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Show : A ' f t x . ' . $.' ' i i '':ii:-' r ' . - j ! t S : , ' ) I ! ' ' 1 -: H205H : : ' """"' s ' ' ' - - ,, , - , , j. UP IN THE AIR ; By ROSELYN KIRK j : While ballooning is considered a sport : by most participants, it's a job with fringe ': ; benefits for Val Peterson who flies the : ; Maple Hills balloon as an advertising I - : gimmick. VAL, WHO is a sophomore at BYU, ! comes home on weekends when the ; weather is good and takes the balloon up. He has been flying for nine months and has a certified pilot's license. "It's very cairn up there since there's no sound," he said. "You have a 360 degree panoramic view. But it's not really ! relaxing because you have so much to do j . to keep the balloon in the air." : VAL SAYS flying the balloon in Boun- : tiful is more difficult than it might be in another location because there are only ; five miles to maneuver it between the ! .; mountains and the airport. Since the j balloon has no radio, it has no radio con- ; T- tact with the airport. j ; As a result, the balloonists can't es- tablish a flight pattern with the radio v-' tower and so must stay out of the traffic :'' pattern at the airport. :: VAL EARNED his license in prepara-t- tion for his job of keeping the Maple Hills . balloon over the Bountiful area to adver-r adver-r tise the development. His father, Ted Pe-terson Pe-terson is one of the owners of the com- ; pany. When not in flight, the balloon is t tethered to the ground by ropes at the Maple Hills site. In order to get his license, Val had to , spend ten hours in the air. "There is no , ' sensation or movement in a balloon and : it's less dangerous than parachuting. It's : also less dangerous than han-gliding," :-; he said. : "THERE IS always some element ot : risk," Val said. "A balloon is not a toy to play around with." All balloons are sub- .; ject to an FFA inspection and are given an aircraft number. The Maple Hills balloon is the hot air :: type which uses propane burners to heat up the air inside the balloon. This type of balloon, which is different than the helium balloon, was invented in 1960. THERE ARE only five balloons of this :; type in Utah, Val says, and 300 in the United States. Only 800 pilots are '-: qualified to fly the hot air balloons in the ,: country. BY USING the heat outlay, the pilot can maneuver the balloon up or down. Val ; tells of one experience several weeks ago : in which the hot air was the villain. Val : hadn't released the vent to seal the ; balloon. The vent stayed open too long and : let too much hot air escape. Val Peterson spends much of his time up in the air, as he flies the balloon at Maple Hills As the hot air escaped, the balloon came down too hard - about 500 feet a minute and hit with the shock of a person landing with a parachute. Val had planned where to land. The only problem was that once the balloon touched the ground, it skipped over the top of a car. THE ONLY damage was to the nervous system of Davis County Clipper photographer pho-tographer who was taking his first balloon ride to take pictures. Val said this is one of only a few minor accidents in the balloon. "Actually it's safe as driving a car," he said. The balloonist must understand the air currents. "If you catch a wind, you can go in the direction of the prevailing wind." Val said the winds on the ground may be blowing in one direction, but up 2,000 feet, there may be a 90 degree wind change. The prevailing winds come from the northeast in the morning and evening near Bountiful where they blow out of the canyons. THE BALLOON itself is made from polyester fabric, a strong fabric which can take pressure of up to 50 pounds per square inch. When deflated the balloon can be fitted into an envelope bag which weighs about 160 pounds. The basket, or gondola, which can hold up to four people, is made from rattan wicker. The controls are inside the basket. The two propane tanks, each containing con-taining ten pounds of fuel, are connected to the propane burner, which is the power plant of the balloon. WHEN VAL is ready to fly the balloon, it is packed into a truck and taken to the launch site. The site must be about 200 square feet in size. "The parking lot at JCPenneys is a good spot," he said. After the balloon is launched, the ground crew keeps in touch through walkie talkies or hand signals. When Val is ready to land, he drops a line as the balloon nears the earth and the ground crews pull the balloon to a clear spot. When in flight, the balloon is 80 feet high, the size of a six-story building, but when deflated, it can be stuffed in a bag three feet in diameter. WHEN NOT in use, the air is released through the vent by pulling a rope. This causes the balloon to collapse for storage. Val described the free feeling of ballooning. Sometimes he works as high at 15,000 feet. "Where you're 500 feet in the balloon, you can't tell whether you're going up or down." That's why you need the instruments, the altimeter and the temperature gauge. VAL, AN art design major at BYU. says he has no interest in becoming a pilot, but would like to sky-dive and learn to pack his own chute. |