Bobs Cameron system is a pretty nice sport system. he is on his second Concept 80 envelope. 80 being 80,000 cubic feet of air. It lifts quite a few people at a time even in the summer heat. It has long fabric runs vertically. A short kevlar fabric throat but its very good at maneuvering. Bob can make it do very interesting things normally set aside for racers. Let me start the shots and descriptors.
Sport basket out with upright poles set for the burner frame.
Burners set onto the poles and into sockets in the basket top.
Carabiners attached..looped into two braided lines that run down, under and up the other side to carry the weight of the basket and passengers. Camerons have two lines per corner, Lindstrands have one.
The Ultra Single. Nice and easy to use. Lower squeeze toggles protected by that lower hoop bar. Blue toggles are for the whisper burners. Gold are to turn of the fuel supply. Its two fuel supplies into one coil system. Nice and lightweight.
Bob sets the radios and instruments.. his flower is always on... always.. LOL
Testing the system. Checking for fuel leaks, that all burners work before getting into the air. Checks... always do the checks.
Basket laid back down and the lines from the envelope throat attached. There are twelve lines down.. three to a corner.
Have to make sure that the lines do not cross and cause a weakening of their strength. Red line set up so its easier to pull.
Pulling out the envelope from the envelope bag. Pretty light envelope. I believe it is 80 % rip stop with a top course of hyperlast fabric.
Crew hold open the envelope throat to get the fans cold air to pack it. The throat will stay open once enough air is in it but its much safer to have crew keep hold.
Red line goes up to this pulley then down to the lower envelope so that its easier to open the top ( crown ) to let out hot air. Do you see that little green circle of fabric up there... See the little white tabs attached to it? Those are temp tabs and they have heat sensitive cards in them so that when the envelope is annually checked they can see how hot it got in the top. 250 degrees and 275 never exceed depending on the maker.
Hot inflation. The throat crew are just making sure the lines stay out of the flame.
Standing up now. See how the metal lines are attached to the lower carabiner that is also attached to the burner frame and then attached to the carabiners that are attached to the lines going up to the envelope.. all a connected secure system. The little spinning covers for the carabiner jaws are just lowered and then backed off to make sure they never pop open or lock closed.
Off he goes in a totally different direction that was expected. He did in fact goin right round that Cameron Viva and head in the opposite direction. A fun time.
There ya go.. a basic Cameron Concept 80 inflation process. There is a lot more to it but those are most of the high points. I didn't go into the way the basket is woven to make it lighter.Or about the colors of the upright covers and bolster... Double threading of the whicker and Bob had different coverings but they wore off so he had them get wild with it.
Ballooning is a load of fun and seriously seat of the pants flying... I know I've said it before but no other vehicle even a helicopter can take off from a tiny space and stuff its self back in a tiny space.. winds willing. Oh! And Splash and Dashes.. and tree topping... floating in and out of the treetops not touching but ever undulating along... Come crew and see.... come crew and get to fly.... yeah!
Wow!
Oh.. had some fun with my fazebook banner when I got home.. and then my logo too....
Woo hoooo.....
