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Make Your Own Cluster Balloon
Mr. Christmas Lights writes "'Have you ever dreamed of being carried into the sky by a giant bouquet of colorful toy balloons?' John Ninomiya does exactly that using 50-150 four-seven foot diameter balloons filled with helium ... and sealed with tape (duct?) and cable ties. Folks may recall the lawn chair man who floated up to 16,000 feet, but John takes this to a whole new level and his site has some wild pictures ... and includes the comment 'Kids, don't try this at home!'"
Yeah, but then there would be no need to arrive by ship. In any event, John Gardner's book "Grendel", which tells the story from Grendel's perspective, is my favorite book of all time. Beowulf is a prick and deserves a cluster f .... ahem.
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
I remember in a fluid dynamic course we did some balloon calculations, and one conclusion was that baloons are unstable, as they go up, the pressure decreases, so the gas keeps expanding until it bursts. I guess this might be different with a real materials, I don't recall how you model the elastic membrane stuff.
Assuming he's licensed (which this guy -- but not lawn chair guy -- is).
The basic rule for right of way for aircraft is the the lesser manuverable craft has the right of way.
So it goes like baloons, airships, airplanes, helicopters.
Also, the "lawn chair guy" is dead, of suicide.
It's definitely NOT an urban legend, I remember when he first did it -- made national news. The story still routinely pops up in pilot magazines.
And to echo the cluster ballooning guy's advice: don't try this at home without training. I'm a licensed airplane pilot, and have crewed on hot air balloons a few times in New Mexico during their annual ballooning orgy. IMHO piloting balloons takes more skill as they're so much less manuverable you need to be considerably better at planning. Figuring out you don't have that skill while airborne is a bad thing.
Heighting the terror factor is that when you're screwed you usually know about it well before the actual you're-screwed event takes place, and get to experience it in slow motion.