Thank-you to Slate, which published the only piece of journalism on Balloon Boy that I have cared to read. Their Balloon Boy FAQ addresses the absolute most-important questions of the whole saga.
No, I don’t care whether it was a hoax or what the charges will be. No, I don’t want to muse about the irony of a boy named Falcon not actually going soaring through the air. No, I don’t particularly mind that thousands of dollars were spent on the would-be “rescue.”
But I DO care — very much — about how to get my own gigantic flying contraption! And, is it legal in the first place? Turns out, yes:
Anyone can construct and fly a homemade engineless aircraft that’s less than 155 pounds without permission from the Federal Aviation Administration. You don’t even need a pilot’s license. The balloon that sailed across Colorado appeared to be extremely lightweight and would probably qualify. If the aircraft is more than 155 pounds, you need a license to pilot the balloon and FAA certification. First, an FAA inspector comes to look at the aircraft. If it looks airworthy, you can begin test flights, with certain restrictions—you have to stay within a limited geographical area, for example, and can’t fly at night. If that goes well and the inspector approves your flight log, you can fly your experimental aircraft anywhere in the United States.
They also note that helium balloons, like Balloon Boy’s, are pretty expensive to fill and to fly. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that a standard helium balloon would cost about $10,0000 per flight.
That’s why hot-air balloons are more popular. But, of course, hot-air balloons are generally bigger, heavier and slower. As Slate explains:
Hot-air balloons stay aloft for about an hour and might travel a few miles. Gas balloons can fly for three days at a time and traverse the entire continent.
Now that’s a cross-country voyage that even beats the classic romance of the train.
Of course, you can also just buy a bunch of weather balloons and attach them to a lawn chair.
Grant,
Even though I watched very little television growing up I do seem to recall an A TEAM episode in which one character conned prison guards into giving him “trash bags” which he combined with blow dryers, a lawn chair, extension cords and duct tape to get enough lift to get over a prison fence and wall.
Not sure where that little bit of memory is stored in my head but I can’t seem to forget the image.
Thought you might enjoy these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Walters
http://www.hollow-hill.com/sabina/images/detainee-balloons.jpg
http://asmallcafe.blogspot.com/2008/07/cutter-john-and-opus-did-it-first.html
@Mike — if you follow the final link to the Wikipedia page (Larry Walters — Matt posted it, too) and scroll down a little bit, you’ll see that your memory is indeed accurate. Twas Murdoch who lifted off from prison a la Balloon Boy.
@Matt — ahhh, Bloom County. I miss it so. Great editorial cartoon, too! Thanks!
Murdoch, yes. I was drawing a blank on the character’s name.
Such a deprived childhood I lived with only rare glimpses of television.
Me, too — three channels growing up because my parents eschewed cable. And kids in a similar situation today would get only one.
However, isn’t that why youtube exists?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MVonyVSQoM
I gotta start clicking your links dude. I didn’t realize I overlapped.
Ha! No worries
Actually from the time I was 6 until my wife and I had been married for a year I lived without television in the house. It was a family choice that when I was six I disagreed with but now I appreciate deeply.
I will take a well equipped home library over television any day. Today we have no outside television we do have internet and dvd/vcr. We find that it is not unlike food consumption. One tends to eat better if each meal is prepared as it is needed rather than sitting down to a mass consumption buffet every day.
With my Mom and Dad in-law now living on the same yard, and they have satellite tv, we are having to learn to manage our media consumption a little bit differently. Now the kids watch a bit more television but interestlingly enough I think I have watched about 2 hours of television there in the past 10 months. This consists mostly of the last two periods of last spring’s Stanley Cup final game.
I am not advocating for full out bans on television but my personal belief is that there is a whole lot of potential imagination that is stifled by over consumption of the imaginations of others in the form of mass electronic media.
It is also my experience that live activity in one’s own community in the form of sports, music, drama, debate, and even simple conversation with real human beings is far more nourishing than the stuff one vacuums up from the tube. In fact, I would challenge anyone to take a break from the television and to experience their favorite viewing “event” in a local fashion on a regular basis.
Sorry if it feels like a very fun post has just been hijacked by a philosophical discussion.
Although I see your point, I’m not sure I fully agree with your assertions. Of course a “well-equipped” home library is better than television. But the best of television is better than a collection of Harlequins. And I personally don’t get the same “nourishment” from watching, say, a Wheat Kings game as I do from watching a really great television show (there are some).
That said, my TV no longer occupies the same position of prominence that it did when I was younger. And I’m a dyed-in-the-wool reader. But I’m starting to feel that the best way to judge art and entertainment is by its actual content — and the medium it’s conveyed on isn’t necessarily a good shorthand for that.
Interesting observation: I have a friend who doesn’t own a TV. His living room is set up in a much different fashion than most other living rooms, simply because most people arrange their furniture around their television as a focal point. In the absence of a TV, the furniture gets arranged in a way that’s much more conducive to conversation and socializing of all kinds. It’s sort of amazing, actually.
Good point by you on the content of the library as yes, Harlequin romances will never be mistaken for great literature.
Concerning the Wheat Kings in comparison to really great television …. Eye of the beholder has to be the measure on that one. To be honest I was not even thinking of the Wheat Kings for sporting events in so much as I was thinking minor sports and in particular, watching people you know play (or sing or act or??????) or their children do any of the aforementioned activities.
Remember too that I am not at all suggesting that everyone has to agree with me. The thing I wonder about is how many hours in our world are being put to less than ideal use by sitting in front of the tube on a habitual basis.
Our society, in large measure, is a decadent one. Don’t get me wrong, I love our society for the most part and the benefits that it affords. I just really believe that it would be a better society if more of our time was spent doing things that have a productive end in either creating tangible benefit or cultivating relational improvements.
For example…… I hate it when people tell me that they do not have time to engage in say, gardening, or exercise, or community volunteering, yet…. If pressed, there are several hours each week expended on … Television.
Arranging one’s home around the television, and yes our rec room is set up to catch the glow off the movies we watch, is likely the stuff that a Master’s thesis in sociology is made up of.
Several years ago I offered an advertisement idea to World Vision. I have since re-offered it to one of their board members who is reconsidering it.
The basic idea consists of a page divided in two. On one side of the page there is a family, who one can see through their window, watching TV beneath the very visible satellite receiver on the roof. The other half of the page has a small child holding up an empty food dish to mirror the satellite receiver.
The punch line on the ad goes like this….
For 32 dollars this month: Which dish will you fill?
I like that ad idea.
My house is 80 years old or so, and I have my living room set up like what Grant describes. My TV, set up just for watching movies, is in the other back room, behind a wood door cabinet.
I’d argue that modern architecture reflects this kind of mindset our society’s created. It’s why these suburban ‘Garage Mahal” McMansions are all garage — with no human-centred features like porches or verandas.
On a similar note, look at the degradation of our downtown as an extension of that hunkered-down, isolated mentality. That so many buildings, like the Strand, or many others along Tenth, are sitting vacant is a travesty but you are right — gawking at a TV tends to siphon off a person’s creativity and sense of engagement with others.