled landscape, made up of weather. There's also the gray wolf that occasionally comes out and runs alone. Also, in front of the french-style fortress and the holy church in the loire valley near paris, france, 10 sweet and happy newcomers took off in happy, romantic balloons, which in pink were as if they were saying love in the air." there are always surprises in the flight, and each flight is like an adventure trip for a flyer。
“sometimes there will be a long, unchanging state of flight in the air. For example, in the channel of june, a 38-km straight-line flight will be carried out in the air. When a person drives a balloon out of the mouth alone, the two sides will be able to see only sea-to-sea junctions, only the sky, the sea and the pure blue with its eyes, and even ships on the surface, and at this point i will feel lonely, so i will prepare music, coconuts and a good breakfast to accompany.”
Sport tips
Hot balloon flight five
1 time: the best time for a hot balloon flight is when the sun rises in one day or one or two hours before sundown, as the wind is usually calm and the current is stable. Winds and fogs are not conducive to the flight of balloons. Wind speeds of less than 6 metres per metre, visibility greater than 1. 5 kilometres and no precipitation in the airspace are required for free flight。
2. Location: 30 m x 30 m flat site, perimeter-free wires and large buildings. The new participants recommended that they should fly under weather conditions of 4 metres per second, with care to maintain a safe height during flights of over-pressure lines, large buildings, livestock farms and villages。
Equipment: it would be preferable to wear a fully fledged cotton flight suit, and passengers would be advised to wear pure cotton clothing and a pure cotton hat, which would not be glued to them in case of fire。
Take-off: flying balloons requires a team effort, because the work of the balloons on the ground is very cumbersome and requires at least four people to take off a balloon. First, it spreads on the floor, then connects it to the basket that is put on the side, with a small blower, blowing the wind into the bag, swelling the balloon a little bit, and then starting to light fire when it is fully spread. The air in the balloon bag that ignites the fire raises the balloon to a vertical position in the basket, and a few more fires can take off。
5. Rise or fall: thermal balloon is driven by a burner, with no rudder, and must move in the direction of the wind. Wind direction varies at different heights, at different times, and at different locations. If the direction is to be reoriented, the rise and fall of different wind-layer balloons is related to the temperature in the ball, which starts to decline when the temperature in the ball is high, the balloon is less gravitational and less than floating。
