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Skydiving is fun, but having to charter an airplane to
do it is expensive and, well, noisy and unnatural.
So instead, you can do the whole thing using nothing
but your balloonachute. Strap it to your back, and
have your friend inflate it with helium. When it's full
enough, let go of the
ground rope, and off you go, up
into the sky! Whee.... when you get up high enough,
pull the ripcord, and the helium is ejected out of the
balloon. The force of the released helium is used to
reshape the balloon into a parachute shape, and the
parachute carries you gently back to the ground.
Want to go again? Refill the balloon and off you go...
Lawn-chair balloon
http://www.urbanleg...n.chair.balloon.gif
[phoenix, May 22 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004]
More of the same
http://members.trip...ooning/balloon.html
[phoenix, May 22 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004]
Avalanche Balloon
http://www.halfbake...Avalanche_20Balloon
A balloonachute would improve upon the descent part of this hb invention. [beauxeault, May 24 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004]
[link]
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Heh. I'm imagining a 747 going through a giant helium pocket and its engines shutting down, falling out of the sky due to insufficient lift or both. Anything that's recreational *and* potentially catastrophic gets my criossant. |
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Sounds great, but you missed out the bit where all the fun happens, the free fall part with little clouds racing towards and past you at lunatic speed. |
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Croissant from me for the word balloonachute alone, BUT: "The force of the released helium is used to reshape the balloon into a parachute shape." How does it actually do that? Drawings would be handy... |
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Here's how I'm seeing that bit: I picture the balloon has a belt-like strap running horizontally around the center of it, from which the harness is suspended on all sides. When the balloon is filled up, it will be spherical. When the helium is released, the belt will cause the empty balloon to retain a hemispherical parachute-like shape on top, while the empty bottom bit is pushed up inside, or flops around. I don't know if this would actually work like a chute, though. |
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Sounds like fun, two practical questions though: a) how much does that much helium cost? b) how do you plan things so you get over a proper drop zone before releasing it all?. Around here people avoid the plane by hiking to the top of a mountain and chucking themselves off. |
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You can suck as much as you want on the way up, and scream like a chipmunk on the way down! |
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I suggest that instead of releasing the helium into the atmosphere, compress it into tanks on your back. With all the gas in the tanks - you skydive, with some gas back into the balloon - you descend slowly. With a quick-acting compressor and gas release, one could take giant leaps as if on the moon. |
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to answer your questions, rbl ... (1) it probably
would cost quite a bit; so perhaps FarmerJohn's
helium-recycling idea could help with that
problem (or use hot-air instead of helium,
although the thought of having an open flame
underneath my parachute makes me VERY
nervous ;^)). (2) the best way to get over a drop
zone is to start in (or upwind of) a drop zone. |
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Just make sure you don't meet a parachuter going the other way... |
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This is terribly tempting, but I'm wanting a separate chute anyway. |
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Perhaps the balloon could be pre-shaped like a chute and then filled. |
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When you're on the ground, fill your (circular canopy type) chute with helium, and float upwards gracefully. As the helium seeps out, you will start to descend again. |
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I'd be afraid of some WWII veteran mistaking my helium balloonachute for the dreaded zeppelin while on his pain killer drugs, and either shooting at me, or running through the streets screaming "air raid!"..... |
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