So I was looking through my pictures and came upon some from fall 2009 (see not that old are they?) that I had forgotten about. My friend Aaron and I saw a article online about how to make a hot air ballon from some dowel rods, birthday candles and a painter's tarp so we gave it a try and well it worked.
As a matter of fact you might say it worked too well - we mangaged to burn through our tether and sent our ballon into restricted airspace (meaning it flew over houses and headed towards the dry fields down the road). It actually traveled about a mile and a half which was pretty impressive for what it was.
We were able to catch it after it landed in a plowed field but it made for an interesting afternoon.
As hindsight is 20-20 we now see our mistakes and have thought about how to fix them:
"You know I think bigger dowel rods would help make it stronger."
"I think that would definitely help and with bigger dowel rods we could make the ballon bigger!"
"That's exactly what I was thinking! But then we'd need more candles . . ."
"I bet we could put them in a square shape instead of just one row . . . and we could use two tarps to make the ballon instead of just one!"
"That would probably work . . . but the ballon would be huge, like 9' by 12' . . . you're right we should definitely use two tarps!"
"Hey, we might want to fix the tether also . . . oh, oh, oh we could use a fuel source to get more heat that would last longer and burn hotter!"
"Ya, we should fix the teth- a fuel source? . . . that might work . . . "
And so it goes; we are what ya call good problem solvers . . .
Aaron is on the left; I'm on the right
It took off pretty good. I'm holding the tether line so it wouldn't fly away.
Opps, there went the tether
At this point my whole family is watching it fly away - my mom is getting worried about it burning something down while Aaron, my dad and I are commenting on the height, distance and speed it's traveling.
Reality set in and Aaron and I jumped in his car and chased after it. By this time it was really moving as you can see in this picture (the ballon is circled and we are driving after it).
Aaron with the ballon after we found it in a plowed field.
As hindsight is 20-20 we now see our mistakes and have thought about how to fix them:
"You know I think bigger dowel rods would help make it stronger."
"I think that would definitely help and with bigger dowel rods we could make the ballon bigger!"
"That's exactly what I was thinking! But then we'd need more candles . . ."
"I bet we could put them in a square shape instead of just one row . . . and we could use two tarps to make the ballon instead of just one!"
"That would probably work . . . but the ballon would be huge, like 9' by 12' . . . you're right we should definitely use two tarps!"
"Hey, we might want to fix the tether also . . . oh, oh, oh we could use a fuel source to get more heat that would last longer and burn hotter!"
"Ya, we should fix the teth- a fuel source? . . . that might work . . . "
And so it goes; we are what ya call good problem solvers . . .
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